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Director of Development Strategy/Senior Scientist

San Francisco Estuary Institute

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Sales & Business Development

Posted on Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Director of Development Strategy/Senior Scientist

Location: Richmond, California
Program: Organizational Level Position and Multi Program
Type: Full-time
Experience Level: Senior
Position Type: Permanent
Salary: $175,000-$185,000 See details below.
Posted: April 30, 2024
Application closing date: May 10, 2024

This position has a dual role with 50% of the job responsibilities focused on SFEI's Development program and 50% of the job responsibilities focused on science projects within the Clean Water and Resilient Landscapes programs.

Director of Development Strategy Position Summary

SFEI is looking for a Director of Development Strategy (50% time) who crafts and delivers our narrative with a primary focus on raising funds from major donors and other non-traditional funders in support of our mission, vision, and values. The Director will interact closely with the senior leadership team, the Senior Design Manager, and the Science Communications team to develop and implement communications strategies to build brand awareness of the organization, specifically among current and prospective donors.

Key metrics for success will include donor engagement (number of personal meetings with prospects) and revenue (value of unrestricted, restricted, and campaign gifts; number of solicitations; and success rate of solicitations). These metrics will be developed with the Executive Director.

Position Description

Key responsibilities for the Director include:

Develop a deep understanding of all SFEI projects and initiatives and coordinate the work of the fundraising program with the work of these projects.
Work closely with the senior leadership team to develop strategic messages, stories, and materials.
Work closely with the Science Communications team and Senior Design Manager to collaborate and share the development of outward facing material.
Continue to develop and implement the organization’s philanthropic strategies and tactics to advance SFEI’s strategic vision, plan, and programmatic objectives to sustain and diversify sources of funding by expanding relationships with individual, foundation, and corporate funders.
With the support of the Board of Directors’ Fund Development Committee and in conjunction with the Executive Director and Board of Directors, enhance and execute a comprehensive Development Strategy plan that creates the message and funding case for SFEI
Plan and implement a donor retention/stewardship initiative that will result in sustained long-term close relationships and major gifts for the organization, ensuring that donors are engaged, appreciated, recognized and valued, resulting in increased philanthropic support and enthusiasm for SFEI
Serve as an articulate, enthusiastic, and visible spokesperson for the organization to effectively communicate SFEI’s major fundraising goals and create a strong institutional culture of philanthropy.
Cultivate and strengthen alliances with partners to build trust and identify shared project and fundraising opportunities.
Plan and oversee the annual fundraising budget.
Partner with the Executive Director and senior leadership team in strategic planning for the organization and updating our Strategic Plan.

Qualifications

Required Experience

Nonprofit fundraising in an organization that has a reputation for strategic thinking, organizational excellence, and action.
Experience in major donor cultivation and solicitation. A track record of building and maintaining donor relationships and closing gifts in the five- and six-figure range, as well as the ability to “ask” and “close” major gifts. Experience with seven-figure gifts is a plus.
Ability to build and maintain strong and successful relationships with potential donors.
Ability to build successful strategies to engage foundation and corporate support and to write winning grant proposals.
Proven experience in telling the story of an organization and its impact and effectiveness. Excels at articulating organization goals, outcomes, objectives, and evaluation strategies to donors.
Exceptionally strong strategic thinking, analytical and prospect research skills, and goal orientation are essential.
Strong organizational skills. Detail orientation around data and tracking systems.
Strong project management skills, with the ability to prioritize and get things done on schedule.
Outstanding stewardship and relationship management skills with meticulous follow-through and excellent presentation skills while exercising creativity.
Strong commitment to teamwork and commitment to developing and maintaining collaborative, team relationships in a fast-paced work environment.
Excellent interpersonal and communications skills with both internal and external constituencies, as well as written and verbal required. Adept at crafting compelling and high-quality stories, messages, and proposals, reports, solicitation letters and donor correspondence. Has the ability to reduce large amounts of information to concise points and effectively communicate the organization’s and program’s mission, goals and objectives.
Leadership skills; proven results in collaboration and participation with internal and outside stakeholders.
Ability to work flexible hours including some evenings and weekends.

