The Chattahoochee Fall Line (CFL) Program Director serves as The Nature Conservancy’s conservation leader and manager for all aspects of work within the CFL program area, located in west-central Georgia near the city of Columbus. TNC’s strategies for achieving tangible and lasting conservation outcomes include land acquisition, forestry-practices associated with longleaf pine habitat restoration and prescribed fire (on over ~30,000-acres of fee-owned lands), formal partnerships, and community engagement. The CFL Program Director serves as the principle contact to federal and state agencies including the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, to local government leadership including the City of Columbus and county government, as well as other non-profit conservation organizations, private foundations, and the academic community as a principle member of the Chattahoochee Fall Line Conservation Partnership (CFLCP).
The director will uphold trusted relationships with partners, supervise a team of seasoned staff, manage a complex budget, fundraise around conservation priorities, build strategic, scientific, and technical capacity in the field, contribute to conservation planning at the landscape scale, and communicate effectively both internally within the organization and externally. The CFL Program Director develops innovative methods, analyses, tools and frameworks to address the program’s needs, engage local community support for conservation efforts, and negotiate complex and innovative solutions with government agencies and landowners to conserve and protect natural communities within the CFL. The CFL Program Director maintains the Conservancy as a primary conservation partner within the CFLCP.
RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE
- Provides program leadership and management.
- Develops and maintains key partnerships with public and private organizations and community stakeholders.
- Builds agreement and cooperation with staff and external parties in accomplishing program goals, including the planning for and the implementation of landscape-scale ecological restoration on state and TNC-owned lands.
- Manage multi-disciplinary professional staff, with responsibility for performance management, training and career development. Establish clear directions and set stretch objectives. Recruit, retain and manage high quality and effective staff as necessary.
- Establish and maintain optimal standards of performance for the program while controlling costs and administering budgets.
- Responsible for ensuring that public and private funds are raised to meet program needs. Writes requests for proposal (RFPs), contracts, grant proposals and other materials to solicit funding, goods and services for program.
- Pursues integrating landscape-scale conservation as a vital component of area economic development.
- Frequently makes independent strategic decisions based on analysis, ambiguous information and judgment.
- Uses common software applications (e.g.; Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Geographic Information Systems)
- May participate in controlled burning and in wild land fire suppression activities in partnership with other non-profits, local fire departments, and local, state and federal agencies.
- May work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, on difficult and hazardous terrain, and under physically demanding circumstances.
- Experience managing complex or multiple projects, including staffing, workloads and finances under deadlines.
- Supervisory experience, including motivating, leading, setting objectives and managing performance.
- Experience in partnership development with non-profit partners, community groups and/or government agencies
- Experience negotiating.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 5-7 years’ experience in conservation practice or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Knowledge and experience in the conservation and restoration of ecosystems at a landscape scale, preferably within the longleaf pine ecosystem.
- Knowledge and experience in ecological forestry and monitoring of restoration efforts.
- Demonstrated experience in developing and managing complex budgets.
- Demonstrated experience influencing, developing and implementing conservation policy and plans.
- Demonstrated experience in building and sustaining successful partnerships.
- Demonstrated experience in fundraising.
- Politically savvy.
- Multi-lingual and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
- Knowledge of current trends and practices in relevant discipline(s) and regions.
- Communicating clearly via written, spoken, and graphical means in English and other relevant languages.
The Nature Conservancy offers competitive compensation, 401k or savings-plan matching for eligible employees, excellent benefits, flexible work policies and a collaborative work environment. We also provide professional development opportunities and promote from within. As a result, you will find a culture that supports and inspires conservation achievement and personal development, both within the workplace and beyond.