About Fourth Economy

Fourth Economy Consulting is an innovative community and economic development consulting firm – we recently celebrated our 10th anniversary. We envision a world where people are empowered to be co-creators of a sustainable future. We equip change agents with the tools to build better communities and stronger economies. Our clients include community and economic development organizations, local and state governments, innovation intermediaries, colleges and universities, and businesses. For more information on the types of work we do, please see our project portfolio. Two projects that we are particularly proud of are One Macon and Hazelwood Initiative. 

​

In 2021, Fourth Economy joined Steer, a global management consultancy, to support our growth and expansion of services. Fourth Economy’s partnership with Steer complements Steer’s global economic development offering, and strengthens their already successful boutique consultancy, Steer Economic Development based in the UK. Collectively, we now offer a comprehensive approach that embraces people, skills, enterprise, infrastructure, mobility, and innovation to deliver sustainable, inclusive and equitable economies.

​

About the Role 

We are looking for a motivated, organized professional to support the analytics team at Fourth Economy. Your primary role will be to collect and analyze economic/demographic data and create visualizations to provide insights for our team and our clients. You’ll be a member of various project teams and will work with the analytics team to ensure that data is collected, analyzed, and utilized in a consistent and effective manner. You will also have a chance to participate in other areas of our work if your interests align, including community outreach and engagement, research and strategy development, and more. If you have a great attention to detail, excellent analytical skills, and an interest in community development this position is for you. 

 
Who You Are

• An Effective Collaborator: You’ve successfully worked across cultural lines on a dispersed team, and you can operate in complex situations. You can easily gain trust from team members and are known for supporting them to ensure they are set up for success. You’re not afraid to ask questions.

• Convener: You recognize that a well-prepared and supported community can achieve far more than a single, highly talented individual. You can bring together thought leaders and facilitate conversations to identify the best/most creative ways to build a nurturing and generative community. You enjoy removing barriers to our partners coming together. 

• Flexible: You can manage a diverse set of team needs and aren't afraid to step outside your job description or comfort zone to help the team reach its goals. You're comfortable with shifting schedules and don't expect every day to go "as planned."

• An Abundant Thinker: You believe that we are living in a world of abundant resources and that the right team of partners can make incredible things happen. You bring relentless curiosity and creativity to every task, project, and engagement.

• Committed to Inclusion: You're always asking, “whose voice is not at the table?” You have experience working with diverse teams and successfully navigating cross-cultural communication in both local and global contexts. You deeply value creating a workplace that is supportive of difference. 

​

Your Skills and Competencies

This work is creative, collaborative, and challenging. The Consultant will be a self-starter who is committed to their learning and growth and possess the following skills and competencies:

• Analytic Skills: You are able to access publicly available data as well as work with original data acquired through client engagements and analyze it for reporting. This includes informing the rest of the team about what actions the data indicated should be taken.  

• Resourceful and Adaptable: You’re at ease with ambiguity and rapid change. You possess a positive attitude and identify creative solutions to obstacles. You can juggle many important responsibilities at once and you’re rigorous about prioritizing.

• Efficient: You have an eye for efficiency and will constantly be looking for ways to improve, streamline, and simplify processes.

• Strategic Thinking: You’re a strong conceptual thinker who can quickly grasp and navigate a range of abstract concepts, relate them to one another, and translate those concepts into strategies and practical actions.

• Written and Verbal Communications: Your written and verbal communication skills are excellent, with an ability to independently create original public content and deliver verbal presentations in multiple settings.

• Self-Motivation: You proactively take the initiative, identifying problems and opportunities across your portfolio, developing recommendations, and acting on those recommendations.

• Learning Mindset: You desire continuous improvement, have an innate sense of curiosity, and are grounded by a foundation of self-awareness that provides space for learning and growth.

• Passion for Social Change: You are driven by the desire to make a change in our society, making the economy work for all people. You’re interested in system integration and social change theories and putting those theories into practice.  

