Utility and Corporate Engagement Senior Manager or Director

Preferred Application Deadline: August 2, 2024
Location: Remote, Western US preferred
Reports to: Chief Scientist

Direct Reports: 0

Salary: $114-$150k, dependent on experience

Travel: Up to 20% – 50% of the time, primarily within the Western US

Preferred Start Date: September 16, 2024

Employment Status: Full time

About Blue Forest

Blue Forest is a conservation finance non-profit founded in 2015 that is focused on advancing ecosystem restoration through scientific research, financial innovation, and collaborative partnerships. Since 2018, Blue Forest has managed investor capital through its flagship financial product, the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), which deploys private capital to finance forest restoration projects to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. More recently, Blue Forest has also established Blue Forest Asset Management (BFAM), an investment management platform connecting investors to compelling, mission-aligned opportunities in a broader set of asset classes beyond FRB projects, such as private equity and private credit investments.

Blue Forest is made up of an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, foresters, finance, and communications professionals committed to the mission: “To accelerate ecological restoration through conservation finance, enabling climate resilience for ecosystems and communities”. Employees at Blue Forest are: 

• Committed to Continuous Learning
• Driven by Collaboration
• Thoughtful Innovators for Impact
• Ground in Science
• Passionate about Restoring Earth’s Ecosystems

As we grow and develop new financial solutions to pressing environmental problems, we are seeking to amplify and collaborate with those historically excluded in conservation finance. We recognize that a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization is not only vital but also a key driver of strength, resilience, and success.  

Position Summary

The Utility and Corporate Engagement Senior Manager or Director leads Blue Forest’s beneficiary engagement strategy across the company’s conservation finance project portfolio. Project beneficiaries vary across geographics and project types, but they primarily include: water, electric and hydroelectric utilities, private companies with environmental stewardship goals, and local and state governments. This role focuses primarily on fostering long-term relationships with utility and corporate beneficiaries built around common goals of sustainability, risk management, and nature-based solutions that align with ecosystem resilience. As a champion for Blue Forest and our projects, this role will focus on delivering on contracts with key beneficiaries to close funding gaps, create long-term landscape stewardship arrangements, and enable conservation finance projects that promote ecosystem resilience. 

The primary workstreams of this position are identifying potential project beneficiaries, developing relationships with those beneficiaries, identifying and articulating the benefits of ecosystem restoration that align with beneficiary priorities, and communicating the value proposition of conservation finance as a way to bring those benefits to fruition. This role will be responsible for building and maintaining beneficiary relationships throughout the entire project development process, including being responsive to beneficiary requests and questions while coordinating with the finance, project development, and science teams to ensure beneficiary needs are being met.  

Beyond project-specific beneficiary engagement, this position will also spend time engaging with regional and national trade utility trade organizations, presenting at conferences, and developing beneficiary engagement communications materials to position Blue Forest as a leader in this space. A minority of time will be spent collaborating internally on strategic questions around project prioritization and longer-term policy and communications plans for improving the beneficiary engagement process. 

The ideal candidate is someone who has worked for or with utilities and/or private companies on contracts and partnerships, especially related to sustainability goals or risk management. A strong candidate will have excellent relationship management and sales skills, strong executive presence, and the ability to work independently and strategically to be responsive to beneficiary needs. 

Responsibilities & Duties 

Engagement, Relationship Management, and Business Development (70%)

• Collaborate closely with Blue Forest staff across the finance, project development, and science teams to understand and meet beneficiary engagement needs for specific FRB projects in the pipeline 
• Position Blue Forest to be a leader and trusted entity for utilities, corporates, and other groups interested in nature-based solutions, primed to take advantage of conservation finance and other partnership opportunities when presented
• Establish, develop, and manage key relationships with beneficiaries of ecosystem restoration, including utilities and corporates and, to a lesser extent, local and state government agencies
• Help shape and implement beneficiary engagement strategies both regionally and across specific projects 

Tools, Trainings, and Knowledge Management (20%)

• Create and maintain internal tools and trainings around the beneficiary engagement process
• Continuously document lessons learned and ensure these learnings are incorporated into the project development and beneficiary engagement process 
• Regularly identify longer-term recommendations for strategically improving the beneficiary engagement process (e.g. through policy changes) and present these to leadership
• Gather and share insights from beneficiary conversations with the science team to inform new tools and models that need to be developed and with the finance team to identify how financing can be most valuable to utilities and private companies
• Create and manage a shared database and catalog of key contacts and project information

Communications and Outreach (10%) 

• Support the development of beneficiary-related communications materials like 2-pagers, story maps, and explainers for the value proposition of conservation finance
• Work with Blue Forest communications staff to develop outreach strategies to beneficiaries
• Contribute to the newsletter and other email and social media campaigns where beneficiary engagement is a focus and where material can elevate key beneficiaries and project visibility
• Travel for meetings, conferences, and speaking engagements (4-10 days/month)

Qualifications

An ideal candidate will have 8+ years of relevant work or equivalent experience. Blue Forest will prioritize the following qualifications in the hiring process; however, we do not expect candidates to fulfill all criteria and encourage all interested candidates to apply.

