Regional Director, Program Americas

Earthwatch is an international environmental charity which is committed to conserving the diversity and integrity of life on earth to meet the needs of current and future generations. We work with a wide range of partners, from individuals who work as conservation volunteers on our field research projects through to corporate partners, governments and institutions.

Our mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.

Earthwatch has a global reach, with offices in the USA, UK, Australia, India, Brazil, Hong Kong, China & Japan with a global turnover of circa $30 million.

An exciting new position has become available after the restructure of the global program team to lead the development and delivery of all Earthwatch's programs in the Americas, based in Boston MA covering North, Central & South America. This position will oversee a team of approximately 20 people who develop and deliver our research and learning programs for a range of partners and individuals in the Americas.

Position Overview:

The objective of this role is to ensure all regional and global programs deliver an excellent Earthwatch experience*, which advances mission objectives, makes best use of resources and meets or exceeds customer expectations.

Your focus is on driving the regional business plan, mobilising and aligning resources around Earthwatch's program strategy and delivering results.

This should include anticipating market trends and incorporating external insights into strategic thinking, innovation and risk-taking.

Key to this is delivering across the matrix:  delivering through other managers, communicating and integrating activities across the organisation and contributing collaboratively with other parts of Earthwatch to achieve results.

*By excellent experience we mean:

• High quality field research which increases knowledge, informs policy and delivers positive environmental impacts
• Transformational learning which enables changes in knowledge, skills or behaviour
• Responsibly managed activities, which follow our safety and environmental standards
• Inspiring engagement with staff, scientists, participants and partners that makes them want to belong to the Earthwatch community

Reports to:

• Chief Operating Officer

Direct Reports:

• Senior Program Manager (Americas Research Projects and Public, Educator & Youth Programs)
• Senior Program Manager (Corporate Programs)
• Senior Program Manager (Latin America program)

Responsibilities:

• Development of a regional strategic plan, in close liaison with Research and Learning teams, the Chief Development Officer and the Chief Marketing Officer which aligns Earthwatch activities with regional environmental priorities and development goals and highlights priority areas for investment across our target audiences and research areas
• Overall responsibility for the successful development, management and delivery of funded and public programs and research projects across the Earthwatch region through the development and communication of an operational business plan and appropriate allocation of resources
• Responsible for ensuring strategic alignment between regional program delivery and global mission priorities, protocols and standards outlined by the International Directors of Research, Learning and Safety & Operations to provide a consistently high quality Earthwatch experience, including appropriate evaluation
• Ensures excellent relationship management with funding partners and project management of programs (some of which may require global delivery), working closely with the Development team on the development, management and renewal of programs to maximise mission impact and support regional and global priorities
• Oversees regional relationship management of project scientists, responsible for recruitment and renewal of research projects working closely with the Directors of Research and Learning and the Chief Marketing Officer to align the needs of the research with different audiences and programs
• Role models responsible leadership for Earthwatch, demonstrating the desired management behaviours which embody our brand values and consistently reinforcing these across and beyond the team
• Line management of 3 Senior Program Managers in the region with responsibility for recruiting, retaining and developing talent within the team and engaging and inspiring them around Earthwatch's mission and business goals with clear objectives
• Finance and reporting: regional budget management and reporting against agreed program metrics (mission, customer & financial), working with the Director of Ops and Chief Financial Officer
• Evaluation and assessment: oversees the management of evaluation and tracking processes, the assessment and communication of program impacts and reporting to partners and colleagues
• Process improvement: responsible for ongoing evaluation of program structure and practices against organisational goals with the COO and Director of Ops to improve mission impact, cost efficiency and customer focus

Key Relationships and Interface:

A key requirement of this role is the effective collaboration with external partners, with other parts of the organisation across functions and regions, and the ability to integrate regional and organisational goals.

• Senior interface with funding and mission partners, assisting Program and Development teams with negotiations and cultivation of successful long term partnerships
• Key interface between Program & Development, working with Chief Development Officer and team to generate strategies to support regional program priorities and to assist with new business acquisition and appropriate program resourcing
• Key relationship with other Regional Program Heads, ensuring flow of ideas and consistency of operating processes across regions
• Work with the global Directors of research, learning and safety and operations to set the region's priorities that meet both regional and global mission needs
• Finance interface: working with finance to ensure ROI of all regional programs is closely monitored and to ensure appropriate operational finance support for effective program management and budgeting
• Operations: liaising with Operations to improve global program processes and reporting, to ensure appropriate balance of supply and demand across projects and programs, compliance with EMS standards and safety protocols and management of regional incidents
• Technology requirements: work with Director of Ops and CFO to ensure technology needs for the region are serviced and online program opportunities maximised
• Communications: close liaison with Chief Marketing Officer to align program delivery with new brand values and proposition, to ensure program needs are factored into new web development and to deliver marketing requirements within programs