WE'RE LOOKING FOR YOU
The Program Director is responsible for oversight and improvement of the management processes that enable effective Portfolio Management across the organization. They will also be responsible for understanding the current state and performance of TNC's conservation portfolio, assessing and benchmarking performance, adjusting and implementing reviews of the portfolio with conservation leadership, and facilitating/tracking the multi-million-dollar discretionary funding process for TNC's highest impact strategies as well our highest potential impact strategies. The amount of the discretionary funding has been $25-$50M per year. The future allocation amounts are to-be-determined. Portfolio Management plays a central role in influencing TNC's 2030 Campaign. This role will collaborate with Development and Finance to ensure that we are directing a disproportionate amount of our financial resources to our highest impact work. Additionally, because Portfolio Management is playing an increasingly important role in helping steer the organization towards the achievement of our 2030 goals, this role will employ change management best practices to ensure the shift in how TNC works is durable and embedded in the organization's processes, systems, and culture.
The Program Director should surface best practices from within and outside TNC on portfolio management. The Program Director should possess excellent attention to detail and an ability to manage complexity and interdependencies across a variety of workstreams. It is preferred that the Program Director has experience with lean and agile approaches to project management.
RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE
- Guide and facilitate the portfolio review process for TNC, setting minimum standards for business units across the organization and coordinating the CCO and Executive Team's engagement in those reviews.
- Organize, synthesize, and present Portfolio Management process, results and learnings and risks to TNC executive leadership as they pertain to Portfolio Management.
- Develop and rollout frameworks that assist leadership and conservation teams with evaluating progress (Strategy Reviews), conservation prioritization decisions, (Portfolio Reviews), and resource allocation decisions (Budget Reviews and Fundraising Focus).
- Be the primary partner to Development and Finance to ensure that the outputs of Portfolio Management are impacting the organization's resourcing (budgeting and fundraising).
- Develop and rollout communications strategies that build understanding and inspiration of the role that Portfolio Management can play in helping us achieve our 2030 goals.
- Facilitate resource allocation decisions with the CCO, and partner with the Chief Finance Office on resource allocation processes using conservation information at an ET level.
- Develop and disseminate tools and frameworks for Portfolio Management at TNC, including through identifying and reporting best practices internally and in other external impact-oriented organizations. Convene relevant internal parties to share best practices and learnings.
- Capture TNC's Portfolio Management process and share our tools and resources with external organization's attempting to follow a similar path.
- Employ change management best practices to ensure Portfolio Management is driving the organizational change the CCO envisions in a durable and lasting way that impacts our processes, systems and culture.
- Lead business requirements for internal information technology systems that support measuring performance of units and strategies.
- Support and at times, lead collaborative efforts with other teams within the CIS to help provide a holistic system of support for conservation managers and teams.
- Track learning and feedback as the function continues to test frameworks/approaches.
- Analyze data, synthesis insights and suggest action items for leadership and management.
- Requires willingness and ability to travel up to 10% both domestically and internationally, and to work occasional weekends and evenings.
WHAT YOU'LL BRING
- BA/BS degree in Business, Finance, Natural Resource Management or related areas of study and 10 years of related experience or equivalent combination in the conservation field and/or private sector environment such as management consulting or investment banking.
- Strong team player who can build relationships and work collaboratively across the organization, including with senior management and with TNC partners.
- Experience in resource allocation processes including budgeting, distribution of philanthropic funding or private sector investments.
- Experience in supporting the prioritization of complex bodies of work.
- Experience leading and managing complex projects and strategic initiatives in an unstructured environment.
- Project management experience and experience meeting deadlines and work with common project management tools (Smartsheet, Asana, Trello).
- Experience in positioning and making recommendations on complex decisions for organizational leaders.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience working in a flat team structure and successfully collaborating with peers.
- Self-starter with ability to generate work plans with limited support in line with the overall Conservation Impact System outcomes, goals, strategies, and plans.
- Experience in utilizing a data-driven decision-making process for resource allocation including distribution of budget resources, philanthropic funding or private sector investments.
- Experience in tracking performance of a portfolio of investments/grants/projects.
- Experience developing business plans or major strategy assessments, particularly with conservation forms of valuation, deal structuring, negotiations support, financial modeling and analysis, business planning.
- Ability to diagnose complex problems and identify solutions.
- Ability to connect systems and processes that support financial and impact tracking.
- Excellent communication skills, written, spoken and graphical.
- Knowledge of politics and society with respect to environmental and international affairs and politically savvy.
- Willingness to learn and develop expertise in new conservation strategies, economic drivers, management tools, and global affairs.
- Multi-lingual and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
SALARY INFORMATION
This position may be based anywhere in the Americas where TNC has an established entity, taking into consideration legal restrictions, such as non-national ratios and immigration processing times. For U.S. based applicants only, the starting pay range for this position is generally within the range of $120,000 - $130,000 for annual base salary and is based on location, qualifications, specific skills, and experience. This range only applies to candidates whose country of employment is the USA. For all other applicants, pay ranges will be in local currency, the pay range will be based on the local labor market, and not tied to the above pay range. Your geographic location will be confirmed during the recruitment and used to determine your actual pay range. Additionally, for all applicants, actual pay will fall within a range based on a variety of factors including, for example, the candidate's qualifications, specific skills, and experience.