• Experience with Utilities and/or Private Companies Interested in Nature-Based Solutions: Experience working with or for water, electric, and/or hydroelectric utilities and/or private companies interested in nature-based solutions is required. Additional related experience with ecosystem services benefit modeling, conservation finance, forestry, or other relevant fields is a plus. 
• Business Development and Sales: Strong relationship management and business development skills, with demonstrated experience working with clients to understand and then deliver on their individual needs. Experience working with leadership or executive-level staff at utilities, corporations, and other beneficiary groups is required.
• Communication: Strong professional written and oral communication skills, including distilling and communicating complex ideas into presentations and written memos, facilitating multi-stakeholder collaborative discussions, and creating effective storytelling products. Supported by subject matter experts, the ability to grasp and explain the basic principles of technical concepts, including ecological processes, risk management, and financing structures, for a non-technical audience. Strength in communicating about finance and the value of conservation finance is a plus.
• Navigating Ambiguity and Entrepreneurial Mindset: Strategically minded and comfortable prioritizing competing needs, bringing structure to ambiguous situations, proactively researching and identifying solutions. Experience working for a small and/or early stage company is a plus.  
• Project Management: Project management experience including scoping, managing, and executing multiple work streams simultaneously, meeting deadlines, overseeing budgets, and managing multiple external stakeholders. Excitement to drive and execute the day-to-day operations and overall strategy for individual projects. Excellent time management, prioritization, and knowledge management skills. 
• Partnerships & Collaboration: Experience collaborating with internal and external stakeholders and Native Nations to design effective solutions and projects. The ability to work across internal departments to foster relations, community, and company cohesion.
• Continuous learner: Committed to continuous learning, including: seeking opportunities to incorporate feedback and learn from others, actively listening and taking note of opportunities to improve project development processes, documenting best practices, and exploring ways to promote engagement approaches anchored in  historical place-based context that empower and support diverse communities within the conservation and financial communities.

Additional Information

Blue Forest is a fully remote company with staff located across all four continental U.S. time zones. You will generally be expected to be online during Mountain Standard Time standard working hours in order to collaborate with partners and other team members. Blue Forest also hosts an in-person team retreat and departmental offsites each year. 

Benefits

• 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision coverage; subsidized coverage for dependents
• Access to a 401k retirement plan with a 4% employer match
• Starting 3 weeks paid vacation and 17 paid holidays; paid sick leave and volunteer time
• 3 months of paid family leave
• Employer-paid life and long-term disability insurance
• Access to Dependent Care FSA
• Public Lands Exploration stipend (reimbursements for visits to National Forests, county parks, etc.)
• Monthly Home Office stipend or co-working space provided 
• Travel and partial dependant care costs provided for business travel 
• Additional stipends for health & wellness; home internet and cell service
• Financial support for professional development 
  

Covid Vaccine Requirement

All Blue Forest staff are required to be “fully vaccinated” against COVID-19, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines that term. Proof of full vaccination shall be a condition of employment and must be provided prior to starting work, except where prohibited by law. Blue Forest is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and the company will engage in the interactive process regarding reasonable accommodations for candidates who cannot be vaccinated due to a disability/medical condition; a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance; or a claimed exemption under applicable state law. 

How to Apply

To apply to this position, please submit an application through recruitee. People from historically underrepresented populations and candidates with non-traditional career paths are especially encouraged to apply. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, and those submitted by 8/2/2024 will be given priority consideration.

If participating in the interview process would require you to incur additional expenses to participate, such as childcare, please let us know and we are happy to reimburse for reasonable expenses incurred up to $30/hour for twice the length of each interview in which you participate. There will be space to request this reimbursement upon offer of an interview. 

Blue Forest provides equal employment and opportunities for advancement, compensation, training, and growth according to individual merit, without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, genetic information, disability, veteran-status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable Federal, state, or local law. Applicants must have authorization to work in the United States.

https://blueforest.recruitee.com/o/utility-and-corporate-engagement-senior-manager-or-director