Program Director, Fossil Fuels

About U.S. Energy Foundation

U.S. Energy Foundation’s (EF) mission is to secure a clean and equitable energy future to tackle the climate crisis. They envision a healthy, safe, equitable economy powered by clean energy. They believe a thriving clean energy economy can create sustainable opportunities, spur innovation, and protect our climate—for today and future generations.

EF supports education and analysis to promote non-partisan policy solutions that advance renewable energy and energy efficiency while opening doors to greater innovation and productivity—growing the economy with dramatically less pollution. For more than 30 years, EF has supported grantees to help educate policymakers and the general public about the benefits of a clean energy economy. EF’s grantees include business, health, environmental, labor, equity, community, faith, and consumer groups, as well as policy experts, think tanks, universities, and more.

At EF, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are top organizational commitments. They are working daily to uproot racism and other forms of oppression and create equitable systems that support people to flourish. They aim to bring humility, transparency, respect, and an appreciation for others’ lived experiences to our interactions with colleagues, grantees, and partners.

EF is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, and their more than 100 staff members are based in locations throughout the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Western regions where they can best serve their programs, partners, operations, and other functions.

The Opportunity

There is no path to a safe and livable climate without fundamentally shifting away from fossil fuels. The Program Director, Fossil Fuels (Program Director) will lead the strategy development and campaign design for EF’s work focusing on transitioning away from coal and gas-fired power plants and eliminating methane emissions from oil and gas production. As this country faces ever-increasing urgency around addressing the climate crisis, this position represents the opportunity to join a leading philanthropy operating on the cutting edge of this fight.

Reporting to the Vice President, Policy, the Program Director will develop and fund multi-year strategies at the national level and work collaboratively across EF’s States and Regions Program and the Clean Power Program, supporting strategies to advance federal, regional, and state progress to achieve ambitious and regionally aligned goals. The Program Director will play an influential role as a convenor to engage state- and regional-level campaigns, grantees, and stakeholder groups in the business, government, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors. 

Key Responsibilities

Strategy Development

• Work closely with programmatic leadership and policy leads across the organization to establish an ambitious fossil fuel-free policy agenda and create compelling strategies to achieve clean energy and equity goals
• Work with state, regional, and national partners, and other thought partners to craft equitable solutions to fossil fuel use 
• Build an environment of co-creation and support for grantees and partners based on trust; this includes collaboration with campaigns, networks, and coalitions
• Investigate and understand the most pressing equity concerns related to fossil fuel use

Fundraising

• Collaborate with Organizational Leadership, Strategic Partnerships, and Program team colleagues to cultivate and maintain funder relationships
• Engage and support States and Regions Program staff around direct and aligned fundraising goals

Thought Partnership

• Support communications around EF’s Fossil Fuels Program ambition, strategy, and progress
• Convene philanthropy around aligned strategy, bring diverse perspectives together to find solutions, and represent EF’s strategy to a variety of internal and external stakeholders

Organizational Leadership

• Supervise and lead the Fossil Fuel Program team in a remote-work environment, ensuring strong supervision across the team with a focus on enhancing diversity and inclusion, performance management, and individual growth
• Develop and implement a solutions-oriented approach and advance equity through program strategy, management practices, and organization-wide leadership

Ideal Candidate

EF seeks a Program Director who brings a bold, national vision for effective strategies to transition away from fossil fuels, while also understanding how to bring about critical

change at the state and regional levels. As a thought partner, collaborator, and champion of just solutions, the incoming Program Director will play a pivotal role in shaping EF’s approach to achieving substantial climate policy goals across the country, bringing an informed perspective on how philanthropy can best support progress in an impactful and equitable manner.

Ideally, candidates will bring demonstrated expertise developing strategy and campaigns to transition away from fossil fuels in state, local, regional, and federal venues. The successful candidate will engage and lead in policy and campaign development, as well as recognize when and how to collaborate and co-create, leveraging the expertise of those around them. Candidates must bring advocacy experience relevant to climate, clean energy, or energy justice, with a focus on coal, natural gas, and/or methane. 

As an intermediary foundation that deeply values and respects the expertise and perspectives of its network of internal and external partners, candidates must bring a track record of successfully synthesizing diverse points of view into coherent, big-picture strategies. This person must serve as a solutions-oriented thought partner who is committed to working collaboratively in a diverse, dynamic, and complex environment with a combination of local, regional, and national staff and partners. As such, candidates should be skilled at developing and operationalizing complex strategies, prioritizing investments, and evaluating progress along the way. Building trust and rapport with colleagues, funding partners, grantees, consultants, and other high-level stakeholders is essential. Candidates must also possess exemplary written and verbal communication skills, with comfort presenting complex information in a meaningful way to the EF Board of Directors, funding partners, and allies.

The incoming Program Director will also need to bring a high degree of cultural competence and emotional intelligence, with experience participating in or leading equity and inclusion initiatives internally and externally. 

Additional qualifications for the Program Director include:

• Programmatic fundraising experience, including but not limited to writing grant proposals and reports, is preferred
• Curiosity and inquisitiveness, with excellent relationship-building and convening skills, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds and cultures
• Demonstrated management excellence in a complex, multi-side, multi-cultural organization, supporting the growth of all employees with a coaching and mentoring approach
• Ability to travel 8 to 10 times a year for 1 to 4 business days at a time

Position Salary and Location

This is a full-time position. The national target salary is $195,000. The San Francisco Bay area target salary for this position is $218,500. EF provides a comprehensive benefits package, including competitive salary, medical, dental, vision, disability, and retirement benefits and paid time off.

This position may be based in any of EF’s offices (Raleigh, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.) or may work remotely from anywhere in the U.S.

The office environments include some shared workspace, some individual offices, shared kitchen facilities, with moderate noise levels and a collegial atmosphere. On occasion, there are activities or events after work hours.