What are the responsibilities and job description for the Economic Development Analyst position at Leadership Southwest Louisiana?
Position Overview
Help Shape the Future of Southwest Louisiana! Southwest Louisiana is a strategic, business-friendly region anchored by Lake Charles, offering strong economic opportunity, robust infrastructure, and an attractive cost of living. Located along the I-10 corridor, the region provides efficient access to Houston, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, supported by interstate, rail, port, and regional air connectivity. With billions of dollars in planned and active investment across energy, petrochemical, LNG, and infrastructure sectors, Southwest Louisiana continues to see sustained project activity that drives long-term growth and ongoing demand for professional services.
The Economic Development Analyst plays a critical analytical and intelligence-gathering role in advancing Southwest Louisiana’s economic development strategy. This position supports business attraction, retention and expansion, site readiness, and innovation initiatives by providing high-quality research, data analysis, pipeline intelligence, and performance tracking.
Working closely with the Vice President of Economic Development and the Economic Development Manager, the Analyst helps ensure that strategic decisions, prospecting efforts, site development priorities, and BRE activities are grounded in timely, accurate, and actionable data. This role is essential to building and managing a disciplined economic development pipeline across the five-parish region.
Key Responsibilities
Help Shape the Future of Southwest Louisiana! Southwest Louisiana is a strategic, business-friendly region anchored by Lake Charles, offering strong economic opportunity, robust infrastructure, and an attractive cost of living. Located along the I-10 corridor, the region provides efficient access to Houston, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, supported by interstate, rail, port, and regional air connectivity. With billions of dollars in planned and active investment across energy, petrochemical, LNG, and infrastructure sectors, Southwest Louisiana continues to see sustained project activity that drives long-term growth and ongoing demand for professional services.
The Economic Development Analyst plays a critical analytical and intelligence-gathering role in advancing Southwest Louisiana’s economic development strategy. This position supports business attraction, retention and expansion, site readiness, and innovation initiatives by providing high-quality research, data analysis, pipeline intelligence, and performance tracking.
Working closely with the Vice President of Economic Development and the Economic Development Manager, the Analyst helps ensure that strategic decisions, prospecting efforts, site development priorities, and BRE activities are grounded in timely, accurate, and actionable data. This role is essential to building and managing a disciplined economic development pipeline across the five-parish region.
Key Responsibilities
- Conduct targeted research to identify innovation-driven enterprises (IDEs), demonstration-stage companies, and growth-oriented firms aligned with the region’s target sectors.
- Support business attraction efforts by researching and maintaining high priority prospect list of candidate companies, executives, and site selectors.
- Develop sector-specific research briefs and technology trend summaries to inform business development strategies.
- Maintain and update the regional business development pipeline, tracking prospects through defined stages from identification to landed projects.
- Support preparation of Requests for Information (RFIs), site comparisons, and proposal materials with accurate data, maps, and analysis.
- Assist in tracking and reporting pipeline conversion metrics, including contacts made, meetings held, RFIs delivered, site visits, and project outcomes.
- Support the regional BRE program by maintaining BRE target lists and tracking visit outcomes in CRM and reporting tools.
- Analyze BRE survey data to identify expansion opportunities, risk signals, workforce needs, and common regulatory or infrastructure barriers.
- Assist in producing annual BRE summary reports highlighting trends, issues, and performance metrics across the five-parish region.
- Assist in tracking innovation-driven companies supported through the SEED Center and related programs.
- Provide research and data analytics assistance to incubator IDE’s.
- Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Economic Development, Data Analytics, Public Administration, Urban Planning, Business, or a related field required.
- 1–3 years of experience in economic development, research, analytics, planning, consulting, or a related field.
- Experience working with data sets, research tools, CRM systems, and GIS platforms preferred.
- Strong analytical and research skills with the ability to translate data into actionable insights.
- High attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint; experience with CRM systems, GIS platforms, or analytical software is a plus.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare clear summaries and briefing materials.
- Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment while managing multiple priorities.
- Professional discretion when handling sensitive or confidential information.