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Economic Development Director Jobs in Springfield, TN

Jobot

Associate Attorney

Nashville, TN · On-site

$120K - $165K/yr

... economic development initiatives. The firm offers a collegial, team-oriented environment with a ... Work on sophisticated, mission-driven real estate transactions with a direct community impact

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Economic Development Director information

See Springfield, TN salary details

$45.8K

$117K

$190.8K

How much do economic development director jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 31, 2026, the average yearly pay for economic development director in Springfield, TN is $117,041.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $84,500.00 and $145,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is an economic development director?

An economic development director is a city government employee who helps spur the city economy. Your two biggest responsibilities are to persuade new businesses to move into your town and to encourage existing businesses to expand. You attend fundraising events for civic and business groups and interact with donors to make connections with potentially valuable economic partners. Your duties include developing strategic programs for economic and financial growth, analyzing market trends, writing city tax policy proposals, and advising the city manager and the city council.

What does an economic development director do?

An Economic Development Director is responsible for creating and implementing strategies to promote economic growth within a community or region. They work to attract new businesses, support existing ones, and encourage job creation by collaborating with local government officials, business leaders, and community organizations. Their duties often include managing economic incentive programs, overseeing redevelopment projects, and conducting market research to identify opportunities for development. Ultimately, their goal is to improve the local economy and enhance the quality of life for residents.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as an economic development director, and why are they important?

To thrive as an Economic Development Director, you need expertise in economic analysis, project management, and public policy, typically supported by a degree in economics, public administration, or a related field. Familiarity with economic modeling software, GIS tools, and grant management systems is often required, along with certifications such as Certified Economic Developer (CEcD). Strong leadership, strategic communication, and relationship-building abilities help foster collaboration among public, private, and community stakeholders. These skills are crucial for identifying growth opportunities, securing funding, and driving sustainable economic progress in a community or region.

What are the main challenges economic development directors face when balancing community needs and business interests?

Economic Development Directors often need to align the interests of local businesses, government stakeholders, and community members, which can be challenging due to differing priorities. For example, attracting new businesses might conflict with preserving community character or addressing affordable housing. Success in this role frequently involves transparent communication, creative problem-solving, and building consensus through public engagement and strategic partnerships. Navigating these complexities requires adaptability and a strong understanding of both economic trends and local needs.

What is the difference between Economic Development Director vs Economic Development Specialist?

AspectEconomic Development DirectorEconomic Development Specialist
CredentialsBachelor's or Master's in Economics, Business, or Public Administration; experience in economic planningSimilar credentials, often with less managerial experience
Work EnvironmentLeadership role in government agencies or economic development organizationsSupport role, assisting with projects and research
Employer & IndustryMunicipalities, regional agencies, economic development firmsLocal government departments, economic development offices
Search & Comparison IntentUnderstanding leadership roles in economic developmentLearning about supporting roles in economic growth projects

The main difference between an Economic Development Director and an Economic Development Specialist lies in their level of responsibility and leadership. The Director oversees strategic planning and manages teams, while the Specialist focuses on supporting projects and research. Both roles require similar educational backgrounds and work within government or economic organizations, but the Director holds a higher managerial position.

More about Economic Development Director jobs

What job categories do people searching Economic Development Director jobs in Springfield, TN look for?

The top searched job categories for Economic Development Director jobs in Springfield, TN are:

What cities near Springfield, TN are hiring for Economic Development Director jobs?

Cities near Springfield, TN with the most Economic Development Director job openings:

Economic Development Director jobs near you
Infographic showing various Economic Development Director job openings in Springfield, TN as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 78% Full Time, 18% Part Time, 2% Contract, and 1% Nights. Highlights an 83% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 15% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $117,041 per year, or $56.3 per hour.

