Abstract Sustainable development has been a local public policy concern for nearly three decades. Accordingly, the demand for hiring sustainability professionals is increasing within local governments. However, the job of a municipal sustainability manager is notably understudied as extant literature provides little clarity on who fills these positions, what their job entails, and how they perform their job. This article seeks to address these important research questions by examining the qualifications (who), job responsibilities and work activities (what), as well as the sustainability management competencies that experienced professionals identify as most valuable for performing their sustainability manager job (how). Twenty-six sustainability professionals employed by twenty-five different municipalities across Canada were interviewed. Our results contribute to the public administration literature by providing foundational information on an understudied job that is increasingly important to public performance. Moreover, our findings contribute to the public performance and sustainability management literatures by surfacing eleven competencies linked to sustainability management. Ultimately, this article presents a detailed assessment of the specific job of a municipal sustainability manager from the perspective of incumbents who have demonstrated job performance; thus contributing salient information for continued progress toward achieving more sustainable cities and communities (Sustainable Development Goal #11).

中文翻译：

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可持续发展经理：建设可持续城市和社区的工作角色和能力

摘要 近三十年来，可持续发展一直是地方公共政策关注的焦点。因此，地方政府内部对招聘可持续发展专业人士的需求正在增加。然而，市政可持续发展经理的工作显然没有得到充分研究，因为现有文献几乎没有明确说明由谁担任这些职位、他们的工作需要什么以及他们如何执行工作。本文试图通过检查资格（谁）、工作职责和工作活动（什么）以及经验丰富的专业人士认为对执行其可持续发展经理工作最有价值的可持续发展管理能力（如何）来解决这些重要的研究问题。来自加拿大 25 个不同城市的 26 名可持续发展专业人士接受了采访。我们的结果通过提供有关对公共绩效越来越重要的未被充分研究的工作的基础信息，为公共行政文献做出了贡献。此外，我们的发现通过展示与可持续发展管理相关的 11 项能力，为公共绩效和可持续发展管理文献做出了贡献。最后，本文从表现出工作表现的在职人员的角度对市政可持续发展经理的具体工作进行了详细评估；从而为实现更可持续的城市和社区（可持续发展目标 #11）的持续进展提供重要信息。