Operations Associate, Conservation And Markets Initiative

The Opportunity

The foundation’s Operations Associates provide operational and administrative support for program staff and are accountable for enabling effective operations throughout the full cycle of grant development and grant management and in other key internal processes, which include management of operating and grantmaking budgets, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning, and other needs. 

This associate will provide support to our Conservation and Markets Initiative, which seeks to advance conservation by delinking food production from ecosystem degradation. To accomplish this with sufficient speed and at a meaningful scale, we aim to work with a critical mass of supply chain actors to change behavior and transform the markets for beef, leather, soy, and top-traded seafood. By shifting the production, sourcing, and financing for these key globally traded agriculture and seafood commodities, the threats from growing international demand can be reduced—averting habitat conversion, deforestation, and overfishing in their primary production regions and helping ensure that conservation can endure.

Together with our grantees, we are engaging with the private sector in:

• Agriculture — improving soy and beef production in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado, and the Chaco in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, by shifting practices towards sustainable agricultural production of these globally traded commodities,
• Seafood — protecting marine and coastal ecosystems by safeguarding the health and abundance of wild-capture fish stocks and improving aquaculture practices,
• Finance — ensuring that financial institutions, who provide capital to companies involved in beef, soy and seafood commodities, routinely scrutinize the business consequences of deforestation and overfishing and develop incentives for companies to eliminate risks associated with deforestation, illegality and overfishing in their supply chains.

This position is based at our main office in Palo Alto, CA, and reports to a Program Officer for the Initiative, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Program Manager of the Environmental Conservation Program on operational and financial management. The Operations Associate also works closely with others in the Environmental Conservation Programs and across the foundation.

What you will do:

Initiative Team Operations

• Develop and implement processes, timelines, analyses, and templates to support and enhance initiative operations, in particular regard to grant submissions, internal deadlines, team deliverables, initiative spending, and management of active grants. Use good judgment, with understanding of context, to identify priorities and strengthen team operations.
• Provide transparent and timely initiative budget and grant pipeline information for team. Track and provide updates on initiative “available to promise” grant budget to Program Director and Officers.
• Manage internal team processes ensuring that tasks and responsibilities are clear, and deadlines are met. Facilitate team coordination, work plans, internal functional relationships, knowledge management, and tracking and accountability of action items.
• Coordinate CMI team strategy meetings, draft and maintain agendas, prepare and distribute meeting notes and synthesis documents, coordinate follow-up with individuals, and carry out other administrative duties as requested and, when appropriate, in coordination with the Environment Program Executive Assistant.
• Track and prioritize key information within multiple work streams to support the Program Director’s decision-making and Program Manager’s oversight of Program operations.
• Maintain portfolio/management view of all costs for the initiative and oversite of the contract development process in close coordination with the Program Director and regular coordination with the Program Manager .
• Manage, with input from CMI’s Program Director and Program Officers, CMI’s highlights/lowlights and work products documents with notable data, analysis, and stories as they present themselves throughout a given year.
• Collaborate with the Program Director and Program Officers in the formulation and implementation of team processes and, with the Program Manager and other Associates, in the development and implementation of foundation-wide processes (e.g., grant submission flow, grant sign-off, grant document templates). 

Grants Operations

• Support the Program Director and Program Officers in stewarding grants through the development process by communicating with prospective grantees regarding grantmaking procedures, developing and sharing appropriate templates and instructions, and updating prospective grant records. Apply initiative and foundation knowledge in responding to communications courteously and promptly.
• Support the Program Director and Program Officers with budgets, and active grant records, monitoring grant requirements, preparing and sending reporting templates for grantees, and tracking payments.
• Exercise judgment within defined grant procedures and practices to determine appropriate courses of action. Serve as key internal contact for the Initiative, problem solving and consulting with Grants Administration, Legal, Finance, and Program Manager as needed.
• Manage expenditure responsibility and equivalency determination requirements, working with grantees and foundation legal staff.
• Communicate with grantees regarding procedures and grantee relationship management.

What you bring with you:

Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree.
• 3+ years of relevant work experience preferred with proven experience in administration, program coordination, and project management.

Competencies

• Excellent project management and analytical skills.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Ability to think critically and provide practical solutions based on thorough analysis in the face of real-time issues.
• Ability to obtain knowledge in a variety of different fields.
• Willingness to ask for help and identify appropriate resources to accomplish tasks, when necessary.
• A strong team orientation, positive attitude, integrity, self-motivation, discipline, and reliability.
• Proficiency with office productivity software (e.g., MS Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Strong written, oral, and graphic communication skills (e.g., phone inquiries, PowerPoint presentations, correspondence, and research summaries).
• Experience in reviewing and managing budgets.
• Ability to work independently, self-manage priorities and goals for projects, meet deadlines, and multi-task while working well under pressure.
• Willingness to support and promote the foundation and colleagues through commitment to the foundation’s goals for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Attributes

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following attributes that describe how we at the foundation strive to do our work with each other and our partners.

• Committed to Excellence
• Passionate
• Collegial
• Open and Honest
• Humble and Self-Aware