Grassland Roadmap Director

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (BCR) is a 501-c(3) non-profit headquartered at the Environmental Learning Center at Barr Lake State Park with a satellite office in Fort Collins and fieldwork outposts in the Great Plains Region. BCR conserves birds and their habitats through an integrated approach of Science, Education and Stewardship. Our work radiates from the Rockies to the Great Plains, Mexico and beyond.

To continue the energy and momentum from the Central Grassland Roadmap Initiative (CGRI) and to help ensure healthy grasslands for the future, we are hiring a Central Grassland Roadmap Director. As the lead partner of CGRI, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies is seeking a dynamic applicant to serve as the Grassland Roadmap Director. This unique position will be supervised by the Executive Director of Bird Conservancy of the Rockies with consult from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. There will also be an advisory team with representation from planning team members, across the different sectors and countries, who will assist with strategic oversight for the initiative and position. Qualified candidates will be an excellent communicator with a strong track record for collaborative conservation. They will have several years of experience working with diverse partners and communities in the grasslands including Indigenous, private landowners, state, and federal partners. Applicants will be expected to have strong working knowledge of grassland systems and be committed to serve as an expert leader and advocate for grassland conservation. Candidates with strong coordination and communication backgrounds and a passion for grasslands are encouraged to apply.

Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic direction and oversight for the roadmap effort by being an expert and champion for the central grasslands, implementing roadmap priorities, securing funding, recruiting new partner organizations, presenting at local, regional, national and international meetings and coordinating future summits.
• Support working group efforts by chairing or co-chairing a subset of the working groups as capacity and expertise warrant, serving as liaison between working groups and planning team, and providing support to working group leads on meeting planning and coordination.
• Liaise with other grassland coordinators from the roadmap effort including states/federal, JV8, Canada, Mexico, Indigenous and private lands to ensure priorities from the roadmap effort are being addressed.
• Lead efforts to increase capacity across the Central Great Plains and supervise or manage positions within the landscape as warranted by the partnership
• Work with key Bird Conservancy staff (CCS, Research Director and Stewardship Director) to ensure programmatic initiatives dovetail with and support roadmap and grassland conservation delivery strategies

Other Duties:

• Advise Rocky Mountain Innovations Lab lead facilitator Matt Gray on planning team agendas, following up, identifying action items, and coordinating with partners.
• Support metrics and tracking of key measurables (scorecard) with partners and working groups to meet roadmap annual goals. Build off broad metrics developed from the roadmap effort and work with partners to create strategic goals as warranted.
• Assist partners with community conversations as needed across the Central Great Plains region

Knowledge, Skills and Experience required (unless otherwise noted):

• Bachelor’s degree in natural resources, wildlife or range management, communication, social science, policy or other equivalent college degree or experience
• Multiple years leading partners to build common goals and successful collaborative conservation initiatives
• Strategic thinker and motivator
• Strong facilitation and coordination skills
• Excellent communication skills both verbal and written
• Successful grant writing skills
• Positive energy and “can do” attitude
• Ability to speak Spanish a plus