Careers
Come work with us.
“Housing affordability is a huge component of my mental health.”
- Alameda County peer
Come work with us.
Report To: Executive Director
Salary: The salary for this part-time position is $80,000 annually for approximately 16 hours per week (0.4 FTE), paid through SHCLA’s regular payroll. Compensation during the anticipated appointment through June 30, 2027 will be prorated based on the actual start date and period of employment. SHCLA offers a flexible hybrid schedule.
Schedule: Approximately 0.4 FTE / 16 hours per week
Duration: Approximately November 1 to June 30, 2027
Location: Hybrid, with periodic in-person work in Oakland and at SHCLA properties
To Apply: Email your resume and cover letter to admin@shcla.land
About SHCLA:
Supportive Housing Community Land Alliance (SHCLA) is a nonprofit community land trust and affordable housing developer working at the intersection of housing, behavioral health, healthcare, public systems, and community development.
We take on housing problems that rarely fit neatly into a single box. Our work can require us to understand a property, build an underwriting model, navigate a public funding program, work alongside a behavioral health department, structure an unusual partnership, and determine how all of those pieces can become a financially sustainable home.
That complexity is intentional. We believe some of the hardest housing challenges require interdisciplinary teams willing to question conventional assumptions and build new models.
We are serious about the work without taking ourselves too seriously. We value intellectual curiosity, high standards, generosity toward colleagues, creativity, hard work - and people who love to laugh.
The Opportunity:
SHCLA is seeking an experienced Senior Advisor, Real Estate Development to serve as a strategic and technical resource to the Executive Director and real estate development team.
This is not a conventional Director position and is not intended to manage every aspect of SHCLA's development pipeline. At approximately 0.4 FTE, the Senior Advisor will concentrate time where senior-level judgment creates the greatest value: underwriting, deal structuring, capital strategy, transaction troubleshooting, risk assessment, and mentorship of SHCLA's development team.
We are particularly interested in someone who can look at an unconventional transaction and ask both: "Does this actually pencil?" and "Is there another way to make it work?"
SHCLA develops projects that may combine public acquisition funding, conventional and mission-driven debt, operating subsidies, philanthropic capital, community land ownership, behavioral-health funding, and other emerging financing structures. The Senior Advisor should be comfortable working across these systems rather than relying on a single development playbook.
What You Will Do
Underwriting & Financial Analysis. Review, build, and pressure-test acquisition and development models, including sources and uses, development budgets, operating pro formas, debt sizing, reserves, subsidy assumptions, cash flow, and sensitivity analyses. Help establish underwriting standards that allow SHCLA to make disciplined investment decisions quickly.
Deal Structuring. Advise on acquisitions, rehabilitation projects, refinancing, partnership structures, and other transactions from initial feasibility through closing and stabilization.
Capital Strategy. Help SHCLA evaluate and structure combinations of public subsidy, conventional debt, CDFI financing, philanthropy, impact investment, seller financing, operating subsidy, and other sources.
Investment Judgment. Help leadership answer the questions that matter before SHCLA commits organizational resources: What are we assuming? What could go wrong? What does the downside case look like? What would have to be true for this transaction to work?
Creative Problem-Solving. Help develop solutions when conventional affordable-housing structures do not fit the problem. SHCLA values disciplined creativity - not creativity as a substitute for sound underwriting, but creativity built on it.
Transaction Execution. Provide senior-level support at critical points in due diligence, financing, negotiations, closing, construction, lease-up, conversion, and stabilization.
Portfolio & Organizational Finance. Help leadership understand the relationship between individual development decisions and SHCLA's organizational liquidity, working capital, risk exposure, and long-term financial sustainability.
Team Development. Mentor development staff and emerging practitioners. Review work products, teach underwriting and transaction concepts, and help the team develop increasingly sophisticated independent judgment.
External Strategy. When useful, participate in conversations with lenders, public agencies, investors, consultants, property owners, and development partners.
What We Are Looking For
Who Thrives at SHCLA
You will probably enjoy this role if you are curious, rigorous, resourceful, mission-driven, and comfortable with ambiguity.
You may find yourself discussing a capitalization rate in one meeting, behavioral-health reimbursement in another, and the design of a new housing model in the next. We do not expect one person to know everything. We do expect our team to be willing to learn.
We work hard because the problems we are tackling are difficult and consequential. We also believe excellent teams should enjoy working together. Humor, warmth, and the ability to laugh are features of our culture, not distractions from high performance.
SHCLA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We welcome applicants whose professional and lived experiences bring different perspectives to our work.
“Housing affordability is a huge component of my mental health.”