Manager, Project Manager | Market Community Engagement Lead - Chicago (Central Region)

Manager, Project Manager | Market Community Engagement Lead - Chicago (Central Region)

Capital One is seeking a Market Community Engagement Lead to build trust-based relationships, deepen community impact, and amplify our brand presence across the Chicago and Central Café footprint. You will serve as the primary on-the-ground market expert—uncovering local community needs, executing scalable in-Café and out-of-Café programming, and connecting enterprise-level community investments directly to local market experiences.

Operating within our centralized Signature Experiences engine, you will partner closely with local Café leadership, Retail Marketing, Community Impact & Investment (CII) and other internal strategy teams to transform Cafés into vibrant community hubs that drive brand awareness and advance financial well-being.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the local market expert, developing comprehensive neighborhood profiles and uncovering local insights that feed into our centralized Market Programming design engine. Activate high-impact, repeatable experiences and localized campaigns within the Central footprint.
• Collaborate with Community Impact & Investment, Global Policy Affairs, and the Market Presidents Network (MPN) to align on local portfolios, track grant partnerships, and co-plan regional program amplification.
• Serve as the physical activation arm for community investments. Partner with Community Impact & Investment to connect vetted non-profit partners and grantees into Café programming and local events.
• Partner side-by-side with Café Coaches, Market Executives, and Café teams. Deliver Café readiness planning and preparedness tools to ensure Café Ambassadors are equipped to execute experiences seamlessly.
• Consult, review, and shepherd all local event proposals through the Well Managed Risk Review process. Manage local event budgets, 3rd party vendor contracts, POs, and invoices in compliance with corporate standards.
• Establish trust-based relationships with local civic, business, and non-profit organizations. Bring net-new strategic relationships and sponsorships to the market through compelling brand storytelling.

Ideal candidate will be able to support strategic execution through:

• Uncovering hyper-local community needs and feeding insights back into the Market Programming team to shape scalable, repeatable experiences.

• Localizing national brand activations and product campaigns through structured in-Café and out-of-Café experiences.

• Seamlessly deploying both wide-net financial health offerings (e.g., Money & Life) and hyper-localized community programs in targeted markets.

• Acting as an experiential programming execution liaison

• Location: Candidate must reside in or be willing to relocate to the Chicago, IL metropolitan area with the ability to travel up to 50% regionally and nationally.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree or Military experience
• At least 3 years of project or process management experience
• At least 2 years of business development or community engagement experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• 4+ years of project, process, or event management experience

• 5+ years working in a customer-facing or community-centric environment (Retail, Hospitality, Corporate Responsibility, or Non-Profit management)

• Proven experience navigating complex, matrixed stakeholder environments with cross-functional pod structures

• Experience managing event budgets, vendor contracts, and compliance or risk protocols

• This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.

• Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well-being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website. Eligibility varies based on full or part-time status, exempt or non-exempt status, and management level.

• No agencies please. Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non-discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug-free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23-A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901-4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.

• If you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

• Capital One does not provide, endorse nor guarantee and is not liable for third-party products, services, educational tools or other information available through this site.

• Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).