Director, Africa Initiative

NRDC (the Natural Resources Defense Council) works to safeguard the Earth, its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. NRDC combines the power of more than 3 million members and online activists with the expertise of some 800 policy advocates, lawyers, scientists, and communication experts to confront the climate crisis, protect nature, ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. As an international nonprofit environmental organization, NRDC is working to address the world’s most urgent environmental challenges, and advance innovative, science‑based, and enforceable solutions.

Since our founding in 1970, NRDC has helped craft and deliver many of America’s foundational environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. Today, we continue to lead in advancing and defending strong environmental protections at the local, state, federal and international levels, as well as through the marketplace. Our team works across the United States and around the world, from offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., as well as in Beijing and New Delhi (a subsidiary of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd.).

Supported by our members and online activists, NRDC is driving impactful solutions that confront the climate crisis, defend nature and safeguard public health across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. At NRDC, we believe lasting change happens when people bring their talent, passion, and expertise together for a common purpose: to build a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient world.

Position Summary

The Director provides strategic leadership along with programmatic and operational oversight for a multi‑year, Africa‑wide initiative advancing climate resilience, expanding clean energy access, and accelerating climate finance. The role will play a key part in building out this nascent program, strengthening and operationalizing lines of effort already underway. This includes incorporating lessons learned from the first phase of grant implementation, helping consolidate and refine the priority list of program countries, and advancing core operational elements needed to scale the initiative. The Director will work collaboratively across teams and with external partners to ensure effective coordination, execution, and continuous improvement of program activities.

This role requires a comprehensive understanding of climate, nature, and development landscape, and the broader energy industrial transition environment. A strong project management background with experience initiating programs is essential.

Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President of International Programs, the Director will also act as the initiative’s coordinator, ensuring coherence across workstreams, fostering strong African‑led partnerships, and driving measurable impact for communities, ecosystems, and financial systems.

Location considerations: If this role is in DC this will be a limited term 2‑year role. If this role is in London it will be a 2‑year limited term hire through a professional employer organization.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Functional Accountability

• Support the development and evolution of the initiative’s strategic vision, multi‑year roadmap and annual workplans for NRDC’s Africa Initiative.
• Work with leadership to translate institutional goals into regional strategies, annual plans and resourcing decisions.
• Implement monitoring, evaluation, learning, and adaptive management to ensure evidence‑based decisions.
• Manage day‑to‑day delivery of overall program performance, including outcomes across climate and nature resilience, clean energy, and sustainable finance workstreams into a cohesive, high‑impact portfolio.
• Identify emerging operational challenges and propose practical solutions to help team adapt to changing circumstances.

Leadership & Organizational Influence

• Contribute to shaping the program’s evolving organizational structure as it grows to be high‑functioning and tightly coordinated despite its regional distribution.
• Collaborate closely with teams across the organization to coordinate activities, share information, and support effective implementation within a highly matrixed organization.
• Strengthen team capability by coaching staff and enhancing cross‑functional collaboration, and fostering a high‑performance, inclusive culture.
• Partner with senior leaders across the organization and with external stakeholders to align priorities, secure resources, and drive successful advancement of program objectives.
• Provide operational and analytical support to the Senior Vice President of International Programs, Chief Program Officer and other executive stakeholders.
• Supervise and support a small but growing team that will be distributed over multiple continents, in the U.S., Africa and potentially Europe to support the various program workstreams.

Partnership Development & External Engagement

• Establish and maintain high‑impact partnerships with African‑led organizations, governments, regional institutions, and multilateral entities and other global partners.
• Represent NRDC at selected global and regional forums (e.g., COP, Africa Climate Week, Mining Indaba), contributing to discussions aligned with program.
• Facilitate strategic South–South and South‑South‑North collaboration, including India–Africa knowledge exchange.

Financial Stewardship & Resource Mobilization

• Manage the financial performance and stewardship of a multi‑million and multi‑year budget ensuring strong financial discipline.
• Support fundraising to close the existing budget gap and sustain work beyond the initial term.
• Prepare grant reports, donor updates, and impact summaries.

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of progressive leadership experience in climate resilience, clean energy, climate finance, or sustainable development.
• Demonstrated success building and leading large, complex, multi‑country programs, preferably across Africa.
• Strong operational background, including development, deployment and monitoring of project budgets; designing organizational structures; and recruiting and managing talent.
• Deep understanding of community‑driven development, energy systems, and/or natural climate solutions.
• Proven ability to lead through managers and influence senior stakeholders across organizations.
• Strong strategic, analytical, and problem‑solving skills, with experience navigating complex and ambiguous environments.
• Exceptional communication, diplomacy, and cross‑cultural leadership capabilities.
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently across Africa and globally.

Preferred

• Experience and expertise in one or more of the major program lines of effort, namely energy transition minerals and artisanal small‑scale mining, climate finance instruments, blended finance, or green bank development.
• Advanced degree in climate policy, environmental science, public policy, international development, or related field.
• Fluency in English required; French and/or Portuguese strongly preferred.

Equal Opportunity & EEO Statement

NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet's most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically under‑represented in the environmental movement.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Benefits & Compensation

We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a supportive working environment. Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and is commensurate with skills and experience. Internal equity will be reviewed and considered to determine a final offer. For this position, the salary range is $110,000 to $150,000.

NRDC operates under a hybrid work model. Employees are required to come to the office 8 days per month.

As a science‑based organization, NRDC aims to do our part to help contain the COVID‑19 public health crisis. For the sake of health, safety, and equity, we ask that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. We consider a person to be vaccinated two weeks after receiving one full course of a CDC‑approved vaccine. In accordance with state or local law, new hires will be asked to attest to vaccination; those wishing to do so may request medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions via NRDC Employee Relations. NRDC treats all vaccine‑related data confidentially, in keeping with local, state, and federal laws.