Senior Director (Climate Justice)

Job Summary:

CARE is a leading humanitarian and development organization dedicated to fighting poverty and social injustice with a special emphasis on rights programming, gender equality, and women and girls. The Program Strategy and Impact team (PSI) within CARE USA is seeking a talented and strategic leader to serve as the new Senior Director for Climate Justice reporting into the Vice President for PSI. CARE USA’s new Climate Justice program, SOLVE, seeks to put power and resources in the hands of women on the frontlines of the climate crisis and impact the lives of 15 million women and youth globally by 2030. SOLVE integrates climate resilience across our entire portfolio and focuses on three domains: food, water and nutrition, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction, and gender. CARE USA’s SOLVE Climate Justice Initiative is closely aligned with the CARE International’s Climate Justice Impact Area Strategy 2030.The incumbent will play a pivotal role as a thought leader to direct and build the CJ initiative (i.e., the SOLVE program) and work cross-functionally to integrate climate resilience across CARE USA’s programmatic portfolio and organizational operations. 

Ideally, the incumbent will be a respected Climate Justice leader with a strong track record of innovating and scaling Climate Justice solutions, working with CJ-oriented stakeholders including social movements and civil society organizations in the Global South, academia, private sector and donors. The incumbent will be knowledgeable on global trends and discourse of climate action, finance and solutions, and be conversant with CJ challenges that the mainstream climate action world needs to confront. They will ideally have experience navigating those challenges with government, the private sector and across a spectrum of civil society partners. 

The Senior Director for CJ will be expected to represent CARE with USG, investors, corporate partners, as well as with CJ movement organizations, peer organizations and CSOs. The candidate should have the ability to translate CJ knowledge, research and trends for influencing global policy and practice. In addition, they must be able to build and maintain positive relationships internally and externally and be a team player with excellent written, inter-cultural and verbal communication skills. 

The Senior Director for CJ will report to the Vice President of PSI and directly supervise the CJ Senior Technical Advisor. The incumbent will be a member of the PSI Senior Leadership Team (senior leaders from the Food and Water Systems, Gender Justice, Education, and Health teams) and work closely with other CARE USA program teams (International Programs and Operations, Humanitarian Affairs, Impact & Innovation) as well as Strategy and Resource Development teams that cuts across institutional funding/USG, private sector, foundations and others. The Senior Director will also collaborate with CARE International’s Climate Change and Resilience Platform (CCRP) and CARE Netherlands, CARE’s member partner global lead for the climate justice impact area. 

Responsibilities:

1. Program Strategy and Leadership
   • The Senior Director will provide leadership in the implementation of the underlying vision and strategy of the SOLVE program for CARE USA, in line with the broader CARE International Climate Justice Impact Area Strategy
   • The Senior Director will ensure that an integrated and aligned set of initiatives are implemented that focus on multiplying impact, improving the quality of our work, getting power and resources to the frontlines of the crisis, and influencing necessary policy change.  
   • Collaborate with Advocacy, Resource Development, Gender Justice, Food and Water Systems, Health Equity and Rights, Education, and Impact + Innovation teams, the Climate Change and Resilience Platform and other CI members to achieve the combination of strongest possible initiatives to address climate justice.
2. Influencing Policy and Practice
   • Ensure collaboration between CARE USA Climate Justice Team and CARE US Advocacy and CI Advocacy teams for the purpose of influencing policy
   • Work with CARE USA Advocacy team to set policy and influencing priorities.
3. Supporting Program Quality
   • The Senior Director will lead the CJ team’s efforts to work with internal and external stakeholders to develop CARE staff’s and partners’ capacity to meet the expectations of program participants, partners, donors, and other stakeholders and live up to our principles, standards and commitments. 
   • Increasing program quality is a process of continuous improvement, from analysis to design, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning. 
   • For SOLVE this means achieving sustainable and equitable results for climate justice that impacts the lives of women and girls on the frontlines of the crisis. 
4. Building strong and innovative partnerships
   • Develop and maintain strategic partnerships with key allies and partners for collective impact. A particular emphasis will include developing Global South partnerships with local civil society organizations, research institutions and academia, and climate justice movements.
   • In addition, we aim to partner and become allies with peer organizations to ensure participation of women and youth-led CJ movements in global policy platforms and to fill technical capability gaps. The Senior Director will be expected to serve as CARE’s representative to the CARE-WWF alliance to implement mutual climate justice priorities.  
   • Lastly, the incumbent will develop non-traditional partnerships including with the private sector and investment partners to fund and finance climate justice solutions. 
5. External thought leadership and engagement
   • Develop the thought leadership agenda for CARE USA’s Climate Justice program. Position CARE USA as a thought leader at the intersection of gender equality, climate justice, and locally led solutions. Externally represent CARE in various climate related forums, networks, meetings and conferences. 
6. Resource Development
   • The SOLVE program is actively working to establish its portfolio and this position will lead in positioning and representing CARE USA to win new climate justice opportunities. The incumbent will lead and support strategic decision-making and resource mobilization to expand CARE’s expertise and influence, and grow the portfolio.
     • Lead design of a resource mobilization strategy for SOLVE that focuses on the intersection of climate resilience, locally-led solutions, and gender equality
     • Support landscape analysis and bid development with a target of being a top 3 finalist for a ‘big bet’
     • Manage key donor relationships in collaboration with CARE’s donor relations teams.
     • Lead and support US Government-specific bid development, including partnership development on key proposals.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree level in a relevant field, such as International Development, Climate or Environmental Sciences.
• 10+ years’ experience in INGO or CSO leadership roles, mostly in country offices or regions.
• Direct management and senior experience leading climate change programs with a large range of donors, strategic partners and implementing partners.
• Ability to lead, influence and coordinate across teams, develop and manage partnerships.
• Proven ability to navigate a highly complex and matrixed global organization.
• Successful fundraising experience.
• Oversight and management of portfolio with diverse investors and donors.
• Experience in gender transformative approaches.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to act as a thought leader in climate justice discussions (preferably with track record of development of relevant practice, research or policy papers)
• Consistently demonstrate commitment to gender equality, diversity, equity and inclusion.

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