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1 Apr 2022

Full-Time Senior Advisor to the CPO/EVP

CERES – Posted by [email protected] Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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Job Description

Senior Advisor to the CPO/EVP

Location: Boston or Remote

Organization

Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit organization leading the most influential investors and companies to build leadership and drive solutions throughout the economy. Through powerful networks and advocacy, Ceres tackles the world’s biggest sustainability challenges, including climate change, water scarcity and pollution, and human rights abuses.

For more information about Ceres, please visit our website (www.ceres.org).

Description & Responsibilities

The Senior Advisor supports and reports to Ceres’ Chief Program Officer and Executive Vice President.  The role is designed to allow the CPO/EVP to be as efficient and effective as possible in advancing Ceres’ program development, program management, and strategic plan.  This position will be responsible for overseeing, planning, and implementing special projects, retreats and meetings: elevating issues to the CPO/EVP that need to be resolved; and recommending and implementing approaches to address programmatic priorities and solve problems.   The Senior Advisor will supervise other members of the CPO/EVP’s team, ensuring their success and following up related to the EVP/CPO’s meetings and commitments, including but not limited to scheduling meetings, organizing travel, filing and submitting expense reports and other duties as assigned.

This role serves to help the EVP/CPO manage and nurture relationships with the members of Ceres Program Management Team (PMT), the Leadership Team (LT), and staff members across Ceres. They will be responsible for coordinating closely with the Senior Advisor to the CEO/President to ensure communication and decision making is moving forward with the Executive Team as needed. They will work to closely coordinate the alignment of issues associated with budgeting, fundraising and program opportunities so that they can respond in a timely and thoughtful manner and that decisions can be made consistent with the organization’s decision-making matrix (RAPID). The Senior Advisor will also ensure the CPO/EVP’s external communications, meeting agendas, and briefing materials are of the highest quality.

The Senior Advisor will be in daily contact with the CPO/EVP in order to effectively manage the rapid flow of work, organizational announcements and programmatic events that occur daily. The position will also be expected to help manage several projects and requests as delegated throughout the day, spanning multiple issues across Ceres teams, and will need to toggle between the EVP/CPO’s big picture goals, long-term programmatic priorities and time sensitive daily details.

This is a full-time position that will report to the EVP/CPO.  The primary duties of the Senior Advisor, include:

  • Staff the PMT and LT meetings to ensure that agendas are developed in a timely manner to advance strategic goals.  Ensure that a record of decisions and next steps are clearly captured by notetakers, effectively maintained, implemented and waterfalled to the rest of the organization.
  • Direct the Executive Assistant to effectively schedule, plan and manage the bi-weekly Ceres Staff Updates meetings as a mechanism for information sharing and team building.
  • Supervise Executive Assistant including hiring and training, conducting regular one-on-one meetings and semi-annual reviews, providing guidance and support with professional development.
  • Oversee the scheduling of the EVP/CPO calendar by providing guidance and direction to the Executive Assistant and manage effort to prioritize key meetings, events, external opportunities.
  • Efficiently utilize the Program Management Team and Leadership Team meetings to ensure effective integration across teams, as well as regular, brainstorming, problem solving and review and refresh of program tactics, strategies and goals.
  • Oversee the implementation of Ceres’ Strategic Organizational Plan and manage the Strategic Plan Implementation Team, including chairing team meetings, setting agenda’s, managing tracking systems, ensuring follow-up and project assignments as identified.
  • Serve as a vital resource to the EVP/CPO to track, keep abreast of, and pursue new ideas and opportunities; help promote solutions across teams to address challenges and opportunities including pattern recognition, prioritization, bundling, communication with internal and external stakeholders;
  • Partner with EVP/CPO to develop and implement PMT priorities, drive implementation including regular reviews of decisions and ensure incorporation of impact assessments in development of campaigns, program work, tactics and strategies.
  • Partner with the Innovation and Evaluation Team on new program development, risk assessment, and external partnership management and bring issues to the PMT.
  • Ensure that consistent and high-quality briefing materials and other content is prepared by staff for all meetings, presentations and projects, including effective preparation for interviews, meetings and events and daily briefing book/materials.
  • Effectively manage and ensure timely follow up from all critical meetings both internal and external.
  • Work collaboratively with Ceres staff to ensure the successful implementation of PMT decisions and EVP/CPO requests.
  • Help support the regular review of systems, and design new strategies as necessary, to ensure efficient management of Ceres policy, company and investor members to ensure that Ceres is effectively leveraging these assets.
  • Work with the Foundations Team to stay abreast of funding trends, reset priorities as needed, and ensure that PMT guidance and recommendations are incorporated in grant proposals and reports.
  • Work closely with the Communications and Marketing team to ensure strategic messaging to support strong positioning of Ceres priorities, expertise and experience.
  • Regularly review recommendations and ensure PMT approval of recommendations from the Reports Vetting Committee.

Qualifications
We understand that there are many paths to acquiring expertise and experience and therefore welcome candidates from diverse and nontraditional backgrounds for this role who have demonstrated equivalent transferable skills to carry out the major duties outlined in this job description, including the following required skills:

  • At least 10 years in a role with similar management and supervisory responsibilities and requirements;
  • Experience or education in nonprofit management, matrix management, strategic planning, and familiarity with Ceres theory of change;
  • Ability to juggle multiple projects and a can-do attitude with an understanding that no task is nether too complicated nor too basic to address;
  • Experience cultivating effective and productive supervisory relationships with direct reports across gender identity, race, ethnicity, and socio-economic backgrounds.
  • Passionate understanding of the importance and necessity of building a strong platform/infrastructure to support program growth with desire to be as resourceful as possible in all approaches to implementing solutions;
  • Well-organized with strong project management skills and proven experience in connecting people and projects across functional areas;
  • Demonstrated experience as an effective verbal and written communicator;
  • Ability to process diverse sets of information at high speed, quickly make decisions and execute;
  • Ability to simultaneously juggle multiple priorities at any one time and experience or ability to work in a fast-paced environment required; and
  • Effective collaborator and ability to perform all duties appropriately in a multicultural environment, while treating all persons with dignity and respect and experience being flexible, efficient, and diplomatic with diverse constituent groups.
  • And a strong preference will be shown for candidates with:
  • Experience managing diverse teams, including gender identity, people of color, and people from various socio-economic backgrounds, and supporting an inclusive workplace;
  • A commitment to working in a mission-driven organization with a strong level of curiosity to understand what is going on in the organization in order to make sound recommendations and choices about how the EVP/CPO should prioritize her time and energy;
  • Strong emotional intelligence, an ability to lead with empathy and inquiry, experience developing trusting relationships with colleagues, and an ability to manage confidential information;
  • Proven experience and comfort using technology (computers, audio/visual systems) and proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Google Suite (calendar, docs, and mail), and CRM systems such as Salesforce; and
  • Interest in being part of a diverse workforce and willingness to support Ceres’ Commitment to Inclusion and Equity.

Compensation: The hiring salary is $107,000 to $110,000 and pairs with competitive benefits.   

How to Apply

  • How to Apply: We encourage all applicants to review our website to familiarize themselves with Ceres before applying: www.ceres.org.  Please submit a resume, cover letter, and a list of three references through our online application system, which you can find by clicking here.
  • Ceres is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.  We strongly encourage applications from people of color, including bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.  We do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, military or veteran status, disability, or any factors prohibited by applicable law.

Job Categories: Environmental. Job Types: Full-Time. Job Tags: executive. Salaries: 100,000 and above.

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