JOIN THE DevNW TEAM AS OUR NEW Program Manager (Wildfire Housing Counseling and Downpayment Assistance) in a 3-Year Limited Duration Role

DevNW and our partners, Community Lending Works (CLW) and Neighborhood Building Corporation (NBC), are fostering vibrant, inclusive communities by prioritizing housing, asset development, wealth building, and small business development. To do this work we are deconstructing pervasive systems of oppression such as racism, classism, or sexism that maintain persistent disparities and perpetuate deep imbalances in power, opportunity, and wealth.

The Program Manager’s critical contributions to this work are the following:

• Ensure that renters impacted by the 2020 wildfires have an opportunity to purchase homes through the assistance of housing counseling and downpayment assistance resources, including managing the 3-year contract to successful completion of the work and hiring/managing the staff team to deliver services;
• Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with OHCS and partner organizations working on fire recovery in each community to provide meaningful collaboration that serves fire survivors efficiently and effectively;
• Represent DevNW at local and state tables to communicate needs and advocate for successful implementation of housing counseling and downpayment assistance activities;
• Integrate core fire recovery services (housing counseling and downpayment assistance) with the full array of DevNW programs and services to provide the best possible outcomes for fire survivors.

It is CRITICAL that you have…

• Minimum of 5 years of experience* within complex program development, implementation, and management, preferably including new program development and evaluation
• Ability to work across internal teams – including programs/services, finance, contracts, and compliance – to design and implement programmatic policies and procedures that work for all departments
• Experience working with complicated state and federal funding sources and compliance requirements, and proven ability to meet those requirements
• Experience working within coalitions and developing and maintaining trusted partner relationships, including funders and other stakeholders
• Proven ability to collaborate with a wide variety of stakeholders to co-create systems/processes and/or strategies that advance a collective mission

• can be a combination of education/field experience that demonstrates required knowledge, skills, and abilities

Example tasks/responsibilities for the Program Manager:

• Implement and lead a 3-year scope of work within a new CDBG-DR (Disaster Recovery) funded contract to provide housing counseling and downpayment assistance to fire-impacted families who wish to purchase a home in Lane, Linn, Lincoln, Marion, and Clackamas Counties;
• Assemble and supervise a team of 5-6 staff members to carry out the work of the grant (including internal transfers and new hires), including establishing annual work plans, holding routine check ins, completing annual performance evaluation, and generally cultivating a high performing and cohesive team;
• Develop relationships with the key people and grassroots organizations leading fire recovery efforts in each County, to ensure that DevNW is seen as a trusted partner, that we are well-informed of existing recovery efforts and can tailor our activities to best augment existing systems, and that we have solid referral sources within existing networks to best reach the survivors who can utilize this program;
• Work closely with OHCS and CDBG-DR contractors (as well as internal DevNW admin teams including finance, contracts, IT, etc.) to implement all contract requirements and to ensure accurate and timely compliance, invoicing, reporting, etc.;
• Work with the Chief Programs Officer and Director of Program Operations, develop and implement the policies, procedures, and processes to implement all contract activities;
• Oversee the development of effective communication and outreach materials to ensure that survivors know about and can utilize the opportunities within this funding;
• Collaborate and coordinate with the wider DevNW Financial Wellbeing and Lending teams, while also identifying and implementing policy/process changes where needed for effective delivery of services to fire survivors;
• Work with the finance and program teams to design and execute efficient billing processes and procedures;
• Oversee the submission of all required reporting and lead the internal team during program audits;
• Work closely with departmental leadership and data team to ensure robust impact and reporting to funders and stakeholders;
• Navigate complex systems (within and outside of DevNW) to achieve client and programmatic success;
• Regularly travel to each fire area, to attend partner meetings, outreach events, and other in-person activities (weekly travel is expected, typically within the business day, but occasionally overnight);
• Ability to be insured to drive the company cars, and own vehicle for travel (with mileage reimbursement) when a company car is unavailable.

It is GREAT if you have…

• Prior experience working within Oregon’s fire recovery and/or utilizing CDBG-DR funding (general CDBG experience is also beneficial);
• Experience advocating within complex systems for more effective implementation of funding models, system design, etc.
• Experience with residential lending and/or homeownership counseling or related financial fields;
• Ability to read, write, and speak Spanish.

It is a BONUS if you also have…

• Direct experience working with first time homebuyers and/or families directly displaced by the 2020 fires.

Apply for this opportunity to support DevNW’s new line of service by providing an introduction letter detailing your interest that includes the following by priority date August 29, 2025 to: pete.laraus@devnw.org