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Deputy Development Services Director

City of Fort Worth, Texas

Mackenzie Eason & Associates has been retained by the City of Fort Worth to recruit the City’s first Deputy Development Services Director. Created to meet the demands of unprecedented growth and to accelerate a bold 2029 Strategic Plan, this newly established position offers a rare chance to weave culture, technology, and policy into a single, high‑impact agenda.

Shape the growth of America’s fastest‑growing big city while building a “Yes‑First” culture that makes development both predictable and personal.

The City and the Department

Fort Worth has surged past a million residents and is still adding almost 20,000 new neighbors each year. That explosive growth keeps the Development Services Department (DSD) at the center of the City’s economic engine. A 240‑person team guides every plat, permit and inspection—and has been ranked #1 in Texas amongst 1200 cities by Texas Businesses in verified reviews on the economic development platform Scout. Fort Worth ranked the highest in two categories: “Speed of Permitting” and “Speed of Zoning.” (4.0 of 5 for both). The only city to reach above 4 stars in these categories.

DSD’s 2029 Strategic Plan is ambitious and outward‑facing. Among its headline initiatives:

+ A comprehensive rewrite of the Unified Development Code and Subdivision Ordinance to unlock missing‑middle housing, modern conservation districts and form‑based codes along Camp Bowie, East Berry, Lancaster and the forthcoming Panther Island waterfront.

+ Delivery support for the $1.16 billion Panther Island flood‑control and riverfront redevelopment, coordinating entitlements across federal, regional and local partners.

+ Launch of a next‑generation, AI‑enabled online permitting portal that improves both the customer experience as well as reduce staff time related to minor reviews and publish real‑time KPI dashboards that will aid in governmental transparency.

+ An update to the Transportation Impact Fee (TrIF) program and 2028 study, opening the door to public‑private partnerships that keep new roadway capacity ahead of growth.

+ Restoration of landmark civic spaces—including Heritage Park—and completion of the Historic Resource Survey that will guide preservation policy for the next decade.

Together, these projects will shape how—and how fast—Fort Worth grows. The Deputy Director will help turn strategy into reality.

The Role

Deputy Director of Development Services is a brand‑new post designed to be the operational center of gravity for the entire department. While front‑line staff focus on plan reviews and inspections, the Deputy owns the machinery that keeps those services humming: people, money, technology, performance data, and customer experience. By uniting those back‑office functions under one leader, Fort Worth will transform a collection of strong programs into a single, high‑performance system.

The Deputy reports directly to Director D. J. Harrell and commands a span of control that includes eight division managers and roughly 120 employees, nearly half of the department’s total headcount. Those divisions include:

+ Human Resources & Talent Strategy – recruitment, retention, learning, and culture.

+ Business Support & Finance – budgeting, grants, impact‑fee accounting, and procurement.

+ Information Technology – oversight of the existing Accela environment and delivery of the new, AI‑enabled permitting portal.

+ Strategic Operations & Data Analytics – Lean Six Sigma, KPI dashboards, and enterprise reporting.

+ Customer Care & Communications – call center, development concierge service, and public information.

+ Contract Management & Impact Fees – administration of development agreements, escrow accounts, and TrIF collections.

+ Records & Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – document imaging, retention, and spatial data.

+ Administrative Services – executive support, agenda preparation, and facilities coordination.

Your mandate is to knit these pieces into Fort Worth’s “single source of truth” for development. That means turning siloed spreadsheets into real‑time dashboards, formalizing project‑management protocols so every subdivision and permit moves predictably, and ensuring that policy discussions are fueled by accurate, timely data. Acting as the department’s “Chief Operating Officer,” you will streamline workflows, eliminate redundant touchpoints, and free technical experts to do their highest‑value work.

You will also chair cross‑department  teams that synchronize plan reviews across Transportation & Public Works, Water, Fire, and Planning; steer marquee initiatives such as the Panther Island entitlements; and serve as acting Director when needed, representing Fort Worth before Council, boards, and the development community.

