The employee is responsible for providing community engagement and department process guidance to businesses owners, entrepreneurs, and business support organizations for all permits, certificates, and approvals issued/processed by ISD, the Licensing Commission, OSPCD, and the City Clerk.

Essential Functions:

The essential functions or duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various type of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position.

• Coordinate with business owners and prospective entrepreneurs who are having difficulty navigating the City permitting process to understand the required documents and any outstanding comments that need to be addressed for all ISD applications.
• Provide one-on-one customer service and coaching to business owners and prospective entrepreneurs throughout the permitting process.
• Prepare and distribute general notifications regarding Department updates, holiday restrictions, etc., via the electronic permitting system to all affected users.
• Facilitate meetings with other departments, businesses owners, and small business support organizations to expedite resolutions to outstanding issues for permit or certificate issuance.
• Engage customers to identify and prioritize issues, and coordinate with department staff on improvement strategies for the various application processes.
• Develop standard notification emails to be distributed via CitizenServe to alert permit holders of upcoming holidays and other occasions when work schedules may be affected.
• Prepare and update department responses to citizen requests, comments and concerns submitted via the 311 Q-Alert system in coordination with the Director.
• Other duties as assigned.

Recommended Minimum Qualifications:

Education and Experience:

Bachelor’s Degree and 5 years’ experience with community outreach, communications, customer service, or public relations; or any equivalent combination of education, training and experience which provides the required knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

Preferred Qualifications:

Multilingual skills in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian-Creole, Mandarin, Nepali or any other language spoken by the Somerville community desirable but not required.

Knowledge, Abilities and Skill:

• Knowledge: A strong to expert level of understanding of the process and information required for all ISD and City permits that are issued.
• Ability: Ability to handle problems and emergencies effectively; ability to communicate clearly, both orally and in writing; ability to operate a personal computer; ability to maintain confidential information; ability to maintain, manage, and organize records; ability to deal appropriately with City employees, City officials and members of the public.
• Skill: Strong interpersonal skills; excellent communication skills both oral and written; database administration skills.

Work Environment:

The work environment involves everyday discomforts typical of offices, with occasional exposure to outside elements. Noise or physical surroundings may be distracting, but conditions are generally not unpleasant. Employee may be required to work beyond normal business hours in response to attend evening meetings or complete work assignments.

Physical and Mental Requirements:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the position’s essential functions.

Physical Skills:
Few physical demands are required to perform the work. Work effort principally involves sitting to perform work tasks, with intermittent periods of stooping, walking, and standing. May also be some occasional lifting of objects such as office equipment and computer paper (up to 30 lbs).

Motor Skills:
Duties are largely mental rather than physical, but the job may occasionally require minimal motor skills for activities such as moving objects, operating a telephone, personal computer and/or most other office equipment including word processing, filing and sorting of papers.

Visual Skills:
Visual demands require constantly reading documents for general understanding and analytical purposes.

Hours: Full-Time
Salary: $81,182.41 annualized + benefits
Union: Non-Union
Date Posted: December 12, 2022

City of Somerville residents are especially encouraged to apply.

The City of Somerville is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, disability or any other protected category. Women, minorities, veterans, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative formats, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities free of charge, upon request.

Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Adrienne Pomeroy at 617-625-6600 x 2059 or apomeroy@somervillema.gov.

Benefits Somerville Offers

• 4 weeks annual vacation (for non-union positions) & for union positions this varies by contract
• Medical insurance through the Group Insurance Commission (GIC)
• Dental coverage low and high plans through Cigna
• Vision care through the Vision Service Plan (VSP)
• Long term disability through Sun Life
• Group and voluntary life insurance through Boston Mutual
• Flexible spending plans through Benefit Strategies
• Deferred compensation through a choice of three vendors
• Employee assistance through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provided by E4Health
• Cancer screening & wellness release
• Somerville Retirement Pension System
• Tuition reimbursement
• MBTA pass program
• FREE Blue Bikes membership
• Eligible employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF)

Benefits listed are for benefits-eligible positions and the above information is meant to be a general overview of the benefit programs offered by the City of Somerville. This is not a binding contract, for any questions relating to benefits for specific union and non-union positions please contact the Human Resources department by calling (617) 625-6600 x 3300.

COVID-19 Vaccination Required

To better protect the health and safety of staff and the public, all City of Somerville employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of November 1, 2021. Exemptions and/or reasonable accommodations are not guaranteed and will be reviewed by the City of Somerville Human Resources Department on a case-by-case basis. Learn more at www.somervillema.gov/HR/COVID19.

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