Senior Economic Development Consultant

We are seeking a Senior Economic Development Consultant to support regional economic-development, site-readiness, expansion-readiness, and strategic-planning engagements for public agencies and regional organizations.

The consultant will help clients assess their competitive position, evaluate industrial and commercial sites, identify barriers to investment, and develop practical strategies for attracting and retaining employers. The ideal candidate has experience working with the U.S. Economic Development Administration, state commerce agencies, regional planning organizations, economic-development authorities, or site-selection initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead or support economic-development strategy and implementation projects.
• Conduct regional economic, industry, labor-market, and demographic analyses.
• Assess community and regional readiness for business attraction, expansion, and retention.
• Evaluate industrial and commercial sites for infrastructure, workforce, transportation, utility, zoning, and development readiness.
• Develop site-readiness and expansion-readiness frameworks.
• Identify target industries based on regional assets, workforce capabilities, supply chains, and market conditions.
• Conduct stakeholder interviews and facilitate sessions with employers, government agencies, utilities, educational institutions, and community partners.
• Develop recommendations related to infrastructure, workforce, incentives, permitting, business climate, and regional competitiveness.
• Support EDA-funded planning, implementation, and technical-assistance projects.
• Prepare clear reports, implementation roadmaps, presentations, and executive summaries.
• Contribute technical narratives, methodologies, work plans, and qualifications to government proposals.
• Present findings to public officials, boards, economic-development organizations, and community stakeholders.

Requirements

• Seven or more years of experience in economic development, regional planning, site selection, or business attraction and retention.
• Experience working with government agencies, economic-development organizations, or regional planning entities.
• Demonstrated experience with site-readiness, expansion-readiness, or economic-development strategy projects.
• Strong understanding of business-location factors, including workforce, infrastructure, utilities, transportation, real estate, and permitting.
• Experience analyzing economic, demographic, industry, and labor-market data.
• Strong stakeholder-engagement, facilitation, report-writing, and presentation skills.
• Ability to convert research findings into actionable economic-development recommendations.