Strategy, Planning & Operations Lead, Nature

Nature Program Description

NRDC’s Nature Advocacy department is comprised of sector and place-based work that supports NRDC’s long-term strategic goal in protecting the nation’s oceans, lands, food, and agriculture. The divisions within Nature are charged with leading, scaling, and operationalizing the people, structures, partnerships, and programs needed to execute the Nature advocacy strategy for maximum impact.

NRDC’s Nature team is seeking to hire a Strategy, Planning, & Operations Lead to work in one of our five main U.S. offices: Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Santa Monica, or Washington D.C.

Position Summary

Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President (SVP) of Nature and working closely with the Chief of Strategy, NRDC’s Operations teams and Nature’s Division Leads, the Strategy, Planning, & Operations (SPO) Lead for Nature will be an integral part of the effort to drive and realize impact.

Lead will also coordinate with the Equity & Community Partnerships (E&CP) division within Nature to ensure alignment and effective integration of community-centered perspectives, environmental justice considerations, and measurement of equitable outcomes in the organization’s strategic plans and priorities. Outside of intra-program coordination, the SP&O Nature lead will be a critical integration point across departments – with SP&O counterparts in other portfolios, with enabling functions such as Communications, Government Affairs, and our Equity and Science Centers, as well as our Finance, Office of General Counsel, HR, IT, Workplace and DEI teams.

The Lead will manage a small team of individuals that will support this work.

Lead the team’s strategic planning and results management efforts (~50%):

• Engage in institutional strategy development and implementation, executing on consistent and cohesive planning and organizational performance management processes in conjunction with the Office of Strategy & Results.
• Serve as an advisor to Nature’s SVP and working with Nature’s Division Leads to support identification of priorities, with consideration for strategic choices, tradeoffs, equity, and NRDC’s unique value in each area of focus.
• Facilitate the process of sector and geographic strategy development and execution within the department, including supporting the performance monitoring of activities to assess impact against goals.
• Support adaptation and continuous learning through feedback and update cycles for strategies and workplans.
• Support translation of high-level strategies to annual workplans.
• Serve as a strategic convener to develop and regularly assess strategic plans and priorities for Nature through coordination across the organization
• Provide regular reporting and line of sight to senior leadership and the Executive Team on progress against priorities, changes to the activity portfolio, and emerging risks and opportunities,
• Ensure regular integration of equity and community-based perspectives to achieve equitable outcomes within the strategy and metrics development and implementation process, in collaboration with E&CP and Environment, Equity & Justice Center (EEJC) teams.
• Support regular sharing and integration of emerging trends analysis and insights from external partners and teams across the organization to ensure strategies are responsive to a rapidly evolving landscape.
• Work with Nature SVP to elevate success stories and compelling impact narratives uncovered during the impact monitoring process.
• Regularly gather and inventory wins within each area of responsibility, filtering back up to an institutional repositor.

Oversee the team’s operational processes (~50%), in collaboration with an Operations Manager, who will report to you and who drives and executes day-to-day operations work:

• Financial Management:
• Partner with the SVP to implement the annual budgeting process as set forth by the Accounting & Finance team. Drive execution, develop resource allocation recommendations to align with priorities, and monitor grant spending.
• Promote fiscal responsibility and compliance with policies and procedures as set forth by the Accounting & Finance team.
• People and Culture:
• Manage people strategy in collaboration with the SVP, including headcount budget, and facilitating compensation, performance review and promotion processes in accordance with the framework set forth by Human Resources.
• Promote employee engagement, team and people development, ODEI and culture-building opportunities through coordination with HR processes.
• Workplace Strategy and IT liaison:
• Oversee the communication, implementation, and compliance with new and existing workplace policies, procedures, and guidelines.
• Coordinate with team on IT compliance and systems use.
• Risk Management & Legal Operations:
• Help coordinate contracting, federal/state/local lobbying, lawyer ethics, risk assessments, and other compliance processes as needed.

The Lead will be able to:

• Successfully work as part of a senior leadership team for Nature, moving fluidly between being a strategic adviser and thought partner to other senior leaders in Advocacy, and the detail-oriented work associated with implementation and execution.
• Oversee and facilitate major expense and revenue processes, including facilitation of ongoing financial management efforts for the Department throughout the year and during the annual budgeting process
• Understand and promote thinking around strategic choices, data-informed decision making, disciplined prioritization, and consideration of equity and tradeoffs through working as an advisor and trusted leader to senior leaders across the organization charged with strategic decision-making.
• Expertly facilitate complex planning discussions and serve as a key influencer in decision-making, while engaging with teams holding diverse perspectives and expertise.
• Provide judgment on operational issues and support consistency across NRDC.

• Successfully build and nurture a team, providing opportunity and investing meaningfully in the professional development of team members, and building a culture of inclusion.
• Importantly, you will demonstrate a genuine alignment with the values of NRDC and seek to apply your passion and skills to tackle the most important challenges humanity has ever faced.

• Minimum 7+ years of directly related experience, and 5 years of supervisory experience
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field required, or equivalent combination of education and or work experience.
• Forward-looking and strategic thinker with a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving.
• An authentic, trusted leader, with energy and resolve.
• Superb facilitator and collaborator
• Excellent communication skills, strong listener
• Focus on action, even in the face of ambiguity and complexity
• Experience in and deep commitment to incorporating and growing the use of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles in strategic goals, work plans, team culture, and operations.
• Drive and passion to pursue challenging goals aggressively while fostering positive/collaborative environment.
• Experience successfully managing budgets, including prioritizing and reallocating funds to make the best use of limited resources for strategic purposes.
• Strong organizational skills and proven ability to manage people, projects, and relationships in a complex/matrixed organizational structure.
• Ability to diagnose complex problems, assess risk, generate solutions, and make decisions.
• Experience with public speaking and ability to communicate with a wide variety of audiences.
• Ability to travel as needed to NRDC’s US and global offices (approx. 20% of the time).
• Commitment to NRDC’s mission, values, and DEI principles.