Director (Climate Solutions)

Director (Climate Solutions)

CEA Consulting is an environmental consultancy based in San Francisco, CA. For over four decades, CEA Consulting has partnered with a wide range of philanthropies, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies in effectively tackling urgent environmental challenges—from climate change to ocean conservation to sustainable food systems. By combining rigorous analysis with deep sector expertise, we help our clients develop focused strategies, build and execute effective programs, and assess and amplify their impact. With approximately 30 employees across the firm, CEA strives to create a collaborative and inclusive work environment where all consultants are supported in doing the work they are most passionate about, developing their skills, and bringing their whole selves to work. We believe that a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences promotes innovation and makes our team more creative, flexible, and productive.

We are seeking a Director to expand and lead CEA's climate-related engagements. In particular, we are looking to expand our capabilities and networks across climate adaptation, nature-based solutions, sustainable agriculture, and land-use issues globally. This position interacts with leaders in the philanthropic field on work spanning a wide range of environmental issues and we expect this Director to have a comfortable working knowledge of the major climate sectors (e.g., power, transportation, building, industry). The Director position is the senior-most consulting role at CEA, leading projects, contributing to the firm's strategic direction, and directly managing team members. They are responsible for the day-to-day management of complex consulting engagements with a range of client organizations, including large environmental and climate-focused foundations, family offices, philanthropic collaboratives, NGOs, impact investors, and bilateral and multilateral agencies. This role will be responsible for business development in climate solutions, leading and landing proposals with new clients while building and stewarding existing relationships to grow the firm's portfolio.

Our work environment is collaborative and intense. It requires intellectual rigor, excellent interpersonal and communication skills, strong research, analysis, and writing capacity, the ability to synthesize findings from a range of sources, superb project management skills, attention to detail, and a passion for climate solutions and environmental issues. The Director role at CEA allows flexibility in leadership style, project execution approach, and engagement types. Depending on previous experience, interests, and client needs, Directors can operate in different professional capacities. We often serve as advisors, providing strategic guidance and support. We might be engaged to provide operational support, serving in a functional capacity as Program Officers or Managers. When aligned with CEA's interest and values, Directors have latitude to build out business and client relationships in new areas. We are interested in candidates from a range of professional backgrounds, including consulting, nonprofits, family offices, institutional or corporate foundations, finance/impact investing, the private sector, government agencies, and think tanks. Given the requirements of the position, consulting or strategic philanthropic experience is highly desired.

You are a self-starter and find joy and fulfillment from a job well done. You have the proven ability to lead client engagements and run complex projects on time and on budget. You are an adept facilitator, able to track toward critical objectives while also adaptively adjusting the direction of conversations as appropriate. You can develop new business from your existing network of philanthropies, NGOs, and other clients CEA typically serves, sufficient to keep yourself fully engaged and to provide new opportunities for other staff. You believe individual and team success are fundamentally connected. You support your teammates and firm leadership in creating a collegial, inclusive, and healthy work environment. You enjoy supporting colleagues' growth and fulfillment through mentorship and management, sharing your experience and expertise to benefit others. You are intellectually curious and an adept problem solver. You work effectively in teams and independently. You seek and incorporate feedback as you grow your knowledge base and skills. You demonstrate resilience in the face of unexpected challenges. You are passionate about having an impact in the field of climate change and can bring an equity lens to this work.

Primary duties and responsibilities include:

• Lead climate-related projects, including grant-making strategies, grant-sourcing and diligence for philanthropic climate funders, launching and facilitating philanthropic funder collaboratives, creating novel philanthropic initiatives, climate policy analysis, developing climate-related strategies for funders and NGOs, and helping to operationalize or execute climate-related strategies.
• Develop and win new engagements, including from new and existing clients. This requires maintaining and building relationships in the field, developing new proposals, and initiating new projects, either self-led or handed over to other colleagues. Business development at CEA is often a collaborative process with other senior staff.
• Serve as an engagement manager for projects, including serving as primary client contact, leading project design and execution, and ensuring quality deliverables.
• Build and lead teams in executing multiple assignments for different clients.
• Support at least one junior colleague as the primary senior leader at CEA who formally oversees their longer-term growth and development across projects.
• Design and execute projects that may require us to do any of the following:
• Formulate and test hypotheses via research, modeling, expert interviews, and data analyses.
• Facilitate group problem-solving and brainstorming with project teams to generate novel solutions.
• Synthesize disparate kinds of information to identify patterns, generate findings, and develop clear and succinct recommendations for clients.
• Develop and communicate recommendations via clear and compelling deliverables (e.g., reports, presentations, briefs).
• Facilitate and support high-level decision making by philanthropic leaders, informed by rigorous analysis and research, and high emotional IQ.
• Ensure quality and rigor of outgoing work products and correspondence.
• Actively participate in CEA's journey as it continues to learn and improve to become a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable organization.

Desired qualifications include:

• Extensive content knowledge and passionate professional interest in climate adaptation and mitigation solutions, climate science, policy, and politics.
• Deep expertise in at least one of the following areas: food systems, sustainable agriculture, nature-based solutions/natural climate solutions, and land-use issues. Working competency expected in multiple other key sectors and themes – examples could include energy transition, short-lived climate pollutants, grid modernization, hard-to-decarbonize sectors, transportation, climate finance, and climate justice. Successful candidates may have relevant expertise in other climate fields and/or adjacent fields (e.g., sustainable development, conservation, water systems, etc.).
• 20 plus years of related work experience; 10 plus years working on climate solutions;
• A Bachelor's degree is required, and an advanced degree (e.g., MBA, MS, Ph.D.) is a plus.
• Prior consulting experience is strongly preferred, particularly in senior roles at leading management consultancies, strategic philanthropies or regranting foundations, or firms advising philanthropic entities.
• A proven history of developing and winning new client work and/or an exceptional professional network within CEA's client community of grantmakers and NGOs.
• Experience developing and leading projects from start to finish, including creating a defined scope of work, budget, and deliverables.
• Experience with philanthropy and grantmaking, including creating strategies and theories of change, pipeline development, due diligence, structuring grant agreements, and writing grant memos.
• Prior experience leading monitoring, evaluation, and learning projects and teams.
• Exceptional writing ability across different mediums and for different audiences.
• Degrees and/or work experience that include training in research methods (quantitative and/or qualitative), leading small teams, and working on multiple assignments concurrently.
• Excellent verbal and interpersonal communication skills, including effectively communicating across internal teams and external stakeholders, including the ability to compellingly deliver formal and informal presentations.
• Demonstrated ability to triage multiple demands, manage time optimally, and unfailingly meet deadlines.
• Excellent abilities in structuring and conducting interviews and verbal consultation, along with strong knowledge of qualitative research methods sufficient to design and supervise high-quality analyses. Ability to handle sensitive matters with discretion and interact with a wide range of stakeholders (e.g., scientists, policymakers, advocates, and industry representatives) with diplomacy and enthusiasm.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft's Office Suite, particularly Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Proficiency in other analytical software (e.g., GIS, Tableau, Claude) is a plus.
• Ability to appropriately employ LLM capabilities for the benefit of internal and client-facing work, while retaining full accountability for the veracity and quality of the work product.
• Other content knowledge supporting CEA's work, such as ocean and land conservation, marine fisheries management, area-based protection, community-led conservation, is a plus.
• Experience living and working outside of the United States, especially in the Global South, is a plus.
• Familiarity with common service agreement terms and concepts preferred.
• Professional proficiency in a foreign language and demonstrated cultural competency are a plus

Work location: