Patrick Brophy: Returns to City Hall this month.For Dorchester’s Pat Brophy, his return to City Hall’s fifth floor “feels like coming back home.”

The former assistant director of capital construction under Mayor Thomas Menino, he has been hired by Mayor Martin Walsh to serve as his chief of operations.

In his new role, Brophy, 43, will oversee the city’s property management and intergovernmental relations, two skill sets he refined during 20 years of working for Menino and, more recently, while working as the associate director of government and community affairs for Harvard University.

“The opportunity work for Mayor Walsh in this position at this time is something I knew I’d like. It’s the only job I’d leave Harvard for,” Brophy said with a laugh as he sat down with the Reporter at the Blarney Stone last Friday afternoon.

Walsh, for his part, is looking forward to having him on board. “Pat Brophy will be an outstanding addition to the city of Boston,” Walsh said in a statement. “His extensive experience will be an invaluable asset, particularly his knowledge of the construction industry and many years in public service. This is a positive gain for our team and I look forward to working with him to move Boston forward.”

Brophy’s starting date at City Hall is April 13, three days after his last day at Harvard. “I’m so excited to work with all these folks again,” he said, adding that he hopes to “prioritize decision-making. I’m going to be laser-focused on what the mayor’s priorities are, just making all the cogs and wheels work together and making sure people stay on budget and on-schedule and making sure paper flows.”

When off the job, the Neponset resident stays busy in the neighborhood, although he admits his wife Eileen is the one who is OFD. The Hyde Park native and Eileen wife were married in St. Mark’s Church and have two sons, Patrick, 9, and Finbar, 6. Brophy coaches in the Dorchester Youth Hockey program and is a member of the Ward 16 Democratic Committee. He also tended bar at the Eire Pub for the last four years before giving it up this spring. “It was a great job dealing with a lot of good people,” he said.

For all that, he still manages to fit in time to run, literally, as he trains for the Boston Marathon as one of the members of Team MR8, which runs to benefit the Martin Richard Foundation. “This has been a busy week for me,” Brophy said. “I haven’t been able to get a lot of mileage.”

As the city inches closer to submitting a bid to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, Brophy says he “will do everything we can to support the mayor’s agenda.” Joe Rull, who previously served as the chief of operations and administration, left City Hall in early 2015 to join Boston 2024, the private group behind the city’s bid for the Games.

Brophy demurred when asked where he stands on the Olympics being held in Boston. “The way I feel is I’m on board with what the mayor wants to do, working however we can to make sure that there’s minimal impact to government operations. My job is to be laser-focused on how the city works.”