Chief Program Officer

LightHawk is a nonprofit environmental aviation organization with an 11-person staff that mobilizes the aircraft and services of over 200 volunteer pilots to help protect wildlands, wildlife, freshwater and ocean habitats throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Central America.

We are an unusual hybrid: our mission is environmental but our specialty is using aviation to catalyze positive change. Founded in 1979, we are the largest and oldest volunteer-based environmental aviation organization in North America. We have completed thousands of flight missions involving donated flights for approximately 200-300 Conservation Partner organizations annually.

LightHawk is incorporated in the state of Colorado. Although our logistical headquarters is in Lander, Wyoming, we are a virtual organization and employ field staff throughout our areas of operation.

Position Overview:

LightHawk is seeking an energetic, goal-oriented Chief Program Officer ("CPO") to lead all aspects of LightHawk's conservation strategy and delivery, including leadership of LightHawk's program staff, strategic partner relationships, volunteer pilot recruitment, aircraft operations, and aviation risk management. The CPO will join LightHawk's Executive Management Team, which directs the overall success of LightHawk.

Responsibilities:

Your portfolio of responsibilities will include LightHawk's entire conservation program. A comprehensive list of responsibilites can be found at this link. Working together with your program staff, you will be responsible for the following areas:

• Conservation Strategy
• Conservation Outreach and Communications
• Supervision and Leadership
• Safety and Risk Management
• Resource Management and Budgeting
• Serve as a member of the Executive Management Team 

Qualifications: 

• A strong interest in LightHawk's mission and methods, and a demonstrated passion for both the environment and aviation.
• Location in home office, geographically located for convenient travel to the Denver area.
• Minimum of a B.A / B.S. degree. An advanced degree and significant leadership experience are highly desirable.
• Close familiarity with aviation, and be comfortable relating to pilots as a peer. Having a pilot certificate and/or aviation-related experience would be a strong plus.
• Ability to work independently, set priorities, and meet deadlines from a home-based office environment.
• Demonstrated success building effective, high-performance teams.
• Project management experience, including complex event planning, and/or logistics management.
• Experience working on or with a non-profit board of directors.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills. Conversational-level Spanish speaking ability would be a plus.
• Strong demonstrated interpersonal and management skills.
• Ability to travel (estimating 8-10 multiple-day trips per year).
• Computer competence, including proficient use of word processing, email, spreadsheets and databases. 

Personal Requirements:

• You have demonstrated leadership qualities and experience, including the ability to attract high-performance people into LightHawk, cultivate a sense of esprit, motivate people, develop talent, and inspire results.
• You have demonstrated an entrepreneurial approach to problem solving. You have a strong internal drive to create successful conservation outcomes "through the unique perspective of flight."
• You are passionate about using aviation as a conservation tool, and are able to develop and communicate an innovative vision for scaling up LightHawk's conservation impact.
• You anticipate and deal with issues and opportunities proactively at the earliest stages long before others generally recognize them.
• You are a goal-oriented enterprise thinker who is able to set strategic goals, and translate those goals into executable plans with meaningful metrics.
• You are comfortable with change and are committed to innovation.
• You are comfortable working in a volunteer setting where persuasion is necessary, and ambiguity is omnipresent. LightHawk is creating the model for volunteer conservation flying - not following in the footsteps of others.
• You possess advanced communication skills to sell ideas to the staff, to the board, and to our partners and donors. There will be times when we need to sell our program ideas to the funding world, and invent new operating models to create new resources.
• You would thrive on interaction with other conservation leaders and see yourself as a peer with the leadership of other environmental and aviation organizations of all sizes -- especially with our strategic partners.
• You are able to present a professional image to multiple constituencies including board, staff, volunteer pilots, donors, business, government & regulatory agencies.
• You have appropriate social skills in settings ranging from formal business meetings with Foundations and Venture Capital firms to hangar parties with volunteer pilots.
• You are a talented public speaker.
• You are able to challenge assumptions in a principled manner.
• You are committed to excellence. 

Compensation: This is a full-time salaried position. Compensation will be commensurate with your experience and non-profit industry norms.

Benefits include medical, dental, vision, life insurance and long-term disability coverage, annual vacation and sick leave, 401K plan, and reasonable scheduling flexibility. Various home office expenses are reimbursed, and LightHawk provides an annual computer stipend to cover costs of personal computer use.

To Apply:

Full job description and application instructions - including a required questionnaire - are available here.

Responses are due by December 4 at 6:00pm MST. We expect to fill this position as soon as we find a suitable candidate.

Please do not telephone our offices about the position unless specifically invited to do so for an interview, however questions may be directed here.

LightHawk is an equal opportunity employer.