Local recruitment: Sr. Program Officer (Restoration)

NEW POSITION

Job Title: Senior Program Officer

Onsite / Hybrid

 Position Description

The Chesapeake Bay Trust (the Trust) seeks a qualified candidate to serve as a Senior Program Officer on our Restoration Program team. The Senior Program Officer is responsible for leading up to three of the Trust’s restoration focused award programs and supporting administration of existing restoration award programs and new related award programs as they are developed. This position will support the Trust’s values of learning, science and innovation, engagement of our awardee community, diversity and inclusion, fiscal responsibility, and transparency and accountability. Duties will include assisting potential applicants with ideas and proposal generation; identifying new potential applicants and projects; soliciting, reviewing, and administering awards to organizations in order to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers; and managing partnerships that advance the Trust’s program portfolio. The Senior Program Officer will be expected to work a minimum of two days at the Trust office in Annapolis and the remainder of the time can be worked from a remote location. This person will be a key member of a 28+ person staff and will report to the Vice President of Restoration.

About the Trust

The Chesapeake Bay Trust seeks to engage and empower a diversity of groups to take actions that enrich the natural resources and local communities of the Chesapeake Bay region. The Trust is a nonprofit grant-making organization established by state government in 1985. The Trust currently makes 400+ grants and other awards per year ranging from $100 to ~$400,000 for projects on-the-ground restoration, science, capacity building, community engagement, and environmental education realms. In the past 15 years, the Trust has increased its grant-making four-fold through various revenues streams under the purview of four Trust departments, with annual awards of approximately $12 to 20 million. 

Specific Duties: 

• Serve as a lead for two or three of the Trust’s award programs focused on restoration, specifically stormwater management and tidal wetlands, and support similar restoration programs including ongoing and new efforts.
• Advertise widely across the state and Chesapeake Bay watershed (depending on the funding source) to identify potential applicants to the award programs, identify what help these applicants might need to apply and successfully complete a project, encourage them to apply, and provide help as they develop project ideas and proposals.
• Reactively, respond to potential applicants who have expressed interest in one or more restoration award programs, and aid with the application process, including where relevant, site assessments, recommended stormwater management practices to design/implement, incorporate sustainable practices considering future climate change impacts, and management of contractors to provide technical assistance.
• Lead the analysis and review of applications received.
• Lead the refinement and/or development of Requests for Proposals and other program materials for programs managed.
• Prepare award program summary reports and analysis for Technical Review Committees, funding partners, and the Board of Trustees.
• Administer awards in a wide size range ($10,000 to potentially as large as $300,000), including preparing award agreements and contracts, assisting awardees with project implementation obstacles, performing pre-construction/post-construction and other site visits to ensure restoration projects are on track, reviewing status and final reports, approving payments, reviewing revision requests, reporting progress to partners, identifying and filling (when possible) training or technical assistance needs, and more.
• Work with awardees throughout their project to report successes, discuss and overcome any obstacles to the outcomes, where relevant, management of contractors to provide technical assistance for current or future awardees/partners, and report products to funding partners, the general public (e.g., in newsletters, on the website), and/or the Trust staff.
• Develop a suite of professional development activities, which could include participating in (and presenting at) conferences, at seminars, at symposia, keeping any training certifications updated, and/or in publications.
• Advance recommendations received from the Trust’s Programs and Partnership Committee (e.g., lead a convening workshop on invasive species) and/or from both the external diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice advisory committee and the Trust’s internal action team.

Skills and Qualifications

Candidates must have the following skills, abilities, and/or qualifications:

• Experience and a track record of success working in stormwater management and other natural resources issues.

• Strategic thinking skills: ability to set priorities, balance short-term and long-term objectives.
• Critical thinking skills: ability to review application materials, develop award agreements and contracts, and assess award products and reports submitted for projects underway as well as for completed projects.
• Exceptional project management and time-management skills, with the ability to manage and meet tight deadlines in order to meet milestones and deliver successful outcomes.
• Ability to conduct site visits to project locations submitted by applicants (personal vehicle or access to a vehicle/transportation) and valid driver’s license or access to transportation options required to facilitate site visit travel and travel to the office.

• Ability to work independently as well as in group settings.
• Proficiency in managing both budgets and contracts.
• A high level of proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite of programs, especially excel, word, and PowerPoint.

Candidates are preferred that have the following skills, abilities, and/or qualifications:

• Planning, designing, implementing, and/or overseeing stormwater management projects including tidal wetland, living shorelines, and/or stream restoration efforts.
• Experience engaging underserved and/or historically excluded communities.

 Position Salary and Benefits

$60,000 to $75,000 with an excellent benefits package and opportunities for related professional development through workshops, training programs, and conferences.

Application Instructions and Deadline

Applications received before May 5th, 2023, will receive full consideration, though the position will remain open until filled. Please send a resume and cover letter using the link below.  The cover letter must address how your skills and experience are specifically relevant to the job description and duties of this specific opportunity, rather than serving simply as description of your previous positions or experience.  Please explain why you are interested in this position specifically and what makes you a good fit.

The Chesapeake Bay Trust provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, or disability in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. We encourage applications from people of color.