Director of Business Development

Nashville, TN • On-site

NextEdge Networks Holdings LLC
11 - 50 employees
Learn more about NextEdge Networks Holdings LLCexternal

Full-time

Posted 3 days ago

New

Job description

Data Center Business Development Director Job Description

The Data Center Business Development Director is a senior commercial growth leader responsible for shaping and executing the company’s strategy to scale its business around data center infrastructure, with an initial emphasis on edge data centers, distributed infrastructure, regional capacity needs, connectivity, power readiness, and mission-critical services. This role develops customer and partner relationships across the data center ecosystem, identifies near-term and emerging revenue opportunities, and builds a repeatable business development approach that can expand from edge and regional infrastructure into larger data center opportunities over time. The Director applies strong customer discovery, commercial growth orientation, technical-to-business translation, financial acumen, and influence skills to convert complex infrastructure needs into profitable, scalable business opportunities. This includes aligning solutions around power availability, grid readiness, cooling capacity, reliability, resiliency, sustainability, speed to market, scalability, risk reduction, and total cost of ownership.

Reports To: Chief Revenue Officer

Primary Industry Focus
  • Edge data centers, distributed infrastructure, regional data center development, and scalable data center infrastructure services
  • Colocation, enterprise, carrier-neutral facilities, network aggregation points, and regional cloud connectivity
  • Utility, energy, power distribution, grid interconnection, backup power, and microgrid solutions
  • Electrical infrastructure, switchgear, UPS, cooling, controls, building automation, and facility reliability services
  • Telecommunications, fiber, network infrastructure, tower-adjacent infrastructure, and cloud connectivity
  • Construction, engineering, EPC, maintenance, and mission-critical facility services that support scalable infrastructure growth
Key Responsibilities
  • Lead business development strategy for edge data centers, distributed infrastructure, regional data center opportunities, colocation, enterprise infrastructure, power, energy, connectivity, and mission-critical facility services.
  • Identify, qualify, develop, and close profitable opportunities with regional data center operators, colocation providers, enterprise customers, carriers, utilities, infrastructure developers, EPC firms, engineering partners, and strategic channel partners.
  • Lead consultative customer discovery to uncover capacity requirements, power availability, resiliency needs, project timing, budget parameters, technical constraints, decision criteria, and stakeholder priorities.
  • Build and maintain executive-level relationships with customers, owners, engineers, contractors, utility providers, OEMs, technology partners, connectivity providers, and internal executive sponsors.
  • Develop territory, account, market-entry, and pursuit strategies tied to edge growth, regional capacity needs, power constraints, site readiness, connectivity demand, customer expansion plans, infrastructure investment, and competitive positioning.
  • Create a repeatable business development model for scaling data center infrastructure services, including target account segmentation, partner channels, pursuit criteria, value propositions, pricing inputs, and handoff expectations for delivery teams.
  • Translate complex technical solutions into clear customer outcomes, including reliability, resiliency, energy efficiency, speed to value, risk reduction, scalability, sustainability, and total cost of ownership.
  • Partner with engineering, operations, finance, legal, estimating, delivery, and executive teams to shape proposals, pricing, commercial strategy, contract terms, risk positions, and implementation plans.
  • Influence decisions across customer, utility, engineering, vendor, and internal leadership networks while negotiating trade-offs around cost, schedule, scope, risk, power availability, and technical feasibility.
  • Apply disciplined financial and business-case thinking to long-cycle opportunities, including ROI, capital project economics, pricing strategy, margin management, forecasting, and deal execution.
  • Track and communicate market trends such as edge compute demand, AI-enabled distributed workloads, regional capacity growth, high-density computing, liquid cooling, grid constraints, microgrids, renewable energy, regulatory requirements, sustainability commitments, and mission-critical construction trends.
Key Skills
  • Strategic sales and business development leadership: Owns pipeline development, market strategy, account planning, solution selling, executive relationship management, complex deal negotiation, and revenue growth accountability for edge and scalable data center infrastructure opportunities.
  • Customer discovery and consultative selling: Asks strong questions to uncover capacity, power, resiliency, timing, budget, stakeholder, and technical requirements while shaping opportunities around customer priorities.
