Manager, Northeast Forage Fish Conservation — Washington, D.C.

Organization: Pew Charitable Trusts – Pew Environment Group

Job Title: Manager, Northeast Forage Fish Conservation

Location: Washington, D.C.

Hours and Compensation: Full Time (term position) —

Application Deadline: open until filled

Position Dates: ASAP — Term position funded through Sep. 30, 2013 (possible extension)

Posted On: Sep. 18, 2012

Organization Overview

The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today’s most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.

The mission of the Pew Environment Group is to promote policies and practices that protect the global environment, preserve healthy forests and marine ecosystems. For the past two decades, the Environment group has been a major force in driving conservation policy in the United States, and increasingly internationally. The group’s work is focused on reducing the scope and severity of three major global environmental problems:

• Transition to a clean energy economy from one based primarily on the burning of fossil fuels;
• The erosion of large wilderness ecosystems that contain a great part of the world’s remaining biodiversity; and,
• The destruction of the world’s marine environment, with a particular emphasis on global fisheries.

Description

Conserving abundant populations of forage species is necessary to ensure the long-term health and productivity of marine ecosystems.  Accordingly, the campaign will promote a precautionary, ecosystem-based approach to the management of northeastern U.S. forage species. 

The Manager reports to the Director, Northeast Fisheries Campaigns and is located in Pew’s offices in Washington, DC. The Mid-Atlantic Manager will work with the Director, Northeast Fisheries Campaigns to design and implement coalition building, public education and communications strategies to advance Pew’s Mid-Atlantic forage fish conservation work. It is expected that this position is for a term period through September 30, 2013, with the possibility of an extension pending the success of the program, funding sources and board decisions on continued support.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of the Mid-Atlantic fisheries campaign plans.  Working with the director Northeast fisheries campaigns and other fisheries campaign managers, develop effective campaign plans capable of delivering the goals of the Northeast fisheries campaigns.
• Oversee and manage the Mid-Atlantic fisheries campaigns, including all campaign staff and contractors. In cooperation with other fisheries managers, identify and set measurable intermediate goals and targets; develop timelines; assess the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign plans and modify them as necessary; build and maintain working relationships with potential collaborators; determining when the project is at risk of not meeting its goals, identifying the causes and, when needed, taking appropriate steps to fix the problem in ways that keep the project on course.
• Expand the existing Northeast forage fish coalition. Establish, foster and manage cooperative working relationships with a broad cross section of stakeholders, conservation organizations, commercial and recreational fishing interests, coastal businesses, and government officials to achieve the project goals.
• Liaise and build strong working relationships with the federal fisheries campaign, the forage fish conservation initiative campaigns in the Southeast and Pacific, and the New England overfishing campaign.
• Identify and exploit opportunities to advance the goals of the forage fish conservation initiative and ecosystem based fishery management through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
• Report on project progress. Supervise and prepare oral and written reports as needed.  Collaborate and provide regular updates on progress and issues to project director and other PEG and PCT managers and directors as requested.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in public affairs, public policy or environmental science or equivalent experience strongly preferred.
• Minimum of eight years of professional experience in natural resource related political/public policy work, including significant experience managing advocacy campaigns required. Specific experience with fisheries issues is preferred.
• Able to set short- and long-term planning goals in line with program strategy. A task-oriented style, with focus on achieving clear and ambitious goals. Demonstrated ability to meet multiple deadlines by maintaining a high level of organization. Able to develop and move projects forward with a high degree of independence and autonomy.
• Superior oral and written communications skills. Able to synthesize material and to focus quickly on the essence of an issue and the means to address it. Confident in presenting one’s own ideas and diplomatically persuading others as appropriate.  Ability to communicate complex ideas for a general audience.
• Strong interpersonal skills; able to develop and manage productive relationships with consultants, partners and others who contribute to the development of a project by anticipating possible outcomes. 
• Able to work productively with a wide array of different people and institutions that frequently disagree with and are in competition with one another.
• Excellent analytic and problem solving skills, and highly results-oriented.
• Seasoned judgment, able to make decisions, justify recommendations, and be responsive, clear and firm with colleagues and partners.
• Knowledge of U.S. fisheries management preferred.

How to Apply

For immediate consideration, please visit the Careers@Pew section of the website www.pewtrusts.org to learn more about the organization review the complete job description and apply online at https://jobs-pct.icims.com/jobs/3142/job