Associate Climate Director – The Nature Conservancy

Location: Washington State, U.S.

Location and Schedule:

• The preferred primary location for this position is the Puget Sound region, with other Washington State locations within reasonable travel distance to Seattle considered. Hybrid and/or flexible work arrangements are available; however this is not a fully remote position.
• The position may require up to 25% travel throughout Washington state and to other U.S. locations and working long or flexible hours as needed.

Overview: The Washington State Associate Climate Director is a key member of the Washington Business Unit’s Climate team. This position co-leads the Climate Policy and Implementation strategy within the matrixed Washington Climate team, working closely with Government Relations, Science, Conservation, and Marketing colleagues to strengthen and implement climate policy in Washington. They will also lead the Climate team’s mitigation-focused work, including overseeing and implementing a portfolio of climate mitigation projects and acting as a key liaison with internal Climate-focused teams. This role will report to and collaborate on a continuous basis with the Director of Climate Action & Resilience to advance TNC’s climate-specific conservation goals.

The Associate Climate Director is expected to engage with some internal TNC teams within and beyond Washington, as a climate mitigation advisor to conservation strategies, Western and Canada Division priorities and North American Region efforts as needed. They support strategy budget management and directly manage contracts and project budgets. Duties include: climate policy development, coalition and government agency engagement on climate policy, climate project management including responsibility for project deliverables, metrics tracking, supporting internal and external strategic communications development, and leading project teams.  

Beyond their internal work, the Associate Climate Director may work with external partners and coalitions to develop and implement climate policy including engagement on Washington State’s Climate Commitment Act (CCA) investments toward greenhouse gas emission and equity targets. Other climate policy areas of responsibility include carbon offsets, emissions-intensive, trade-exposed (EITE) allowances and treatment, and air-quality.

Roles/Responsibilities:

• Climate Policy and Implementation team co-leadership and project management (25%)
  • Co-lead a climate policy strategy team with the WA Policy Director.
  • Collaborate with strategy leadership team and Director of Climate Action & Resilience to prioritize, resource and remove barriers to work in alignment with a Theory of Change, team capacity and wellness
  • Represent the strategy and team in communication with internal and external audiences
  • Manage and track strategy and project budgets and contracts
  • Establish and track appropriate strategy and project metrics

• Climate Mitigation leadership for WA Climate Program (50%)
  • Serve as climate mitigation advisor to other TNC colleagues working on policy and programmatic implementation within TNC, including WA strategy and functional teams and other TNC business units.
  • Assist the Director of Climate Action & Resilience in developing science-informed climate strategies and guidance to support teams’ efforts towards the Washington business unit’s climate goals
  • Identify critical external partner relationships and work to thoughtfully develop, manage, and maintain positive relationships with relevant government agencies and staff, community and conservation organizations, Tribal representatives, industry and other partners.
  • Support measurement and tracking of teams’ work towards meeting organization-wide   TNC 2030 Goal targets for WA.
  • Support project activities related to at least one of the following areas: air quality and pollution, climate policy (Climate Commitment Act and others), or Natural Climate Solutions. Aspects this work may be focused on:
    • Successful implementation of the Climate Commitment Act through effective rulemaking on carbon offsets policy, EITE policy, Air quality in overburdened communities policy.
    • Assess, recommend and initiate TNC WA work on climate investments and Climate Commitment Act (CCA) discussions toward greenhouse gas and equity targets
• Team Engagement, Cross-Team Collaboration and Admin (25%)
  • Build and facilitate internal networks and work as a member of project teams where policy may be one of a suite of potential solutions pursued.
  • Set agendas, manage invitations, and run meetings or other events that support policy solution research, development, and review

Qualifications: 

Minimum Qualifications: