Executive Director-Climate Action Pathfinders

You are a Good Fit for this Role If You ….

ð Wish to apply your leadership skills to the challenge of advancing local climate action across the U.S.

ð Are passionate about fostering “bottom-up” action that can lead to regional and national impact

ð Seek a dynamic, evolving, “start-up” work environment in the non-profit sector

ð Are energized to work alongside teammates and advisors with significant experience in large-scale systems change and social impact

ð Believes in the power of bringing people together to take collective action

 

About the Organization

 

Climate Action Pathfinders (CAP) is an early-stage non-profit initiative focused on catalyzing breakthrough results on local climate action by convening and empowering community climate leaders. At a time when federal climate leadership has stalled, the breakthroughs that matter most are emerging from communities, and CAP exists to catalyze, connect, and scale them into national impact.

 

CAP officially launched in March 2026 with an initial cohort of 12 participating organizations across 8 communities in 6 states across the United States. These pathfinder leaders span a diverse range of geographies, political contexts, and focus areas, from solar adoption to climate resilience, and have already delivered remarkable results, including residential solar penetration as much as three to seven times higher than their state averages.

 

Over the next 12-18 months, CAP’s key activities will be to:

a) Convene leaders for structured peer learning, virtually and in person, to share case studies, surface common challenges, highlight transferable practices, and co-create innovative solutions.

b) Support partners to make measurable progress on their climate action and resilience goals through listening and consulting support, and connections to relevant experts.

c) Build working groups to achieve breakthrough progress on key climate outcomes such as residential solar adoption, electrification, and heat resilience.

d) Develop a Climate Action Playbook, a living document with case studies, tools, metrics, implementation lessons, and best practices that can be shared with communities beyond the initial cohort.

 

Following a successful pilot, we aim to rapidly expand this program through organic growth and strategic partnerships to engage over 100 communities within 3-5 years. CAP’s strategic intent is to play a catalytic role in transforming fragmented pockets of innovation into a connected, resilient, bottom-up movement for community-driven climate action.

 

CAP is a strategic initiative of the Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which brings decades of experience convening pathfinder leaders and scaling breakthrough practices across complex systems. CAP was founded by three senior leaders at the Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance with experience spanning academia, business, and the nonprofit sector, including roles at Harvard Business School, McKinsey & Company, New York Stock Exchange-listed companies, and the Saving Brains initiative. It is supported by an advisory group that includes leaders from organizations such as Rockefeller, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and Environment America.

 

About the Role

 

The Executive Director of Climate Action Pathfinders (CAP) will lead and be responsible for the overall success of this initiative. This is a general management role, focused on managing a small staff and volunteer team, overseeing our programming with climate action leaders, and stewarding financial health. Core elements of this work include team leadership, strategic planning, project and operation management, relationship management with key partners, and fund development.

 

The ideal candidate will bring be able to apply their leadership skills to the challenge of convening and supporting local climate action leaders in advancing their decarbonization goals. This is an exciting opportunity to shape an early-stage initiative, work with an incredible group of local climate action leaders, and advance large-scale change on one of the greatest challenges of our time.

 

Salary, Benefits and Details

 

This is a full-time, remote position available to anyone living in and eligible to work in the United States or Canada. Occasional travel will be required within the United States. Competitive salary and benefits package will be provided based on the candidate’s prior experience.

 

Qualifications

 

We are looking for an early or mid-career professional with roughly 5-10 years of relevant experience (including relevant academic or volunteer experience).

 

The core qualifications we are seeking for this role are:

· Strategic, collaborative, and values-driven leadership

· Ability to build authentic, high-trust relationships and support partners in their goals

· Skilled at designing and facilitating group processes to advance shared learning and collective action

· Fundraising and financial management capacity

· Clear interest and experience catalyzing systems-level change

· Commitment to climate action

· High emotional intelligence, active listening skills, and willingness to give and receive feedback

Other helpful qualifications include experience in:

Team leadership:

· Leading teams and managing day-to-day operations in a mission-driven organization

· Strategic planning and translating strategy into implementation

· Being a team player with experience managing upwards and managing external partnerships

Partner engagement:

· Advising or consulting with organizations to understand needs, surface challenges, and support implementation

· Building partnerships and organizational collaborations

· Working in a nonprofit, public sector, community development, environmental, or related context

· Systems change or quality improvement initiatives

Communications, programs and policy:

· Delivering high quality written and in-person communication

· Managing virtual and in-person events and conferences

· Community organizing or campaigning skills focused on environmental or social issues

· Knowledge of local climate mitigation and adaptation practices, policy

Finance and fundraising:

· Fundraising particularly with individual donors, high-net-worth donors, and philanthropic foundations

· Creating budgets and tracking revenues and expenses

 

For more background on Climate Action Pathfinders and its staff and advisors please visit our web page: https://www.higherambition.org/climate-action-pathfinders

Please send resume and cover letters to cap@higherambition.org with subject line “Executive Director Application”. We ask that you please combine your resume and cover letter into a single PDF file, and include your first initial and last name in the file title, e.g.: “J Doe – Resume + Cover Letter”. Short-listed candidates will be invited to interview with our team via Zoom.

 

Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences, identities, and abilities. Even if you don’t feel you meet 100% of the criteria, if you are excited about this role and believe you have relevant experiences, we would love to hear from you.