Summary

Parity is seeking a part-time Fellow to help build out the company's underlying systems and processes that will allow us to achieve economies of scale in our homebuilding efforts. This role has an anticipated start date of May 2025, and applications will be accepted until the role is filled.

The role is best suited for a student with a background in industrial design, product design, systems engineering, lean manufacturing, economics, business operations, management information systems and/or computer science. As the Industrial Operations Fellow, you will build out the systems and workflows of our real estate development processes and play a fundamental role in supporting Parity's exponential growth and scale.

Reports To: CEO, Bree Jones

Works Closely With: Director of Construction

About Parity

Parity innovatively breathes new life into blocks of dilapidated rowhomes in West Baltimore by leveraging social capital. We create upfront demand for homeownership opportunities in neighborhoods experiencing hyper-vacancy by creating pathways for social collectives to purchase homes together block by block as a means of community-building and wealth-building. Parity removes systemic barriers to neighborhood revitalization by using innovative methods to acquire and renovate decades-abandoned properties and sells the homes at attainable price points, which unlocks the supply-demand quandary that keeps neighborhoods depressed.

Parity leads with racial equity, intersectionality, and Development without Displacement at the core of our work to ensure that those who have been historically disinvested of wealth and agency are able to direct the outcomes of and benefit from reinvestment into their communities. Parity was born from the notion that we can rebuild historically redlined communities through the redistribution of power and ownership. We see our impact as broader than just the homes we sell – we are shifting ideology and practice of how Black neighborhoods are valued. Watch our TED Talk to learn more about us. http://go.ted.com/breejones

About The Role

As the Industrial Operations Fellow, you will build out tech-enabled systems and processes that make our real estate development and business operations more efficient and streamlined. We expect you to have a strong working knowledge of industrial design, technology, coding, and relational databases. Below are key functions of your role:

1. Lean Operations – assisting the CEO and Director of Construction in mapping Parity's homebuilding operations to function similarly to an assembly line, where construction time and costs are reduced, and construction productivity and throughput are increased.
2. Iterative Process Improvement and Measurement – building a digital visual representation of Parity's current processes throughout the real estate development workflow, building tools for measuring key performance indicators, identifying areas for process improvement, and iterating on those process improvements.
3. Standard Operating Procedures – documenting the standard business processes and operating practices.
4. Enterprise Resource Systems – facilitating the build out of Parity's back end technological systems and software that support the management of the company including CRM, relational database tools like Airtable, project management tools like ClickUp, BuilderTrend, and Microsoft SharePoint.
5. Process Automations – identifying recurring processes that are currently manual and time-consuming but can be automated, and building and managing those automations using tools like Python, C++, Zapier, IFTTT, Automate.io, and others.

You will apply the above lean manufacturing and value stream mapping principles to Parity's real estate development activities including but not limited to property acquisition, property maintenance, pre-construction, architecture & construction, home sales, and post purchase support. **
**

General Requirements

• Ability to solve problems as well as recognize issues and deal with them directly
• Comfortability with ambiguity, and are a systems-thinker creating structure and documentation where there may have been none previously
• Strong strategic thinking skills and the ability to maneuver between high-level goals and very specific tasks to execute those goals
• Comfortability with working autonomously, and ability to be a self-starter and hold yourself to self-appointed deliverables
• Strong written and verbal communication skills including technical writing skills
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools