Program Lead: Managing Climate Solutions for Cities

Program Lead: Managing Climate Solutions for Cities

Link to application: https://noteforms.com/forms/program-lead-job-application-h42ymp

Have you built a solid career in program management and now want your work to actually matter?

Open Earth Foundation is a California-based nonprofit on a mission to create groundbreaking technology that helps combat the climate crisis.

Our climate platforms support cities around the world with data-driven climate planning and delivery.

We’re a diverse, global team working remotely and collaborating with partners worldwide to make real change possible.

With strong funding and a powerhouse team of innovators, we’re ready to tackle big challenges for a resilient Earth for generations to come and we need the planet’s brightest minds to help solve them!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

As a Program Lead at Open Earth Foundation, you will help drive the development of open-source climate data platforms. You will take day-to-day ownership of delivery across a portfolio of programs, keeping work plans, milestones and deliverables on track. You will be the main point of contact for partners once a program is underway, run the operating rhythm of each program, and connect partner needs to our product, data and technical teams so that commitments made on paper are met in practice. 

This position is fully remote and international as our organization works across different time zones.

• Schedule flexibility is expected with a willingness to collaborate in overlapping core hours for meetings from 8am PST to 11am PST (GMT-8).
• Availability to work with overlapping hours across U.S., Latin American and European time zones is preferred.
• Experience with asynchronous remote work and the ability to self-organize tasks is preferred.

Priority will be given to applications submitted by November 15th.  

The following requirements describe our ideal candidate. If you don't meet some of the requirements, you're encouraged to apply anyway. Let us know if there is something missing and how we can work together to make it up.

Essential Functions and Specific Duties: 

• Manage assigned programs end to end: workplans, milestones, deliverables, dependencies and internal capacity needs.
• Act as the day-to-day point of contact for partners and city stakeholders during delivery, and keep relationships warm between formal milestones.
• Prepare and facilitate partner meetings and working sessions, including agendas, notes, decisions, action items and follow-through.
• Create and maintain program management and delivery AI-powered tracking tools so that status, ownership and next steps are visible to the whole team.
• Track risks and blockers, escalate them early to the Partnerships & Program Manager, and help resolve them.
• Coordinate with product, engineering and data teams to translate partner requirements into scoped, sequenced work.
• Draft progress and narrative reports for funders and partners, and support compliance with grant and subgrant requirements.
• Feed structured feedback from partners and cities into Product and Technical teams to inform roadmap and program design.
• Contribute program evidence, results and content to concept notes and proposals led by the Partnerships team.
• Support administration of MOUs and contracts by tracking obligations, deliverable schedules and deadlines.

 

Other:

• Actively participate in team building and culture development activities at Open Earth Foundation

Qualifications: 

• 5+ years of experience in program management, ideally in climate, urban development, international development, consulting or the public sector.
• Professional fluency in written and spoken English.
• Demonstrated experience with cities, public institutions or multi-stakeholder projects.
• Experience with AI-first tools for project management and documentation.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (Master's degree preferred).
• Experience working effectively in a fully remote, globally distributed team.

Preferred:

• Fluency in Portuguese is strongly preferred, Spanish is an added advantage.
• Familiarity with climate action frameworks and tools (GHG inventories, climate action plans, MRV).
• Familiarity with city networks (e.g. C40, GCoM, ICLEI) and with the climate and sustainable development funding ecosystem (e.g. World Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies, GIZ).
• Experience supporting grant or subgrant reporting and donor compliance.
• Experience working alongside engineering teams or on digital products, including open-source platforms.
• Experience across Global North and Global South contexts.

Interpersonal Skills:

• Strong written and verbal communication, especially in partner-facing updates, meeting facilitation and written follow-ups.
• Raises problems early, with a proposed way forward.
• Builds trust by delivering on commitments and communicating clearly when something changes.
• Able to hold partners to agreed timelines diplomatically.
• Organized and proactive, able to manage several programs in parallel without losing detail.
• Enjoys being the person who knows the status of everything and what happens next.
• Comfortable with complex, iterative initiatives that call for close collaboration and co-building with multiple stakeholders.
• Comfortable working across disciplines, cultures and time zones, including with technical colleagues.
• Confident operating in fast-evolving environments with shifting priorities.

Other Qualities

• Dedication to fighting climate change
• Focus on impact over process
• Interest in non-profit work

Compensation and Benefits: 

• This position is full-time with compensation of $55,000 to $65,000/year (USD), dependent on experience and location
• Open Earth offers unlimited paid time off, paid holidays and paid sick leave
• You will work remotely within a dynamic and international environment 
• We celebrate our achievements during our annual team retreat

OEF is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, religion, national origin, or any other protected characteristic. We celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion in our teams and believe people should align their work with their purpose. Join us if you love Earth.

We look forward to hearing from you! 

We use AI-assisted tools to help organize and summarize application materials. All hiring decisions are reviewed and made by people.

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