Senior Program Manager, Local Power

U.S. Energy Foundation's (EF) mission is to secure a clean and equitable energy future to tackle the climate crisis. We envision a healthy, safe, equitable economy powered by clean energy. We 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. Our 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. We are working daily to uproot racism and other forms of oppression and create equitable systems that support people to flourish. We 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 our more than 100 staff members are based in locations throughout the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Western regions where they can best serve our programs, partners, operations, and other functions.

The Local Power Program is seeking a Senior Program Manager. This program aims to accelerate the build out of large-scale wind, solar, and storage across an array of critical states and local jurisdictions in a way that keeps the US on track to build 1000GW of clean energy by 2035 and does so in a way that maximizes local community benefit. The Local Power Program seeks to coordinate, resource, and support both new and existing grantees to do the vital work of building the social license for clean energy progress at the local level while also informing and serving the field of philanthropy. The Local Power Program aims to achieve this in no small part by working in a highly collaborative way across the breadth and depth of the whole Energy Foundation.

Using strong campaign, communications, and organizational skills, the position is expected to manage the Local Power Program's state-focused strategies. The position's primary responsibilities include collaboratively developing the strategy and supporting the execution of the Local Power Program's state-level efforts. This includes internal and external stakeholder engagement and alignment, grantmaking, contract administration and management, campaign and project development, developing material for proposals, reports, and other written materials, tracking, and evaluation. The position will also ensure alignment with overall Local Power and EF program strategy and goals.

Energy Foundation actively seeks to expand Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within our organization and through our work. We encourage people of color and candidates with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to apply.

• Work closely with the Local Power team to develop, track, and manage strategic program objectives and desired outcomes.
• Lead numerous state siting campaigns from development to execution
• Collaborate closely with regional and national teams to identify state-level opportunities and challenges, develop strategies, engage grantees, and make grants.
• Lead the programming and grantmaking for a portfolio of grants related to state siting policy and regulatory reform.
• Lead the process of integrating state siting policy and regulatory reform into EF's annual planning through collaboration thereby delivering aligned organizational programming.
• Draft, synthesize, and distill material for internal and external audiences, such as proposals and reports, strategies, board dockets, agendas, discussion documents, blogs, and presentations. Support the Local Power Program team's internal and external partner relations work, including regular reporting on program activity and milestones.
• Participate actively in workstreams around budgeting and other organization and team-wide systems and processes.
• Provide ongoing support for program expansion and development.
• Maintain collaborative relationships with peers and colleagues. Contribute to a positive working environment.

Specific Job Responsibilities

Program and Strategy Development and Alignment

• Develop and maintain a knowledge base and network of partners that provides best-in-class insights into strategic state level policy and regulatory opportunities and challenges related to large scale clean energy infrastructure siting.
• Engage in the annual strategic planning process nationally that involves Energy Foundation staff, state directors and state coalition members, and multi-state and local partners to help ensure plans are rooted in ambitious, viable, equitable, and coordinated strategies.
• Actively track the implementation of states siting campaigns and initiatives, respond to inquiries, and proactively respond to inquiries and share updates, content, milestones, deadlines, etc. to keep staff, state directors, and other stakeholders informed.
• Foster information-sharing and learning by researching, documenting, and sharing lessons learned and best practices with different audiences.
• Support and lead elements of cross-team collaboration and integration.
• Develop and implement processes and systems to streamline information flow and ensure alignment across programs.
• Convene and facilitate cohorts of grantees around shared projects and structures.
• Where relevant, directly manage consultants leading specific projects.
• Serve as a trusted lead for Local Program questions in the event that the Local Power Program Director is unavailable or out of the office.

Support Local Power team and internal and external partner relations work

• Working closely with the EF Strategic Partnerships team and Local Power, Program Director, collaborate to ensure funders and partners are kept up-to-date on program activity, milestones reached, shifts in strategy, program expansion status, etc.
• Collaborate closely with partners on strategy, priorities, grantmaking, etc.
• Provide regular, meaningful and timely communication to internal partners about Local Program efforts, opportunities, partners, challenges, and developments.
• Contribute to regular collection and input of notable programmatic developments.
• Support States and Regions funder relations by working closely with EF's Strategic Partnerships department to:
  • Draft and edit funder reports, proposals, updates, and other communications on behalf of the team
  • Design and manage reporting systems to ensure funders are kept up-to-date on program activity, milestones, shifts in strategy, etc.
  • Monitor and manage team deadlines for reports, proposals, and updates.
• Organize virtual and in-person meetings and events (e.g., standing meetings, funder briefings, biennial state director meetings, periodic team retreats), developing agendas and content, coordinating logistics; serving as the point of contact for participants and vendors

Grantmaking and Project Management

• Lead a portfolio of grants and conduct due diligence on proposals or prospective grantees and consultants.
• Independently and simultaneously lead multiple projects from concept to completion, ensuring processes are inclusive, timelines are streamlined and well managed, and milestones and deadlines are met.
• Track, manage, and help respond to requests for feedback, information, and other deliverables.
• Provide input on the Local Power program budgeting and grantmaking related to new and ongoing projects and campaigns
• Maintain an awareness of budgets and shifting priorities to offer proactive and clear communications to grantees.
• Continually evaluate obstacles and barriers and drive solutions across departments/programs.
• Use project management tools such as Asana and Slack to facilitate complex workflows.
• As requested, organize virtual and in-person meetings and events (e.g., standing meetings, funder briefings, biennial state director meetings, periodic team retreats), developing agendas and content, coordinating logistics; serving as the point of contact for participants and vendors

QUALIFICATIONS

• 7 or more years' experience in campaign development and execution with a demonstrated growth in level of responsibility and increasing complexity
• Demonstrated knowledge and work experience in one or more of the following areas: energy, climate, candidate, or policy campaigns, organizing, communications, environmental studies, and/or public policy at the state or national level
• Technical skills: intermediate skill level using Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, preferably in a Mac environment; familiarity with Google Drive/Google Docs, productivity tools, and project management software.
• Decisive and detail-oriented project manager with proven ability to simultaneously advance multiple projects from concept to a successful completion that involve various stakeholders and deadlines, ideally using project management software such as Asana.
• Multitasking: experience supporting multiple priorities and juggling a variety of tasks for one or more individuals in a team environment.
• Superior organization, time management, and prioritization skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated experience synthesizing and distilling complex written material into concise and polished products.
• Brings a high degree of cultural competence and emotional intelligence, experience participating in or leading DEI initiatives, and track record of contributing meaningfully to a workplace where equity and inclusion are core values in our internal and external EF work.
• Solutions-oriented problem-solver who is committed to working collaboratively in a diverse, dynamic, and complex environment with a combination of local, regional, and national staff and partners.

SUPERVISION

Reports to the Program Director, Local Power

COMPENSATION

This is a full-time position. The target salary for this position is $171,000 for a candidate based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and $153,000 for candidates in other areas of the U.S. EF provides a comprehensive benefits package, including competitive salary, medical, dental, vision, disability, and retirement benefits and paid time off.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

Ability to travel five to eight times a year for three to four business days at a time.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to spend extended hours at the computer. This position requires moderate levels of domestic travel.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

EF is a remote-first work environment. This individual may work in either of EF's offices in San Francisco or Washington, DC or may work remotely from anywhere in the U.S.

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