Director, Municipal Partnerships – Florida

ProFound Staffing is partnering with a software company seeking a Director, Municipal Partnerships to help build a presence in the State of Florida with Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) within the 67 counties and 410 municipalities of the State of Florida.  The Director, Municipal Partnerships will serve as a credible peer in the building official’s office and the credible voice at the council podium.  A Municipal Adoption Coordinator will run the target list, the calendar, the CRM and the per-city paperwork alongside you.  Our Government Relations counsel will answer the legal and procedural questions before a city asks them.  Your job is judgement, relationships and public credibility.

About the Software Company:

This company builds modern planning and permitting software that helps local governments serve their communities faster and more transparently. Their platform gives building departments a single place to intake applications, route plan reviews, track statutory review clocks, schedule inspections and issue permits.  So, building officials can spend less time chasing paper and more time keeping their communities safe.

What makes this software company different is how they are paid. Their industry-funded model means the platform costs the city nothing.  Just a modest processing fee paid by permit applicants on each transaction funds the system. A building department can modernize without a budget appropriation, a capital request or a lengthy procurement.  The contractors and design professionals who pay the fee get a faster, more transparent permit in return.

For more than 20 years this company has delivered SaaS to governments around the world. They are now bringing that proven platform to the United States. They are part of a global software company, which gives them stability, resources and long-term commitment of an established parent alongside the energy of a team building something new.

Why this role exists?

Because the city pays nothing, there is no budget to find and no procurement to win. What remains is a sequence of decisions by people who can still say no.  For example:

(1) The building official has to want the change.

(2) The city manager has to sponsor it.

(3) IT has to accept a new system of record.

(4) The city clerk has to place the item and give proper notice.

(5) The council has to approve the fee change at a public meeting.

(6) The contractors and design professionals who will pay the fee have to see the value and not object.

That is not a sales cycle. It is a public adoption process for self-funded modernization for AHJs, and it is best led by someone who has sat on the other side of the counter.

Why now?

Recent Florida legislation has put every building department on the clock. Chapter 553 review timeframes, HB 267 and the growth of private-provider plan review have made permitting performance a visible political issue in every mid-size city. Building departments are looking for a better answer than the legacy systems they have today, and the fee-funded model removes the one obstacle that has kept them from acting.

Responsibilities:

Own the Florida partner landscape.

Working from a target list of roughly 410 municipalities filtered to mid-size building departments, decide where to focus, in what order, and why.  For example, drawing on your knowledge of which departments are under pressure, which are led by people ready to act, and which are approaching contract or leadership transitions.

Be the peer at the counter.

Open and lead conversations with building officials.  You will converse with chief plans examiners and permit supervisors about what the statutory review clocks are doing to their departments and how self-funded modernization for AHJs changes their position. Earn the building official’s sponsorship before anything goes to city hall.

Win city hall.

Secure the city manager’s sponsorship, satisfy IT’s system-of-record and data-migration questions with our implementation team, and guide the item through the city’s approval process. You are personally responsible for the city clerk’s sign-off.  For instance, the agenda placement, public-notice requirements for a fee-schedule change, and the record the clerk needs and for presenting at the public meeting where the fee change is approved.

Bring the industry along.

Engage the local builders’ association, contractors and design professionals before the item is public, so the people who pay the processing fee understand what they get for it and arrive at the council meeting as supporters rather than objectors.

Run the adoption process with your Coordinator.

Keep many cities moving at once. The Municipal Adoption Coordinator maintains the target list, monitors council agendas and contract expirations, sequences outreach, keeps the CRM current and runs the per-city checklist (procurement rule, lobbyist registration, security questionnaire, council calendar, association contact). You set priorities, make the calls that need a peer, and unblock what stalls.

Use counsel as a tool, not a fallback.

Work with our Government Relations law firm to keep the model resolution, staff-report language, template agreement and fee-structure opinion current, and to clear the city-specific questions (procurement code, lobbyist registration, public-records handling) before they reach a city attorney.

Represent us where building officials gather.

BOAF and its regional chapters, the Florida League of Cities, builders’ associations and Florida Building Commission forums. Teach where you can.  Have a session on meeting review clocks is worth more than a booth.

Hand cities to implementation cleanly and stay involved.

Introduce the implementation team, stay present through go-live, and remain the city’s senior relationship through renewal and expansion. Cities you bring live remain yours.

Report what you see.

Keep the adoption stages honest in the CRM with your Coordinator, and bring market, legislative and competitive insight back to product, marketing and leadership.

Travel:

• Candidate must be based in Florida, with the ability to travel in-state approximately 30–50% to meet customers and attend events.

Required:

• A career in municipal building or permitting: Building official, chief plans examiner, plans examiner, building division manager or equivalent.   You must be Florida licensure under Chapter 468 Part XII (current or recently held).
• Standing among Florida building officials: active or recent involvement with BOAF or a regional chapter, a state board or commission, or a teaching role, and a network across many Florida jurisdictions.
• Experience taking a change through a public body: a fee schedule, an ordinance, a technology adoption, an accreditation or a reorganization that required a city manager’s sponsorship and a public vote.
• Comfort presenting to and answering questions from councils, commissions, city attorneys and contractors in a public setting.
• Firsthand experience buying, implementing or living with a permitting system, and a clear view of where legacy systems fail building departments.
• Sound judgment about people and cities, and the discipline to work a process with a Coordinator rather than relying on memory and goodwill.

Preferred:

• Recognition by peers:  a BOAF or chapter award, a state board appointment, a chapter presidency, or a regular teaching or speaking role.
• Direct experience with Chapter 553 review-timeframe provisions, HB 267 and private-provider dynamics, and with how Florida municipalities set and amend permit fee schedules.
• Relationships with city managers, city clerks and city attorneys as well as building officials.
• Experience with electronic permitting, virtual inspections, IAS accreditation or other departmental modernization.
• Comfort demonstrating the software.  You must be able to walk a building official, permit technician or council through the platform live, connecting what they see to their own review clocks and workflows (our product team will train you; we are looking for willingness and presence, not a technical background).
• Bilingual English/Spanish is an asset in many target cities.

Remote Office:

100% – anywhere in Florida (work from home, approximately 30-50% in-state travel

Compensation:

• Base salary: $130-150K
• OTE: $180-200K, comprising base salary and adoption-milestone bonuses

Benefits:

• Flexible PTO
• Work from Home
• Home office stipend
• Medical, dental, & vision
• Retirement plan
• Paid parental leave
• Association memberships
• Conference attendance reimbursements

About ProFound Staffing:

ProFound Staffing specializes in direct hire, senior level IT, software development, technical leadership, engineering, professional services and corporate operations recruiting.  We specialize in helping small and mid-size companies achieve long-term success through strategic hiring and retention.