<p>A science-driven, nonprofit, <a href="https://www.sparkclimate.org/">Spark Climate</a> is dedicated to identifying and mitigating sources of unmanaged climate risk. Spark works directly with scientists, policy makers, and peer organizations, and also offers grants to support the growth of fields with the potential to limit warming, manage Earth systems risk, and help to enable our return to a safe climate.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spark&rsquo;s first programs focus on large, under-addressed methane areas that currently represent unmanaged risks to our overall climate trajectory, including work on enteric methane mitigation, atmospheric methane removal research, natural systems feedbacks, and additional innovation areas to assist efforts to mitigate super climate pollutants. </span></p>

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Innovative nonprofit mitigating climate risk through methane reduction and Earth systems management.

<div><span style="font-size:11pt;">N</span><span style="font-size:0.6em;">2</span><span style="font-size:11pt;">O emissions are growing faster than worse-case assumptions of IPCC AR6, contributing ~3 GT CO</span><span style="font-size:0.6em;">2</span><span style="font-size:11pt;">e/yr emissions. Spark is helping to accelerate field organization around transformative agricultural nitrogen systems changes to decrease greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture while protecting food security. These potential transformational solutions include increased use of non-protein-nitrogen in livestock feed, breeding corn and other crops for improved nitrogen use efficiency, improved manure management to increase circularity of food production, and anticipation of favorable and unintended consequences of the advent of green ammonia technology.</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Spark is looking for a candidate who is deeply motivated by climate action and is excited to deeply engage with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders and rights holders to change what’s possible for climate action. This role is highly interdisciplinary, taking science, engineering, talent development, society, economics, and policy into account to holistically advance the field and is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in defining and shaping a new climate field.</span></div><br><br><h3>Responsibilities</h3><ul><li>Lead and manage the development of Spark’s agricultural nitrogen management roadmap that identifies the highest leverage potential solution areas and the critical intervention points ranging from impactful research projects to policy changes and public communications to accelerate the development and evaluation of new approaches.</li><li>Build relationships with science partners, policy makers, philanthropic partners, NGOs, and other field actors to collaborate on roadmaps, research agendas, and other efforts to accelerate the field.</li><li>Coordinate an emergent collaboration of about 30 university, government, and NGO scientists, under the umbrella title of “Nitrogen2.0,” to develop preliminary modeling and life-cycle analysis studies, communication materials, and funding opportunities to advance the Nitrogen2.0 vision.</li><li>Serve as a subject matter expert and area advocate to other organizations, funders, and policymakers in this space, as needed.</li><li>Identify key adjacent areas to support in order to most comprehensively address the climate impacts of agriculture.</li></ul><h3>Desired Skills &amp; Experience</h3><ul><li>7+ years of combined professional and research experience, including any graduate work; and including 4+ years of professional experience outside of graduate work. The ideal candidate has a combination of scientific/business/policy-related background in agriculture, biology, biogeochemistry, or environmental science.</li><li>Demonstrated ability to develop strategies and independently run projects and complex worktracks, particularly in research-heavy areas.</li><li>Proven scientific literacy and comfort working with scientific material and collaborating with leading scientists in agricultural sciences.</li><li>Adept at system-level thinking –  understanding how scientific research, policy, funding, industry, etc all play a role in the development of new critical climate fields.</li><li>Demonstrated experience working collaboratively and effectively with external stakeholders to drive meaningful outcomes.</li><li>Experience leading and mentoring in a manner that centers collaboration, empathy, and equity.</li><li>Excellent written, speaking / presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.</li><li>Experience working with communication specialists to develop a variety of communication products targeted at specific audiences, such as funders, policy makers, and influencers.</li><li>Self-motivated, proactive professional who works well independently and collaboratively with others.</li><li>Insatiable curiosity about the climate problem; open-mindedness in exploring all possible climate solutions; and the flexibility, creativity, and tenacity to drive the necessary work forward</li><li>Fluency in English.</li></ul><h3>Eligibility</h3><ul><li>Able to work as a W2 employee for a US non-profit</li><li>At least 4 overlapping work hours with US Pacific time work day (9am-5pm PT)</li><div><br></div><div>We encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply, regardless of whether you feel you meet 100% of the qualifications. The top candidates will bring their own unique perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds from a variety of industries along with many but not necessarily all the skills listed above.</div></ul><br><div><b style="font-size:10.5pt;">Location</b></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:10.5pt;">As with all positions at Spark Climate Solutions, this will be 100% remote. Employees can work anywhere within the United States, or internationally with approval.</span></div><div><br></div><div><b style="font-size:10.5pt;">Compensation</b></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:10.5pt;">This is a all full-time positions with benefits. The salary range is $140,000-$175,000 / year.  In addition, Spark Climate Solutions provides exceptional benefits including flexible PTO, sick time, holidays, a 401-k match, generous health insurance coverage, and full-covered dental/vision/life insurance, and parental leave.</span></div>

