Construction Liaison & Design Manager

Statement of Duties:

The employee is responsible for providing design coordination, community engagement and impact mitigation services for public infrastructure improvement projects in the public right of way and in City buildings. The Construction Liaison and Design Manager supports the Infrastructure Department’s community engagement planning to ensure broad, diverse, and timely stakeholder engagement in Somerville’s efforts to rebuild its aging utility, street and building infrastructure. The position will create and enhance opportunities for participatory, collaborative, and meaningful community engagement.

Essential Functions:

The essential functions or duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various type of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position.

• Create and implement comprehensive and inclusive community engagement strategies to expand public participation in the planning and design of infrastructure improvement projects including streetscape, water, sewer, stormwater, municipal building and school building improvements.
• Coordinate and facilitate virtual, hybrid and in-person community meetings with residential communities, abutting businesses, and other special interest citizen groups. Meetings are intended to inform constituents, obtain design input, and develop construction impact mitigation strategies. Such meetings may include planning, design, preconstruction, neighborhood, tree management, school educational visits, and others.
• Communicate complex technical information in a variety of mediums inclusively to a broad audience.
• Support developing robust relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders and maintaining a network of new and existing allies and community partners for specific planning and design projects.
• Identify and implement new and emerging practices in outreach.
• Maintain organized and accurate records, including contact information and meeting notes for community engagement activities and events.
• Coordinate interpretation and translation services for public meetings
• Work to ensure that engagement opportunities are socially just and accessible, and help constituents and stakeholders feel they have a voice in their community’s future.
• Support Project Managers with additional oversight over contracted work while being part of the planning and execution of Infrastructure Department projects.
• Prepare planning and design project status updates for internal distribution and assist other city departments in correctly routing constituent calls and emails.
• Provide project information to the Communications and Community Engagement Department and collaborate/assist as needed in the development and distribution of information and updates to the community.
• Engage constituents to identify and prioritize issues, and coordinate with the Engineering, Capital Projects, and Communications Departments on the development of strategies for direct and/or on-site communications with residents and businesses as necessary throughout project schedule.
• Prepare technical responses to citizen requests, comments and concerns submitted via 311 Q-Alert system in coordination with Engineering, Capital Projects, and Communications staff.

Recommended Minimum Qualifications:

Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in urban planning, communications, or related field experience. Two to five (2-5) years of experience in infrastructure improvement administration support and/or community engagement. A background in urban planning, community organizing, customer service communications, or marketing is preferred. Applications demonstrating lived experience with proper knowledge of community engagement instead of education are strongly preferred. 

Knowledge, Abilities, and Skills:
Knowledge: A working knowledge of infrastructure design and construction management.

Ability: Ability to handle problems and emergencies effectively; ability to communicate clearly, both orally and in writing; ability to operate a personal computer; ability to maintain confidential information; ability to maintain, manage, and organize records; ability to deal appropriately with City employees, City officials, and members of the general public.

Skill: Strong interpersonal skills; excellent communication skills both oral and written; database administration skills.

Work Environment

The work environment involves everyday discomforts typical of offices, with occasional exposure to outside elements.  Noise or physical surroundings may be distracting, but conditions are generally not unpleasant.  Employee may be required to work beyond normal business hours in response to attend evening meetings or complete work assignments.

Physical and Mental Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the position’s essential functions.

Physical Skills
Few physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks, with intermittent periods of stooping, walking, and standing.  May also be some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment and computer paper (up to 30lbs.). Site visits to properties in construction anticipated.

Motor Skills
Duties are largely mental rather than physical, but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects, operating a telephone, personal computer and/or most other office equipment including word processing, filing, and sorting of papers.

Visual Skills
Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.

Hours: Full-Time
Salary: $75,000-$78,000 annualized, plus benefits. 
Union: Non-Union
FLSA: Exempt
Date Posted: October 14th, 2026