• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $220,000- $250,000

Position Summary

Please note: This position is to lead a newly created lab within the Climate School – not the Earth Institute.

The Columbia Climate School is educating and empowering the next generation of climate leaders, making our students and world-renowned faculty and researchers a key asset in delivering climate impact globally, now and in the future. The Executive Director will oversee the strategy, finances, and operations of a newly created lab to support that mission.

This new lab in the Columbia Climate School, with initial funding from a generous gift, will provide a strategic platform to develop partnerships of Columbia faculty, researchers, students, and institutes at Columbia with city and state leaders, legislators, networks, and other global stakeholders and policymakers that are seeking support in confronting the climate crisis.

By virtue of its location in a global innovation hub like New York City and with the credibility of Columbia University, this initiative is uniquely positioned to achieve accelerated impact with specific local and regional leaders, and global institutions, and can leverage natural connections to national and international media, cultural organizations, and businesses.

This work must be rooted in the need for climate solutions to build greater resilience in our infrastructure and communities, achieve environmental justice and equity for those on the frontlines of our climate crisis, and slash the greenhouse gas emissions caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels as well as unsustainable land use and agricultural practices.

In its simplest form, the proposal is for the Columbia Climate School and its lab to engage with strategic partners in one or more priority areas (cities, food, energy, adaptation, finance, or migration, for instance) in order to co-create policy-actionable research and insights – and then share our learnings with a wide audience of interested stakeholders. By building long-term relationships with strategic partners, we would be enabling real impact opportunities for the Climate School, including faculty research programs and opportunities for both practice-based student learning and leadership pipelines to careers with impactful organizations. The lab would be the translational capability sitting between our strategic partners and our faculty/researchers/students, helping to achieve shared outcomes for all sides. They will be expected to forge partnerships with other units in the school, coordinate support for investigator-driven initiatives, and link activities to the school’s academic strategic framework.

The Executive Director is responsible for the leadership, management, strategic planning, and evaluation of all program activities in the lab. The ideal candidate will have subject matter expertise in climate change and demonstrated leadership experience in the field.  

Responsibilities

Strategic Operations of the Lab

• Strategic Partnerships: Develop and maintain one or more strategic partnership arrangements with key organizations that are globally networked with policymakers and practitioners. With additional funding, these arrangements are expected to expand over time.
• Faculty Platform: Develop a transparent mechanism to engage the Faculty of the Columbia Climate School and their research interests and expertise in support of the strategic partnerships.
• Student Leadership: Work with Faculty and Academic Affairs to create opportunities for student engagement, learning, and leadership development as part of the work within the strategic partnerships.
• Development: Raise additional funds to support the operation of the lab, in partnership with the Development team.

Core Functionality of the Lab

• Policy Research and Field Briefings: Engage in a sustained manner with strategic partners to solve problems with policy-actionable research and insights to policymakers and practitioners.
• Leadership Pipelines: Climate Policy Scholars: Create an annual Climate Policy Scholars program to identify high-performing students from across the university that support their training and experiential learning with our strategic partners, seeking to find career placement opportunities in impactful organizations working on climate solutions.
• Leadership Pipelines: Climate Policy Fellows: Seek out and appoint well-known experts as Columbia Climate Policy Fellows to support strategic partners in emerging and priority areas where additional resources or expertise is needed.
• Communications: Utilize media engagement and digital communications tools to expand its reach beyond its strategic partners, and share lessons learned and case studies with a broad community of interested stakeholders. This will include tools such as newsletters, media relations, podcasts, or other means of disseminating the work.
• Convenings: Lead and create events, roundtables, conferences, side events, and speaking opportunities organized around key moments on the global climate calendar (e.g., Climate Week NYC, upcoming COPs, Earth Day, etc.) to showcase its work and to support the needs of its strategic partners and its platform of faculty researchers.

Other Management Responsibilities:

• Build and lead a team to achieve the priorities outlined above.
• Develop a strategic framework to enable program success, track progress, and support donor reporting and governance.
• Forge partnerships with other units in the school, support investigator-driven initiatives, and link activities to the school’s academic strategic framework.
• Manage the budget and staffing to ensure responsible delivery of the lab’s priority programs.
• As needed, convene national and global leaders to discuss urgent climate issues and discuss recommendations for strategic changes.
• In collaboration with the development team, serve as a steward of program activity, interacting with existing and future donors, and raising additional funds to support the lab.
• Oversee monitoring and evaluation, and report on progress to stakeholders and supporters.
• Other duties as assigned. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required and 10 years of experience in policy, government, or a related climate practitioner role.
• Demonstrated experience managing a team in a complex operating environment.
• Demonstrated fund-raising experience and relationships with foundations and funders.
• Demonstrated experience in a position of authority as a policymaker or practitioner pursuing climate action.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated commitment to environmental justice and impact advancing inclusive excellence as a leader.
• Experience working across generations, cultures, and geographies.
• Deep domain climate change expertise on issues such as justice and equity, policy, finance, and technology.

Other Requirements

• Outstanding organization and leadership abilities.
• Excellent communication (oral and written) and public speaking skills.
• Entrepreneurial, humble, creative, agile, and collaborative leader.
• Experience in developing strategies and plans.
• Outstanding professional profile and trusted relationships with policymakers at a local, state, regional, and international level.
• Ability to engage and partner with Faculty, world leaders, and renowned experts.
• Ability to work with students across generations to motivate, excite, and empower action in their future careers through opportunities created in the lab.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.