Our Work We are an architecture and real estate development social enterprise creating spaces that embody justice, healing, and self-determination. By designing with communities most impacted by incarceration and disinvestment, we build infrastructure that supports community ownership, redistributes power, and lays the foundation for a world rooted in care, not punishment. To achieve this mission our team is composed of architects, designers, real estate developers and community members working together to create solutionary spaces and places that bring dignity, well-being and care to the communities we serve.

The Role Managing Director · Oakland, CA · Hybrid: 3 days in office · $200,000 – $225,000 · Reports to Executive Director The Managing Director is a pivotal executive leadership role at DJDS — a steady, strategic presence who holds the interior so the Executive Director can focus externally. This is a cross-sectional role for someone who can lead a multidisciplinary team with both rigor and heart, and who understands that building a sustainable, mission-driven organization is itself an act of transformation. We're looking for someone whose career began in architecture or real estate development and grew beyond it — into community development, into the relationship-rich, trust-dependent work of designing and building with communities, and into the adaptive, solutionary leadership it takes to guide a complex organization through a rapidly changing world.

The path could have started anywhere on that spectrum — what matters is the curiosity and conviction that shaped the journey. This is not a role for someone drawn to the traditional practice model. It's a role for someone whose technical foundation gave them a language for the built environment, and whose career since has been driven by a deeper question: what can that environment do for communities who have long been the architects of their own resilience — and deserve infrastructure that reflects it.

You'll own the day-to-day leadership of our real estate and architecture verticals — work that is deeply intersecting with fundraising and day-to-day operations. You will be second to the Executive Director, partnering closely with her to steward strategy, culture, and growth. What You'll Lead Operations & Team Leadership Serve as the internal anchor for the organization's professional services work — keeping teams resourced, coordinated, and moving toward shared impact Directly manage the Studio Director, Director of Real Estate Development (West Coast and East Coast), and Director of Business Development— with the expectation that the team will grow.

Set goals, work plans, and KPIs across verticals; hold high standards with care and consistency Build systems that support clarity, collaboration, and efficiency — without sacrificing the relational culture that makes this work possible Support the COO/CFO and Executive Director on organizational operations, financial sustainability, and strategic planning Strategy & Project Decisions Lead the process of project selection based on strategic alignment, mission fit, capacity, and impact potential You'll own the day-to-day leadership of our real estate and architecture verticals — work that is deeply intersecting with fundraising and day-to-day operations. You will be second to the Executive Director, partnering closely with her to steward strategy, culture, and growth.