  • Scale-building capability: Builds repeatable growth motions, target account strategies, partner channels, commercial playbooks, qualification criteria, and handoff processes that allow the business to expand from initial edge opportunities into broader data center infrastructure services.
  • Technical fluency and business translation: Demonstrates strong working knowledge of data center power systems, grid interconnection, cooling, electrical distribution, backup power, switchgear, UPS, controls, connectivity, construction timelines, commissioning considerations, and facility operations, and explains those solutions in terms of customer outcomes, risk reduction, and speed to value.
  • Market intelligence and industry curiosity: Stays current on edge compute demand, AI-enabled distributed workloads, regional capacity drivers, site selection considerations, power availability, utility constraints, sustainability, regulatory requirements, competitor positioning, emerging technologies, and infrastructure investment trends.
  • Financial and commercial acumen: Applies business-case thinking to ROI, capital project economics, pricing strategy, margin management, risk trade-offs, forecasting, deal structuring, and long-cycle sales execution.
  • Influence, negotiation, and stakeholder management: Builds trust with senior leaders, aligns customers, utilities, engineering firms, contractors, OEMs, connectivity providers, internal delivery teams, finance, legal, and executive sponsors, and negotiates trade-offs around cost, schedule, scope, risk, power availability, and technical feasibility.
  • Executive communication: Delivers strong presentations, proposals, executive briefings, customer discovery sessions, negotiation discussions, market updates, growth plans, and internal investment recommendations.
Required Experience and Qualifications
  • 10+ years of progressive experience in business development, strategic account management, enterprise sales, sales engineering, utility partnerships, energy infrastructure, telecom infrastructure, mission-critical construction, or related commercial leadership roles.
  • Demonstrated experience selling into, supporting, or partnering with edge data centers, regional data center operators, utilities, colocation firms, enterprise customers, connectivity providers, infrastructure developers, engineering firms, EPC partners, or mission-critical service providers.
  • Strong familiarity with power distribution, grid interconnection, backup power, UPS, switchgear, cooling, controls, energy management, fiber/network infrastructure, construction sequencing, and mission-critical facility requirements.
  • Proven ability to lead complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles involving technical, financial, operational, legal, procurement, and executive decision makers.
  • Experience developing strategic partnerships with engineering firms, contractors, utilities, OEMs, technology providers, energy partners, cloud ecosystem partners, or mission-critical service providers.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Construction Management, Energy, Technology, or a related field preferred; equivalent industry experience may be considered.
  • MBA, advanced degree, or relevant technical/commercial certifications are a plus.
Success Measures
  • Builds a qualified pipeline of edge, regional, and scalable data center infrastructure opportunities aligned to revenue, margin, and market growth objectives.
  • Establishes a repeatable growth model for data center infrastructure services, including target markets, account segmentation, partner channels, pursuit criteria, value propositions, and commercial handoffs.
  • Uses effective customer discovery to identify capacity, power, resiliency, timing, budget, stakeholder, and technical requirements early in the sales process.
  • Develops executive-level relationships with priority accounts, regional data center operators, channel partners, utilities, EPCs, engineering firms, connectivity providers, and mission-critical ecosystem partners.
  • Improves early-stage market visibility by identifying upcoming edge and regional infrastructure projects, customer investment plans, infrastructure constraints, competitive dynamics, and partnership opportunities.
  • Converts complex customer needs into differentiated value propositions, proposals, and commercially viable solutions that reflect ROI, margin, risk, and delivery feasibility.
    • Provides leadership with accurate forecasting, market intelligence, risk insight, and strategic recommendations that support disciplined growth investment decisions.

AAP/EEO Statement 

NextEdge provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, NextEdge complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

NextEdge expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of NextEdge employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.

 

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice. 

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