Associate, Economic Development + Real Estate

Application Deadline: 30 November 2026

Department: Consulting Services

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: New York | Fidi

Compensation: $75,000 - $90,000 / year

Description

Key Responsibilities

• Manage full project life cycles: schedules, work plans, staffing, team workflows, and QA/QC across concurrent workstreams.
• Work with the client's point of contact to align on project schedule and delivery timelines.
• Estimate the time and resources required to successfully deliver a task and make sure the team has these reserved. Coordinate the many moving pieces behind high-quality deliverables.
• Oversee project administration, shared file systems, documentation, and regular reporting to Directors and Principals.
• Utilize firm project management systems and tools in your day-to-day work. Contribute to improving these systems and processes across the firm. 

• Own the project budget and manage it toward project and firm financial goals.
• Maintain project financial tracking and invoicing, and report financial status to Project and Firm Leadership.
• Use financial data to inform project strategy and contribute to project and firm-wide staffing decisions.

• Serve as the primary day-to-day contact for the client and partner firms, building trust through responsive, relationship-minded communication.
• Facilitate client meetings, stakeholder interviews, steering committee meetings, workshops, and public community engagement.
• Plan and execute stakeholder engagement strategy across government agencies, community members, local businesses, and other partners.
• Synthesize stakeholder input to shape the project.

• Oversee quantitative and qualitative analysis across economic, workforce, market, policy, and real estate topics, including economic impact analyses, socioeconomic and market analyses, and financial feasibility work.
• Review and validate models (such as pro formas and economic impact analyses) and QA/QC deliverables before they go to the Project Director.
• Synthesize multi-source data into strategic findings, and integrate them with partner work as needed.
• Communicate findings and recommendations clearly and persuasively, in writing and in person, tailoring the message to each audience, from agency leadership and developers to community members and local business owners.
• Author complete client deliverables: reports, executive summaries, memos, and strategic recommendations, with a clear storyline that leads from evidence to action.
• Oversee infographics, data visualizations, maps, and decks that translate technical findings for non-technical audiences, from meeting agendas to investor presentations.
• Present confidently to clients and external stakeholders with clarity and sound judgment.

• Coach and manage team members through project delivery, and remain responsive to their needs.
• Uphold our culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and feedback.
• Step into a people-management role, with support and training from the firm.

• Lead proposal responses to RFPs and RFQs, including scoping project approaches and preparing project fee proposals.
• Identify add-on opportunities with existing clients.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• 3–5 years of relevant experience in economic development, real estate, urban planning, or consulting.
• Demonstrated project management experience, including managing budgets and project finances and leading team members to meet timelines and complete deliverables.
• Client relationship experience and a track record of building trust across varied stakeholders, such as clients, partner firms, government agencies, and community members.
• Experience in community economic development, workforce development, placemaking, and stakeholder engagement.
• Familiarity with analytical methods in economic and workforce analysis and/or real estate feasibility. We are looking for fluency in some of these with a clear aptitude to learn and deepen your skills in newer concepts and methods. 
• Working knowledge of foundational real estate concepts, such as pro formas and sources and uses of funding.
• Familiarity with socioeconomic and market data sources and platforms, such as Census data, IMPLAN, and CoStar.
• Strong writing is a must. You can turn complex technical information into clear, compelling, layperson-friendly communication.
• Experience overseeing graphic design and data visualization, with proficiency in tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, PowerPoint, and Google Workspace.
• An entrepreneurial orientation and excitement about working in a maturing startup environment.
• Deep curiosity about planning issues and a demonstrated commitment to applying an equity lens to this work.
• Openness and appetite to learn, including interest in other kinds of work across the firm such as community engagement, strategic planning, climate resiliency, and other sectors and verticals.
  
  

• Multilingual written and oral skills, given our work with diverse communities.
• Experience working with traditionally underserved populations.

Benefits

• Professional development: we encourage team members to reach their professional goals through membership organizations, conferences, and skills and management training, and we offer regular internal training.
• Health and wellness: medical, vision, and dental benefits, with costs shared by Karp Strategies, plus One Medical membership. We prioritize work-life balance as a core value.
• Rest: 20 days of PTO and 7 days of sick/safe leave.
• Savings: 401(k) match, plus access to HSA, FSA, and commuter benefits.