Why this role is compelling

You will be exposed to an extensive range of people and issues in the community and economic development sectors, as well as the internal infrastructure and operations of a unique firm in the space.

A successful candidate will develop and grow a broad set of professional skills, honing them to the level of excellence in a demanding and fast-paced environment. You will work with, learn from, and grow alongside a high-performing and diverse team in which everyone is committed to the development of themselves and others.

​

This role is intended to serve as a professional development path for you. There is high potential for the position to evolve within two to three years based on the particular strengths you bring to the team, making this an invaluable opportunity to expand your career in the economic development sector.

What You’ll Need

3+ years of overall professional experience in roles that include:

• Experience in an analytics or data-driven role 

• An interest or experience in  the field of community engagement and economic development

• Excellent listening, speaking, and writing skills to effectively communicate with team members and clients

• Proficiency with spreadsheet software and other analytical tools, like GIS or Tableau. Basic programming ability, preferably in R or Python, is a plus, but not a requirement.

• Familiarity with public data sets from sources such as the Census, BLS, and BEA; and an understanding of the key social and economic variables that inform policy issues such as poverty, education, housing, and unemployment. Experience using APIs to access data is a plus.

• Understanding of basic Census and administrative geographies.

• An understanding of common concepts and definitions in public policy, statistics, and economics (e.g. how unemployment is counted, how the labor force is defined, when a household experiences a housing cost burden).

• Ability to find new data sources and digest their suitability (i.e., understanding how the data is collected, what the data dictionary and definitions reveal about the uses, and what the limitations of the data are).

• Data visualization skills are necessary — specifically the ability to cleanly and cohesively present analyses in a visual way (charts, graphs, infographics, etc.). If candidates are interested, there is potential to work on more advanced, in-depth data visualizations.

• Eagerness and excitement to engage with topics in the realm of economics and community development — through community interactions, writing, research, or more — is critical.

• Finally, our work is motivated, above all else, by a focus on equity and inclusive economic development. The right candidate for this and any other position at our firm will bring with them a passion for economic inclusivity and a desire to help build a more equitable world.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

Work alongside the Fourth Economy team and clients to develop and implement analysis: 

• Perform quantitative data analysis from a variety of sources: locate, pull, clean, and analyze key economic and demographic data to inform our project work. 

• Interpret and visualize technical information and analysis in a clear, concise, and credible manner to help inform client deliverables.

• Explore and evaluate new data sources, helping inform the team’s work in new and existing subject areas.

• Conduct research and engage in topics related to community and economic development.

• Participate as needed in client engagement, including community “build sessions,” interviews, and key stakeholder meetings.

• Actively engage with the team — through meetings, one-on-one interactions, and more — contributing your unique ideas and perspective.

 
Compensation and Location

Fourth Economy provides its employees with a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, generous vacation and sick time, and holidays, and an impressive match of employee contributions to the 401k retirement plan.

 

Starting salary is $60,000.

We are location agnostic when it comes to this hire. We work east coast hours and have office space for our Pittsburgh-based employees but have employees in various locations and time zones across the US. 

​

​Working at Fourth Economy

Fourth Economy is as much an approach as it is a company. We work to advance the recognition that the economic and community development actions of the past have failed many and we all must do better. People who thrive at Fourth Economy share a set of values that define our actions and attitudes. These values include:

• Curiosity: consulting provides us an opportunity to be curious as we get to know communities and their issues. 

• Creativity: there is not a template that drives us rather we are driven by the opportunity to provide original impactful strategies.

• Collaboration: to truly improve our communities and economy requires collaboration between actors with different lived experiences, expertise, ideas and passion. 

• Empathy: we must recognize the variety of perspectives that people may hold as they engage in planning work.

• Fun: we are a social group that appreciates the opportunity to celebrate our shared success. 

 

We believe that Fourth Economy can be a platform for personal exploration and growth while creating positive change throughout the country.

​