Transformative Agriculture Lead

<div>If you're passionate about the mission of Spark, believe you could uniquely contribute, and don't find a relevant currently open role, we'd still love to hear from you to see if there might be a strong fit.</div><br><br><br>

General Role

<div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Methane removal approaches are being researched to determine how methane, once in the atmosphere, can be broken down faster than with existing natural systems alone to help lower peak temperatures, and counteract some of the impact of increasing natural methane emissions. This new climate field has </span><a href="https://www.sparkclimate.org/article/amr-exploratory-grant-round-1-interest" style="font-size:11pt;">growing scientific interest</a><span style="font-size:11pt;"> as </span><a href="https://www.sparkclimate.org/article/the-atmospheric-methane-challenge" style="font-size:11pt;">atmospheric methane levels</a><span style="font-size:11pt;"> continue to rise, the threat of growing natural systems emissions becomes better understood, and early approach research suggests the potential feasibility of large-scale approaches. With a </span><a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/atmospheric-methane-removal-development-of-a-research-agenda" style="font-size:11pt;">National Academies of Sciences study</a><span style="font-size:11pt;"> coming out later this year focused on the field, it’s a critical period to steward the development of the field to ensure it grows responsibly, including with increased scientific research, appropriate governance, and engagement across stakeholders, rightsholders, policymakers, and other organizations. Methane removal is not a replacement for methane or any other greenhouse gas emissions reductions, which are crucial.</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:10.5pt;">Spark seeks a Program Director for the </span><a href="https://www.sparkclimate.org/methane-removal/home" style="font-size:10.5pt;">Methane Removal Program</a><span style="font-size:10.5pt;"> to advance this new field. Responsibilities of the role include developing and executing on strategic roadmaps to responsibly grow and steward the field, managing the internal team, growing the community needed to advance policy-relevant scientific and social understanding of potential scalable, effective, and safe methane removal approaches, and directing funding to support the advancement of science and policy. This position is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in defining and shaping a new climate field. This role will be highly interdisciplinary, taking science, engineering, talent development, society, economics, and policy into account to advance the field across every dimension. Spark is looking for a candidate who is deeply motivated by climate action and is excited to deeply engage with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders and rights holders to change what’s possible for climate action.</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:10.5pt;">As illustrative examples, some of the past and current projects on the team that you’d be managing include: design, development, and implementation of a </span><a href="https://www.sparkclimate.org/methane-removal/funding-opportunities" style="font-size:10.5pt;">scientific grants program</a><span style="font-size:10.5pt;"> to accelerate research and grow the research community; development of strategic content and material, educating a diversity of audiences to build awareness and support for the emerging field; engagement with policymakers on opportunities for high impact public research funding; collaboration with cross-organizational colleagues on legal- and governance-related workstreams; organization of research workshops, conference sessions, and other research community-building efforts.</span></div><br><br><h3>Responsibilities</h3><ul><li>Own and drive a strategy that supports the healthy development of the methane removal field as part of a larger climate solution ecosystem, with robust science, social license, responsible governance, and appropriate funding</li><li>Drive strategic and collaborative efforts in field building, including spinning up new programs internal to Spark, partnering with other organizations, and potentially seeding new organizations where needed</li><li>Lead and manage a small team to research and author roadmaps for the overall solutions ecosystems, including well-researched and supported recommendations for RD&amp;D topics, policy changes, and public communication efforts</li><li>Build relationships with science, policy, and philanthropic partners to collaborate on roadmaps, research agendas, and granting opportunities</li><li>Serve as a subject matter expert with other organizations and funders getting involved in the space</li><li>Partner with Spark leadership to raise additional funding for the overall program, regranting, and any special initiatives</li><li>Identify key adjacent areas to support in order to most comprehensively address under-resourced, high-leverage approaches to near-term warming mitigation, and natural systems feedback avoidance and response</li></ul><h3>Qualifications</h3><ul><li><b>Scientific expertise</b> — can quickly learn new scientific and technical topics to guide programmatic work, with high humility and clear communication about where their expertise starts and ends. Comfortable working with scientific material and collaborating with leading scientists in a given field.