Get to Know Melissa Young

Melissa Young, Enterprise Application Specialist with the Information Technology Department (ITD), didn’t always imagine her career journey would take her to where she is now, providing vital support to departments across the City of Cambridge.

On ITD’s Enterprise Team, Young works on major citywide software rollouts, including but not limited to OpenGov, the software used for permitting, licensing, and other forms. She supports departments across the City in utilizing these programs and helps departments navigate their technical needs for projects. Recent large-scale projects she has worked on include municipal ticketing and the afterschool and summer camp lotteries, but she also assists departments in various other projects.

“I would say my strong suit is the fact that I make relationships across departments. I will do a project with a department, and even though it may have only been a two-week engagement, that department will then feel comfortable coming to me with any questions or to spitball new ideas, long after the project has ended,” Young said. “I would say at this point, because I’ve been with the City as long as I have been and I have completed many projects around the City, I have relationships across departments.”

Young says these relationships and this experience have given her a unique perspective on the cross-departmental nature of many City initiatives, and this allows her to better support these projects and help departments make important decisions.

“I can see the bigger picture because of my role and my place in the City,” she said. 

Young initially studied and received her B.A. in Communications while working as a paralegal with the intention of pursuing a career in the legal field. However, her time in the military—serving in the Army National Guard and later deploying with the Inactive Ready Reserves assigned to the 146th Expeditionary Signal Battalion for over a year overseas in Iraq as a sergeant—ignited a passion for public administration and policy. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Ethics and Public Policy from Suffolk University. After working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development as a Program Coordinator for the Council on the Underground Economy, she joined the City of Cambridge.

While Young notes that her path is unique, in part because she went from the federal government to state government to a local municipality (whereas many others move in the opposite direction), she says working for local government allows her to see the impacts of her work firsthand.

“You can actually see programs through to fruition. You see the impact on the community because of the unique opportunities in Cambridge,” Young said. “We have the funding, we have the services, we have the staff. There’s just so many things you can do in Cambridge that you can’t do at the state or federal level.”

Young’s first role with the City was in the License Commission as a Business Production Analyst and Project Manager, where she worked with other departments to digitize and increase the accessibility of permitting forms. In 2021, she was hired as the Enterprise Application Specialist at ITD, a role which she says she especially enjoys because it impacts many departments citywide.

“Being in IT, it’s not the path I thought I would be in. I really thought I would be going the policy route,” she said. “But honestly, IT is the best place to be, I think anyway, because I get to touch every department in the City.  I don’t just roll out permits for the License Commission; I do them for literally every department across the City.” 

Additionally, Young appreciates the respect and autonomy with which she is treated, saying that while she loves her job, this treatment of employees would keep her there even if she did not.

“People have trust and faith in my work ability and let me do my job. That is probably the most important piece to my workday. And the fact that you’re treated with respect, like if I need time off for my family or whatever I need, I’m not questioned,” Young said. “The independence and autonomy really do matter, and the respect and work-life balance totally matter. My job is important, but the respecting of employees is far more important.”

Young also loves how connected she has become to the Cambridge community through her work, despite not living in Cambridge herself.

“Because I came from the License Commission, I feel weirdly tied to a lot of businesses here,” Young said. “I knew many business owners in the city because they’d come in to pay a bill or they would know me from renewing licenses, or I would be calling them incessantly to get their paperwork in order; so I have this tie to the city even though I have never lived here.”

Even though much of her work may go unseen by the public, it is key to ensuring the City can continue to provide important services to the community. Community engagement is important to Young outside of work too, from hosting Medford Porchfest to working every election as a warden of a precinct in Medford, where she lives.

“This is right back to ethics and public policy. I take my civic engagement seriously, even in my own community,” she said.