Required Skills

Innovative, creative, and entrepreneurial.
Proactive approach to work. Someone that is solution-oriented.
A good listener and strategist. Comfortable receiving input from many sources and able to analyze and formulate disparate information to a sound, well-organized plan.
Self-starter with ability to quickly create a positive network of relationships.
Willingness to accept additional responsibilities as requested by the Executive Director and/or Board of Directors.
Mission-driven and a sense of humor.

Senior Scientist Position Summary

The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) provides scientific support to communities, local government, and agencies to plan and implement resilient, ecologically-functional shorelines.

The position consists of working on applied science projects in shoreline and bayland environments around San Francisco Bay, including tidal ecosystem restoration, integrated planning with wastewater and transportation agencies, shoreline resilience mapping, regional monitoring, and climate-change adaptation planning in the Bay Area.

California is in a transformative period as the need for communities to adapt to climate change expands while maintaining and enhancing the state’s natural resources. The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) provides scientific information to communities, local governments, agencies, and others to plan and implement resilient, ecologically-functional watershed and shoreline projects. We bring accessible scientific information about wetlands and estuarine ecology, geomorphology, sediment science, and landscape design to decision makers and discussions on Bay shore planning. We produce influential documents that inform stakeholders of pressing issues (Adaptation Atlas, Sediment for Survival, and Delta Landscapes), create online tools, lead habitat assessment and monitoring programs that provide data critical to decision-makers, and convene partners to co-develop strategies for improving ecosystem health. We partner with local governments, community organizations, resource agencies, flood control districts, NGOs, wastewater districts, transportation agencies, land trusts, and others to develop multi-benefit strategies for shoreline adaptation.

We are looking for a talented individual to join our Resilient Landscapes Program to support our

shoreline team and to work on projects that bridge with the Clean Water Program.

Position Description

Primary position responsibilities will include:

Leading shoreline adaptation planning projects, including developing adaptation strategies that incorporate nature-based solutions, contributing to studies on cross-sector adaptation, advancing landscape-scale planning that promotes healthy estuarine and urban ecosystems, and advancing multi-benefit projects in complex social and ecological systems.
Integrating adaptation efforts across sectors; for instance, bringing partners together to develop shoreline adaptation projects that also achieve water quality goals like reducing nutrient loads in wastewater discharged to the Bay.
Leading and managing outreach to partner agencies and community groups to understand planning priorities that can guide the work of the Resilient Landscapes Program, especially on topics related to baylands and watershed adaptation projects.
Leading and managing the synthesis and analysis of data into information products that are relevant to decision makers and other stakeholders, including programmatic documents, scientific summaries, reports and peer-reviewed articles, and planning documents.
Participating on technical committees that inform stakeholder and partner decision making processes.
Providing engineering guidance to hone bayland and shoreline adaptation and restoration concepts developed by SFEI staff.
Developing and managing budgets and work plans.

The position requires a Bay Area location due to in-person attendance at regional meetings and site visits.

If you are excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t perfectly match every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this position or another role or position within SFEI.

Qualifications

Required Experience

Master’s degree in ecology, environmental engineering, or equivalent field + 20 years of experience OR
PhD in the above fields and 15 years of experience

Required Skills

Strong scientific/technical background and quantitative skills – desired areas of expertise include familiarity with shoreline ecosystems, landscape-scale conservation and restoration, and nature-based adaptation.
Demonstrates leadership and initiative with an understanding of a scientific body of knowledge in engineering for nature based solutions and expertise in their field and a high level of technical proficiency.
Excellent communication skills; demonstrated ability to communicate findings clearly in writing and presentations and synthesize scientific information for general and technical audiences.
Ability to develop and maintain excellent working relationships with diverse groups of external partners and stakeholders.
Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, including experience supervising and mentoring staff with different scientific backgrounds.
Strong project management skills – ability to manage a large project/program, including collaborating with scientific partners and other stakeholders, and developing and overseeing staff, work plans, budgets, schedules, and deliverables.
Experience presenting at professional or academic conferences and to stakeholder groups.

