Director, Conservation Areas (Washington, DC)

Lead efforts to strengthen global area-based conservation initiatives with a focus on Latin America. Coordinate awareness-raising and capacity-building activities for WWF country offices and diverse partners, including Indigenous peoples' and local community organizations, to enhance understanding and implementation of Area-Based Conservation (ABC) approaches, including Protected Areas (PAs) and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs). Fostered strategic alliances with key stakeholders and partners to promote collaborative efforts in area-based conservation, advancing shared conservation goals. Identify key landscapes, seascapes and river-basins in WWF-US priority landscapes with good opportunities for enhancing and advancing ABC work. Advise and support ABC assessments and rights holder/stakeholder analyses in specific landscapes/seascapes/river basins. Develop innovative projects and grants related to ABC and OECMs, through active collaboration with project staff, consultants, and other team members to facilitate coordination, communication, and regular reporting. Write reports on main project outcomes and donors. Co-develop fundraising proposals and manage grants to support conservation projects, ensuring that project scopes, budgets, and administrative requirements comply with donor standards. Develop Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) initiatives throughout several geographies, serving as governance lead and supporting with expertise in the development of conservation plans and financial models. Represented the Conservation Areas Team and WWF at international workshops and conferences. Serve as WWF’s focal points and lead on Protected and Conserved Areas (30x30) policy and advocacy, promoting unified conservation efforts. Travel to project field locations in Latin America to provide technical analysis, capacity-building support, and logistical assistance for workshops, on ABC and OECMs approaches and assist field offices in integrating ABC approaches in WWF priority places. Overseas travel to Latin America 30%.

Requirements:

Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management, Environmental Management or related field.

(NOTE: All of the experience listed below must have been acquired BEFORE you joined WWF-U.S.)

Four years of experience leading teams on policy and advocacy initiatives to develop and finance environmental policies and conservation projects at national and international levels for large international conservation organization.

Experience must include community-based conservation work in Latin America.

Experience developing and managing financial mechanisms for protected areas and OECMs projects in Latin America is required.

Must be fluent in Spanish (spoken and written) to communicate with Spanish-speaking stakeholders and indigenous communities, and to read and interpret technical documents.