WRA’s an employee-owned environmental consultancy. We are a tenacious team of planners, engineers, and scientists, and we aim to leave the lands we love better than we found them.

Our clients and partners hire us because we’re skilled at navigating through challenging projects involving wildlands, parks, community spaces, and infrastructure. We bring over four decades of expertise, long-standing relationships, and connections to our local communities to make sure that projects are pursued in responsible ways where both people and the environment thrive.

As an organization, we believe that independence and interdependence are not mutually exclusive. We invest in systems, processes, and employee programs to support our staff’s collective engagement and success. At the same time, we encourage our employees to operate with an ownership mindset, taking responsibility for outcomes and being true to our commitments.

The Community Resilience Director will be responsible for managing WRA’s climate adaptation and resilience service line. This includes overseeing the WRA Resiliency Team, the Community Resilience projects, and expanding our capacity and reach, particularly for clients and communities around the San Francisco Bay Area and North Coast of California.

The Community Resilience Director will be the leading member of our multidisciplinary team conducting capacity building assignments that build community resilience and protect ecosystem services on local and regional scales. The Community Resilience services specifically include:

Grant Cultivation, Project Development, & Technical Writing
Grant Administration & Program Management
Community Engagement & Planning, Outreach & Education
Policy Analysis, Management Planning

The Community Resilience Director will broaden the team’s impact by co-leading business development opportunities; supporting WRA’s larger, interdisciplinary resiliency work that extends beyond the core resiliency team; and co-championing efforts to embed climate adaptation and resilience throughout WRA projects across the company.

The Community Resilience team manages:

Community outreach and education opportunities with key partners, community stakeholders, and the public regarding local policy and priority plans and matters.
Grant funding opportunities and grant cultivation and administration efforts for new and existing clients.
Technical writing in support of municipal plans, such as Climate Action Plans (CAPs) and Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs)
Coordination with our conservation finance experts on public-private partnerships and financing mechanisms for municipalities.

As part of the team, the Community Resilience Director will also engage with clients including local, state and federal agencies, special districts, tribal governments, non-profit organizations, and private landowners. The Community Resilience Director will guide staff working on complex projects, some which may be highly political and visible, with many participating partners.

In this role the Community Resilience Director may choose to work in person or on a hybrid schedule. The ideal candidate will need to be within commuting distance to one of our 3 Northern California offices (San Rafael, Petaluma, and Emeryville), to facilitate outreach and field visits.

In this role, you will have 3 major areas of impact:

Increase our Impact and Industry Presence - Help grow a successful climate adaptation and resilience practice within a well respected company.
Technical Expertise and Strategic Input - Provide technical expertise and strategic input to the development and implementation of complex and impactful restoration and resiliency projects throughout the state.
Mentorship - Be an engaged mentor to a committed team of planners who are passionate about community resilience.

Core areas of responsibilities will include:

Collaborate with a team of planners with a strong passion for creating more resilient communities in the face of a changing climate;
Support the development and implementation of the team Marketing Plan;
Work with Operations and Marketing teams to ensure healthy project backlog;
Work with Project Managers to ensure team-led projects are on budget, schedule,

and that accounts payable (A/R) and Work In Progress are at healthy levels.

Play the role of Principal-in-Charge and Project Manager on appropriate projects
Provide technical expertise in the field of climate adaptation, wildfire prevention, and community-scale resilience planning;
Ensure team members receive appropriate training and mentoring to advance their

professional careers

Oversee community resilience planners on project work
Client-facing project work (e.g. conducting studies, research, planning and outreach, technical writing such as plans and grants, and grant administration)
Client outreach, business development, and marketing activities to identify and land new project opportunities
Project management, staff supervision and cross-team coordination
Staying current on latest trends, research and developments regarding both community resilience and climate adaptation.

Requirements:

A Bachelor's degree in environmental studies, environmental science, sustainability, planning, public policy, or a related discipline.
A minimum of 15 years of professional experience in a related field, some in the public sector.
Proven experience with community resilience programs regarding wildfire, sea level rise, drought, floods, etc.
Experience drafting climate action plans, hazard mitigation plans, hazard fuel reduction plans, vegetation management plans, etc.
Experience researching and designing funding mechanisms to create sustainable funding for resilience efforts at local government level.
Knowledge of federal and state policies, regulations and funding programs related to climate change, wildfire, drought and flood disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation.
Experience administering multi-million dollar grant funds.
Training and/or professional experience with land use plans and policies as well as general environmental regulations including CEQA and NEPA.
Experience managing a team and providing mentorship to more junior staff.
Experience working within governmental agencies and an understanding of policy implementation, rulemaking, and decision-making processes.
Experience and relationships in the Bay Area (including Sonoma, Marin, and Napa Counties) preferred.
The ability to think and operate expansively without losing track of the smaller albeit important details
Ability to work in a team environment

WRA has an established internal leveling system for our staff that maps to salary bands that have been informed by market data. Our leveling system is dependent on years of relevant industry experience, education, and the level of responsibility and autonomy at which you’re expected to operate.

We have posted a salary range that corresponds to the appropriate level for this position. In your first conversation with our recruiter, we will discuss leveling and compensation with you to make sure that our expectations are aligned.

*The salary range for this position is $150,000-$180,000 depending on experience.

Who are we?

WRA’s company vision is “cultivating a sustainable future where people and the environment thrive” and that starts with our staff. We are committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment, and we have developed flexible policies, internal practices, and are investing in programs that prioritize learning and sustainability. We aim to create conditions that allow employees to prioritize their families, lead healthy and balanced lives, and to bring their authentic selves to work every day. We believe that by creating an exceptional workplace, our employees will be able to do their best work and be able to meaningfully contribute to the sustainability of the environment and the communities in which we live.

WRA is an equal opportunity employer, and we are committed to creating a diverse environment. We recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law.

WRA Inc.

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Community Resilience Director