</li><li><b>Strategic, flexible systems-thinker </b>— has deep respect for, and understands how various disciplines all fit together to support field development. Can identify cross-cutting and high-impact strategic priorities within a shifting field landscape. Can dig into the details of a specific science or policy proposal and zoom out to the big picture to see what’s missing in a field, moving comfortably among fundamental science, technological potentials/limits, and broader social and policy implications</li><li><b>Team and field leader </b>— has experience supporting the development of a small team, while accelerating the overall output of a team, supporting strategic decision-making and execution, building team culture, and maintaining a high bar for output. Is ready to expand the “hometeam” to a field of colleagues and collaborators outside of any single organization.</li><li><b>Climate impact-motivated</b> — strong climate mitigation motivation and understanding of the climate system and climate action to motivate work in the field. Can tie individual pieces of work to programmatic, field, and overall climate action progress. </li><li><b>Approach-agnostic innovation-minded</b> — follows science and guiding principles for approach development to support research across different possible approach categories. Takes an innovation-forward view of the space to see where there might be high-potential opportunities and “big bets,” understanding not all of these will succeed.</li><li><b>Excellent communicator</b> — strong written, speaking/presentation, and interpersonal communication skills and adept at communicating complex concepts (including technical ones) to various audiences </li><li><b>High bar for work quality </b>— can produce high-caliber work, and work with team to do the same.</li><li><b>Empathetic teammate</b> — Consistent track record of working collaboratively, effectively, and efficiently in ways that prioritize and center empathy and equity</li><li>7+ years of combined professional experience, including 4+ outside of graduate work</li><li>3+ years of program and/or people management experience</li></ul><h3>Preferred Attributes</h3><ul><li>PhD in natural sciences (climate science, atmospheric chemistry, biogeochemistry, Earth science, biology, physics, chemistry, or related field)</li><li>Experience determining strategic funding priorities and allocating large budgets towards frontier technologies (such as at philanthropies, VCs, or government grant programs like NSF, NASA, DARPA, or ARPA-E) </li><li>First-hand experience building/scaling real-world technology, businesses, and/or programs</li><li>Proven understanding of climate action and how other climate solution spaces have been shaped, particularly in new and complex areas</li><li>Strong understanding of the broad climate space across many dimensions (technical, scientific, social, political, financial, etc.) in order to contextualize and advance this new field appropriately and impactfully.</li></ul><h3>Eligibility</h3><ul><li>Able to work as a W2 employee for a US non-profit</li><li>At least 4 overlapping work hours with US Pacific time work day (9am-5pm PT)</li><div><br></div><div>We encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply, regardless of whether you feel you meet 100% of the qualifications. The top candidates will bring their own unique perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds from a variety of industries along with many but not necessarily all the skills listed above.</div></ul><br><div><b style="font-size:10.5pt;">Location</b></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:10.5pt;">As with all positions at Spark Climate Solutions, this will be 100% remote. Employees can work anywhere within the United States, or internationally with approval.</span></div><div><br></div><div><b style="font-size:10.5pt;">Compensation</b></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:10.5pt;">This is a all full-time positions with benefits. The salary range is $150,000-$200,000 / year.  In addition, Spark Climate Solutions provides exceptional benefits including flexible PTO, sick time, holidays, a 401-k match, generous health insurance coverage, and full-covered dental/vision/life insurance, and parental leave</span></div>

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