Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a leading nonprofit environmental group with more than three million members and online activists. We have offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montana, and Beijing, and a staff of 600+ including lawyers, scientists, and policy analysts-- all working to protect the environment and public health.  NRDC tackles a wide array of health and environmental issues, including food.  NRDC’s Food and Agriculture Initiative focuses on protecting the food supply from unsafe pesticides, reforming industrial livestock practices, reducing overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture, promoting more plant-based food, making school food healthy and sustainable, conserving precious soil resources, and slashing the amount of food that goes to waste.  Over the last decade the Initiative has grown from a small project at NRDC into a cross-department initiative engaging dozens of NRDC staff.

Position Summary:

We now seek a seasoned leader to take this work to the next level.  The Director will be a thought leader on key sustainable food issues, manage a diverse team of six to ten staff, and help lead fundraising for this work.

This position will be based in the San Francisco, Washington, DC or New York office.

• Management of the NRDC food team staff and consultants, including project management, decision-making, team-building, mentoring and support.
• Long-term planning, strategy development, goal setting, and workplan management; collaboratively creating a vision for future work.
• Working with NRDC’s Development Department to help raise money to support this work; building and maintaining relationships with key funders.
• Representing NRDC externally through speaking engagements, policy advocacy, corporate outreach, and media interviews.

• Ten years or more of experience working to advance the sustainability of food systems, particularly around policy development, adoption and implementation.  Extensive knowledge in one or more issues related to sustainable food is required.  A graduate degree in a related field is preferred but not required.
• Proven management ability, and skill at leading a team in a collegial work environment.
• Demonstrated success in fundraising; strong current contacts with funders preferred.
• Ability to juggle multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong networking ability.
• Excellent strategic thinking skills.  An established track record for creating and executing new strategies is desired.  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Must enjoy working collaboratively, and be comfortable with managing a heavy and diverse workload and independently executing duties.

NRDC is committed to workplace diversity and inclusion.  We are equal opportunity employers and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.  We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a pleasant working environment.  Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and commensurate with experience.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for positions based in San Francisco, CA we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

To apply, please visit www.nrdc.org/careers and upload your resume and cover letter through our online portal. Please no phone calls, emails, faxes or in-person resume drop-offs. Please reference where you saw this posting. NRDC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 

If you are having technical difficulty while applying, please reach out to iCIMS Customer Care at 1-800-889-4422.

For further information about NRDC, please visit www.nrdc.org