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Director of Contracts

The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) is seeking a Director of Contracts to oversee the administration of contracts with the City of New York. UHAB creates, strengthens, and advocates for community-controlled housing through strong tenant associations, affordable cooperative homeownership, and other tenant-controlled housing models. The Director of Contracts will manage the operations of UHAB’s major contracts that help to support this mission and will be responsible for maximizing their benefit to the cooperative homeowners and tenant associations they are intended to serve.

About UHAB

UHAB empowers low- to moderate-income residents to take control of their housing and enhance their communities by creating strong tenant associations and lasting affordable co-ops. Since 1973, UHAB has helped form hundreds of tenant associations and transformed troubled rental buildings into 1,200 Housing Development Fund Corporations (HDFCs), providing homeownership opportunities for over 25,000 households. With democratic community control at the core of our mission, we work to sustain this thriving affordable housing community for this generation and those to come.

We organize residents to be active participants and decision-makers in shaping their neighborhoods. UHAB’s programs address a full spectrum of affordable housing needs: from building resident power and organizing tenants as community leaders, to developing thousands of units of affordable housing across the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, to making small loans to first-time homeowners, to preserving affordable co-ops through training, education, and technical assistance. UHAB’s programs address the needs of future generations through long-term solutions: developing new affordable co-ops, increasing energy efficiency and introducing renewable technologies, and strengthening housing policy.

UHAB’s Contracts

UHAB has been serving the citywide community of HDFC co-ops, Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) and Affordable Neighborhood Cooperative Program (ANCP) building residents through various City contracts for five decades. The primary goals of our work through these contracts are to administer training, technical assistance, and direct services to support low- and moderate-income residents in taking ownership of their housing and successfully operating it as permanently affordable, democratically run cooperative housing. UHAB’s dedicated and experienced staff of 35 provide an extensive array of classes, seminars and workshops on over 95 topics related to running healthy co-ops, oversee board elections, provide building-specific financial advisement, attend board and shareholder meetings, provide tailored foreclosure-prevention interventions for cooperatives that have fallen into distress or disrepair, and much more.  In order to accommodate the diverse needs and schedules of our constituents, we deliver these services both on-site and virtually and are constantly updating our programming to adapt to the ever-changing housing landscape in NYC.

UHAB was recently awarded its largest training and technical assistance contract to date, totaling $5.8MM. This contract, issued by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), is an exciting opportunity for UHAB to ramp up our services to the 1,200 existing co-ops across the city, as well as to tenant associations that will become new cooperative housing. To add to UHAB’s staffing capacity and service options, we have also brought on Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County (Habitat) as a subcontractor under this contract.

Position                     

As UHAB’s Director of Contracts, you will have the opportunity to provide vital support to the HDFC community, one of the largest sources of low- and moderate-income homeownership in the country, and to play a critical role in the development of new HDFCs. You will spearhead operations of UHAB’s largest City contract, working with staff and management across the organization to plan work and ensure its efficient and successful execution. You will be responsible for supporting staff as they administer services to our stakeholder communities and effectively communicating and reporting to HPD and invoicing for payment on a regular basis.

Responsibilities

  • Ensure contract fulfillment in accordance with City requirements, organizational policies, and legal parameters, and effectively planning work to achieve all required deliverables.
  • Manage contract reporting for HPD and UHAB’s internal purposes. Communicate regularly and effectively to the Director of Cooperative Preservation and Executive Management about progress on contract deliverables, workload planning, performance risks, and strategies to adapt and mitigate risk.
  • Conduct detailed review of reports produced by program staff documenting contract activities and provide feedback and support, as necessary, to ensure contractual compliance and full payment for services provided.
  • Manage regular meetings with HPD, UHAB management and staff, and Habitat to discuss issues pertaining to HDFCs, technical assistance and training, and contract performance.
  • In conjunction with UHAB’s IT provider, maintain and continue to develop UHAB’s rich intranet database of HDFC co-ops across NYC. UHAB has invested over $1MM over time in building the most extensive and current database of HDFCs. This system provides detailed tracking of the status and health of buildings and our interaction with them and, also, offers the capability to produce detailed reporting for program monitoring and invoicing from the contract.
  • Using the intranet database in conjunction with MS Access, produce weekly and bimonthly reports and invoices to ensure timely and full contract payments.  Work closely with UHAB’s Finance and Administration Department to manage invoicing and all financial and budget aspects of the contract.
  • Ensure retention of appropriate data and documentation related to government contracts.
  • Work in close collaboration with Executive Management and Program Directors on responses to new Contract RFPs, as relevant.
  • Working closely with UHAB’s Legal Department, review, interpret and recommend revisions and exceptions to contracts and contract modifications to ensure that prices, delivery schedule, specifications and terms and conditions are consistent with those proposed.
  • Supervise, train, and mentor a team of 2 – 4 full-time Project Associates. Foster a positive and collaborative team culture, rooted in a deep commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and mission-driven service to low- and moderate-income tenants and shareholders.
  • In close partnership with UHAB’s Fiscal team, manage a program operational budget.
  • Play an active role on UHAB’s management team, participating in meetings and strategic planning.
  • Produce quarterly reports on contract progress and related issues for UHAB’s board of directors.

Qualifications     

  • At least four years prior experience working in contract administration, preferably at a nonprofit organization and/or on government contracts.
  • Experience managing a programmatic or operating budget.
  • Expert relationship management with government and other partners. 
  • Keen ability to communicate data and programmatic planning in a clear and accessible way.
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and successfully deliver on heavy contract and programmatic requirements.
  • Experience leading, engaging and motivating a team of staff preferred.
  • Skill in MS Access and Excel; Competency in other common workplace technologies and systems.
  • Mission driven; strong commitment to housing, racial, and economic justice.

Location This position is based at UHAB’s office in Lower Manhattan and requires in-office presence three days per week. The position also requires in-person site visits and attendance at events across NYC.

Salary $80,000 – $87,000 annually. UHAB offers a generous benefits package including 100% employer paid medical and dental insurance; long-term disability insurance; a 403b retirement plan; medical and dependent care flexible spending accounts; 3 weeks of paid vacation for new employees and 4 weeks of paid vacation after 2 years of employment; 14 paid holidays, 12 sick days, and 1 personal day per year; and bereavement leave.

Application To apply, send a resume and cover letter to jobs@uhab.org with the subject: Director of Contracts.

UHAB works with a diverse community of tenants, community members and co-op shareholders and believes that the UHAB Staff should reflect this diversity. Women, people of color, LBGTQ+ people, and people with lived experience of economic and housing instability are encouraged to apply. UHAB is an equal opportunity employer.