Preferred Skills

Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to track multiple aspects of the program.
Experience in community-based planning and approaches to facilitate discussion on shoreline adaptation planning.

Salary & Benefits highlights:

This will be a dual role position. The anticipated salary range for this position is $175,000-$185,000 (Bay Area salary ranges are listed; note that salary ranges for other locations are 10-15% lower depending on location and are based on locational salary data). Salary ranges take into account many factors for making compensation decisions, including but not limited to experience, education, internal equity, and organizational needs. We are anticipating a starting salary of $175,000 and generally do not offer starting salaries at or near the top of the range.
Matching contributions to retirement plan (immediate vesting) (403B).
Medical Insurance: health, vision, dental with employer and employee contributions.
12 paid holidays per year.
Vacation days starting at 4 weeks per year.
Hybrid workplace.

About SFEI Programs

SFEI’s Clean Water Program is one of the nation’s premier water quality science programs. It anticipates and meets the water quality data needs of policy-makers, resource managers, and the public. It helps the public, regulators, and those who discharge into our waters create more effective policies to ensure the health of our waters. The Clean Water Program consists of several programs and initiatives including the San Francisco Bay Nutrient Management Strategy. SFEI is the scientific lead for this program, which seeks to address the most complex and costly issue confronting the wastewater treatment community since the Clean Water Act mandated secondary treatment 40 years ago.

SFEI’s Resilient Landscapes Program develops innovative ecosystem restoration and management strategies to re-establish and sustain essential ecosystem functions and services. These strategies are helping integrate natural and human infrastructure to create systems that are more adaptive to climate change and other stressors. We are an interdisciplinary program of approximately 30 scientists (geomorphologists, hydrologists, ecologists), landscape architects, and GIS specialists – we work closely together and collaborate with staff in SFEI's other programs: Clean Water and Environmental Informatics.

About SFEI

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which has a 25-year track record of providing robust and innovative science to decision-makers, policy-makers, practitioners, and community members to measurably improve the health and resiliency of Bay-Delta ecosystems. As a boundary organization, SFEI operates at the interface between science and policy, recognized nationally for our ability to build consensus to support effective environmental decision-making and policy. Our mission is to deliver visionary science that empowers people to revitalize nature in our communities.

SFEI employs an interdisciplinary staff of more than 70. Our operations and IT staff are the backbone of our organization and keep everything running smoothly. SFEI has three major programs: Clean Water, Environmental Informatics, and Resilient Landscapes. Our program staff represent numerous scientific and technological fields, including chemistry, modeling, ecology, wildlife biology, landscape planning, historical ecology, geomorphology, geospatial analysis, and web development.

For more information on our mission, values, programs, and staff, visit the San Francisco Estuary Institute website.

Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action Employer

At SFEI, we celebrate the diversity of our staff and the places we serve, and recognize the value and strength of diversity. We are committed to growing together and creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace. In 2022, SFEI developed and adopted mission and vision statements for DEIJ within and beyond our organization. We also created an action plan which is currently underway. We strongly encourage applications from women-identified people, people of color, and people with other identities commonly under-represented in environmental science. We invite you to share what you like about your professional experience as well as about yourself personally.

San Francisco Estuary Institute is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. We are committed to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, physical or mental disability, family or parental status, protected Veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

Accommodations Statement

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran, you have the right to request an accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our website or application portal as a result of your disability. To request an accommodation, contact us at 510-746-7355 or admin@sfei.org.

Other Key Information

Please note that SFEI cannot sponsor an employment visa (e.g., H-1B) to fill this position.

In the spirit of a fair hiring process, no phone calls or emails please.

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