Job Summary

The Wealth + Work Futures Lab at the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University is seeking a Cooperative and Business Development Manager to support the development and implementation of The Healthy Camden Cooperative initiative. This role will focus on exploring and developing new frameworks for urban food ecosystem development, with a special emphasis on empowering local entrepreneurs and historically underrepresented communities in Camden, New Jersey.

This role will be responsible for designing and executing strategies to support Camden-based food businesses, including corner store owners, restaurants, caterers, food pantries, and other food ecosystem entities. The primary goal is to leverage the benefits of a cooperative model to improve the health and wellbeing of employees, business owners, and residents of Camden through a more robust and equitable food economy.

This initiative is inspired by the Camden Food Fund (CFF), a community-led collaboration founded to support entrepreneurism among Camden residents. The CFF, established through the Community Foundation of South Jersey (CFSJ), focuses on ensuring equitable access to capital, services, and technical assistance for Camden-based entrepreneurs addressing gaps within the food ecosystem. The Healthy Camden Cooperative builds upon this foundation, aiming to create a sustainable and impactful entity that enhances the local food ecosystem and improves the health and wellbeing of the Camden community.

Essential Functions

• Conduct design research on creating an inclusive and culturally competent local purchasing cooperative for Camden entrepreneurs, focusing on the food ecosystem and community wealth building strategies.
• Develop a cooperative business model addressing the specific needs of Camden's food businesses, including leading economic data analysis on industrial transition and its connections to the cooperative model.
• Establish and oversee a technical assistance program within the food ecosystem, connecting experienced professionals with emerging entrepreneurs, conducting needs assessments, connecting with local TA assistance.
• Explore and analyze collective purchasing strategies for goods, services, and benefits to support local food businesses, including overseeing the review and analysis of relevant federal, state, and local investment opportunities.
• Co-design strategies to enhance local food stakeholders' understanding of opportunities for increasing healthy food components in their business models, including analyzing and synthesizing research findings into draft memos, white papers, and reports.
• Communicate and coordinate with internal staff, external stakeholders, and partners via email and phone to ensure deliverable timelines and expectations are met, including managing relationships created through the initiative.
• Work with The Wealth + Work Futures Lab staff to coordinate graphic design efforts for report products and oversee distribution of regular communications related to the Healthy Camden Cooperative initiative.
• Other related duties as necessary, including taking the lead on additional procurement projects which have recently emerged at national, state, and local levels.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of a Master’s degree in business/economic development, economic sociology, public policy, human-centered design or related, equivalent combination of education and work experience. (Please review the Equivalency Chart for additional information.)
• Minimum of 5 years of experience working with/managing projects related to the role’s responsibilities. Graduate-level experience will be considered.
• Ability to travel between Philadelphia and Camden as needed.
• Willingness to work with translators and to understand frameworks of language justice.
• Strong communication and organization skills.
• Strong relationship management skills.
• Experience using Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• Ability to work evenings and weekends to meet with external stakeholders a few times a year as necessary and if required.

Preferred Qualifications

• English and Spanish professional-level proficiency; ability to read, write and speak in Spanish.
• Experience with human-centered program design and participatory research methods.

Location

Hybrid: Remote/University City, Philadelphia PA

Additional Information

This position is classified as Exempt grade M. Compensation for this grade ranges from $75,200 -$112,790 per year. Please note that the offered rate for this position typically aligns with the minimum to midrange of this grade, but it can vary based on the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience, department budget, and an internal equity review.   

We encourage you to explore Drexel's Professional Staff salary structure and Compensation Guidelines & Policies for more details on our compensation framework.  

You can also find valuable information about our benefits in the Benefits Brochure.  

Special Instructions to the Applicant

Please make sure you upload your CV/resume and cover letter when submitting your application.

Review of applicants will begin once a suitable candidate pool is identified.

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