Program Director, Clean Industry

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 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 decision-makers and the general public about the benefits of a clean energy economy. Their 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 their 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 EF’s programs, partners, operations, and other functions.

The Opportunity

With the industrial sector responsible for over 20 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and decarbonization in the sector setting a critical pathway for our environmental and economic future, EF is excited to launch the Clean Industry Program. The Program Director, Clean Industry (Program Director) will lead the strategy development and campaign design for EF’s philanthropic investments to reduce pollution from the U.S. industrial sector. This role represents a unique and timely opportunity to shape a leading philanthropy’s approach to address methane emissions, as well as to decarbonize steel and aluminum production. The incoming Program Director will also seek input from EF staff, grantees, and funding partners to identify additional critical areas of focus for this new program area, operating as a thought partner, convener, and leader in this space.

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, advising on strategies that achieve ambitious and regionally aligned policy goals related to the industrial sector. The Program Director will play an influential role engaging supporting state and regional campaigns, as well as grantees and stakeholder groups in the business, government, civic, and nonprofit sectors.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy Development

• Work closely with programmatic leadership and policy leads across the organization to establish an ambitious clean industry policy agenda and create compelling strategies to achieve clean energy and equity goals
• Work with state, regional, and national partners, and other thought partners in the industry space to craft equitable solutions and address budding issues
• 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 industrial decarbonization

Fundraising

• Collaborate with Organizational Leadership, Strategic Partnerships, and Program team colleagues to cultivate and maintain funder relationships with an eye towards securing additional funding to grow the program over time
• Engage and support States and Regions Program staff around direct and aligned fundraising goals

Thought Partnership

• Support communications around EF’s Clean Industry 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 Clean Industry 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 national vision and perspective on the role that philanthropy can play in decarbonizing the industrial sector. The ideal candidate has an ability to engage and lead in policy and campaign development, as well as assess the applicability of advanced industry technologies and policies. In turn, the incoming Program Director must possess deep knowledge of key industrial decarbonization topics impacting climate and clean energy at both the federal and state level, with demonstrated experience developing effective strategies to achieve clean industrial policy goals. Specifically, candidates must understand the technical and policy approaches to reducing methane emissions and decarbonizing the aluminum and steel industries, with a consistent eye towards seeking and understanding the most equitable approaches and policies in a complex and nuanced environment.

Leading a newly formed program, this person must bring the entrepreneurial spirit and drive to build and execute on a new, leading-edge strategy with a particular focus on state, local, federal, and corporate avenues for impact. The Program Director will 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. 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, is essential.

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 strongly 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-site, 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 $195,00. 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.