Why This Role Is Compelling

Fort Worth’s Development Services Department already operates as Texas’s top‑ranked agency for permitting and zoning speed, proving that its foundations are strong and its appetite for innovation is real. Yet the creation of the Deputy Director post coincides with the City’s boldest modernization drive in a generation. At the same time, you will reshape an award‑winning department from gatekeeper to trusted partner, embedding Lean Six Sigma discipline, recognition, and succession programs that make DSD an employer of choice. You will champion Fort Worth’s next‑generation, AI‑enabled permitting portal, cutting review cycles and putting real‑time performance data in the hands of every stakeholder. You will orchestrate the entitlement and infrastructure sequencing for marquee investments—Panther Island, Heritage Park, Camp Bowie, and dozens of high‑value infill sites—ensuring projects move as quickly as ambition demands. Finally, as Deputy Director you become the public face and narrative voice of a department that treats every customer as a partner and every challenge as an opportunity to say “Yes.” Few municipal roles offer the chance to pair proven, award‑winning performance with the blank‑slate freedom to design the next generation of systems, culture, and policy—this one does.

Key Priorities: First 18 Months

Fort Worth has given the Deputy Director a clear, time‑boxed mandate: deliver visible, measurable wins that prove the department’s culture shift and modernization agenda are more than words on paper. The following four priorities knit together people, technology, and marquee projects so that every improvement reinforces the next. Success will be judged by cycle‑time reductions, customer‑satisfaction gains, and staff‑engagement metrics—all reported publicly on the new performance dashboards.

+ People & Culture – Handle internal human resource issues and reinforce a culture that is predicated on helping all customers- large and small get to yes. Stand up a customer‑service certification program and leadership academy that embed the get‑to‑Yes ethos in every division.

+ Platform Modernization – Help select and contract for and lead the implementation of the next‑generation permitting system; pilot AI‑powered completeness checks and launch internal user training.

+ Performance & Data – Operationalize the new Strategic Operations unit; publish real‑time dashboards that track every plan‑review clock, TrIF balance, and Lean Six Sigma project.

The Ideal Candidate

The leader Fort Worth needs is equal parts strategist, integrator, and culture architect—someone who understands how to navigate a large municipal bureaucracy and how to remove the very barriers that bureaucracies tend to create. This deputy sees complexity as puzzle pieces to be organized, not obstacles to be endured. They instinctively translate vision into process, structuring clear workflows, dashboards, and decision protocols so that planners, engineers, inspectors, and finance analysts can concentrate on their highest‑value work.

Relationship‑building is the candidate’s super‑power. Inside Development Services, they cultivate trust across eight distinct divisions; across City Hall, they knit together Transportation & Public Works, Water, Fire, Development, and Planning; and outside the organization, they maintain open, constructive lines with developers, neighborhood advocates, and the chambers of commerce. Stakeholders look to this deputy for accurate data, candid status updates, and creative solutions that balance speed with safety.

Culturally, the ideal deputy is a relentless champion of the get‑to‑Yes mindset—modeling humility, recognizing wins, and coaching staff through change. They harness Lean Six Sigma and real‑time KPIs to illuminate inefficiencies and then clear them away, freeing the Director to focus on marquee initiatives. In short, this is an organized, data‑driven catalyst who removes friction, accelerates decisions, and allows Fort Worth’s growth engine to run at full power.

Qualifications

+ Bachelor’s degree in planning, urban design, public administration, civil engineering or related field.

+ Preferred Six (6)+ years of progressive city‑planning/development experience including four (4)+ years in senior management.

+ Master’s degree, AICP, PE, PMP or ICC certifications preferred.

+ Demonstrated success leading large teams, budgets and enterprise projects in a high‑growth urban environment.

Ready to Drive the Growth Engine?

If you are energized by building high‑performance teams, untangling complex processes and making it easier for everyone—from Fortune 500 CEOs to first‑time homeowners—to build in Fort Worth, we want to meet you.

Confidential inquiries and résumés should be directed to Mackenzie Eason & Associates. Join us in shaping a city that bends over backwards to help projects succeed.

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