Ocean Job Board
0
Organizations
0
Jobs
Program Manager
San Francisco Estuary Institute
Operations
San Francisco, CA, USA · San Francisco, CA, USA
USD 124,200-191,500 / year
Posted on Aug 19, 2025
Position: Program Manager
-
Location: Richmond, California
-
Program: Clean Water
-
Type: Full-time
-
Experience Level: Senior
-
Position Type: Permanent
-
Salary: $124,200-$181,150
Position Description
-
Posted: August 18, 2025
-
First review of applications: September 8, 2025
-
Application closing date: October 6, 2025
The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) is seeking a Program Manager for an applied science program working to protect water quality in San Francisco Bay (SFB).
The SFB Nutrient Management Strategy (NMS) is a regional applied science program focused on investigating water quality impacts from elevated nutrient inputs to SFB, and evaluating management options for protecting water quality now. SFEI partners with NMS stakeholders (regulators, dischargers, resource agencies, NGOs) to identify critical scientific uncertainties underlying key management questions, and in collaboration with regional partners, designs and carries out studies targeting those uncertainties using approaches including monitoring, targeted experiments, data analysis/interpretation, and numerical modeling
The NMS Program Manager will play a leading role across a range of program management activities that are critical to accomplishing the NMS’ core science goals and to fulfilling the program’s broader mission of engaging stakeholders to translate improved understanding of nutrient dynamics and SFB’s change responses to nutrients into actionable information targeting upcoming nutrient management decisions. Core focus areas for the Program Manager will include: leading overall NMS financial management and budget tracking (~$4mill/year); Leading program-wide project management to support producing high-quality, on-time/on-budget work products; and playing a key role augmenting NMS stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, and program development.
If you are excited about this role, but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this, or one of our other roles.
Qualifications
Required Skills and Experience
-
Master’s degree in environmental science, civil/environmental engineering, or a related field with 12-15+ years of relevant experience; or a B.S. in the same fields with 15-20+ years of relevant experience, including substantial experience (5+ years) in the program management areas below.
-
5+ years of work experience in relevant external project and program management areas, including stakeholder governance and communication; building and maintaining scientific collaborations; developing strategic programmatic goals and priorities; and holding teams accountable for deadlines and deliverables.
-
Work experience in relevant internal project and program management areas, including being responsible for implementing strategic programmatic goals, overseeing scientific teams on complex environmental projects, supervising staff, overseeing deliverables tracking, and work flow planning.
-
5+ years of work experience developing and managing budgets, and creating quarterly and annual expenditure summaries for projects showing amount and percent spent compared to percent complete of project
-
Excellent written and oral communication skills. Experience communicating complex scientific information to a broad range of audiences, ability to understand key messages, and translate those to others
-
Team player who inspires staff and is enthusiastic about SFEI’s mandate of providing science to inform decisions
Typical roles and duties will include
-
Develop and manage program-wide annual budgets, including working with project technical leads to develop budgets for individual projects, tracking revenue and project expenditures, and proactively working with project teams to align spending and work progress.
-
Financial reporting, including producing annual financial reports for distribution to the NMS-Steering Committee and other stakeholders, and developing and presenting quarterly budget updates to the NMS-Steering Committee meetings at quarterly.
Leading program-wide project management:
-
Implement effective project tracking tools and processes
-
Collaborate with technical leads and project managers to identify and efficiently resolve workflow issues or technical challenges, and support project teams to achieve their goals of producing high-quality products and on-time/on-budget completion of projects.
-
Manage and mentor project teams and staff.
Stakeholder engagement and program development:
-
In collaboration with SFEI staff and key NMS-Steering Committee members, on-going strategic planning efforts aimed at enhancing program governance and implementation of programmatic strategic goals and priorities.
- Planning for and managing NMS quarterly and monthly meetings, including managing NMS processes for annual and multi-year science prioritization and planning.
-
Distilling complex science research into simplified verbal and written communication materials.
Salary & Benefits highlights:
-
This will be a Program Manager position. The anticipated salary range for full time employment is $124,200-$191,500 for this position (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 salary structure, and organizational needs. The candidate will be hired into the appropriate level in the job track and salary will be commensurate with that level. We expect to offer starting salaries at or near the lower end of the salary range of the respective job track level.
-
Matching contributions to retirement plan (immediate vesting) (403B)
-
Medical Insurance: health, vision, dental with employer and employee contributions
-
12 paid holidays
-
Vacation days starting at 3 weeks accrual/year
-
Hybrid workplace: local candidate required for in office presence 2-3 days/week
About Clean Water
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.
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.
Employment Considerations
San Francisco Estuary Institute is 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, 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.