Program Director – Position Description

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How to Apply: 

Use the link above to submit an application, including a resume and cover letter. In the cover letter, please:

• Explain what excites you about this shared program director model and working as staff at IEJ. 
• Identify and share examples of your three (minimum) areas of demonstrated strength from the team-wide qualifications section. While you may list all of the areas you are skilled at, we are interested in authentic elaborations – for example distinguishing your most advanced strengths from other secondary strengths – so that we can find a team of directors with complementary skills.
• Please indicate any affiliations or experiences working with frontline environmental justice communities.

More About the Program Director Position

Essential duties:

• Serve as part of IEJ’s senior leadership team
• Build trust and strategic relationships in Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, and other communities across the United States and its colonial territories that are being harmed by racist policies and practices
• Advance research including participatory research on energy topics in the US especially highlighting legal, regulatory, or investment choices that have produced racial inequalities present today
• Support a range of collaborations among energy professionals, including with local community-based organizations, large nonprofits, academics, and policymakers
• Work with state community leaders to co-create policy guidance that focuses on just and transformative solutions centering people of color, women, and frontline communities

Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning:

Co-facilitate IEJ’s strategic planning processes (annual and three-year) with IEJ’s Executive Director and other Program Directors

• Co-develop and periodically iterate an overall strategic plan for IEJ based on dialogue, research, and deliberations with internal and external stakeholders
• Collaborate in translating strategic plans into grant proposals, program roadmaps, and staff workplans

Programs:

Co-lead IEJ’s program areas (currently research, engagement, and leadership development) in coordination with other Program Directors

• Research and writing – co-coordinate IEJ’s policy research and resource development overall; lead at least one focus area as determined collaboratively with other directors (potentially regarding utility justice, local solar equity, or equitable 100% clean energy) – including: identifying policy issues; conducting research, consultations, and analysis; and publishing energy justice policy research via peer-reviewed journals and/or IEJ’s self-published resources (e.g., reports, policy briefs, scorecards, model policies, etc.)
• Community engagement – participate in various energy justice coalitions and networks; build, sustain, and honor relationships with partners and community members; facilitate trainings, workshops, and convenings to build energy justice capacity in the field (i.e., for community advocates & policymakers) and to inform IEJ’s research and resources
• Leadership development and staff management – lead IEJ’s regional, place-based fellowship program to develop energy justice professionals and build capacity on the ground

Operations:

Support IEJ’s Executive Director in organizational leadership and management on operational matters (finance, culture, and communications)

• Including support with core organizational systems, policies, and practices — such as in recruitment, hiring, goal-setting, and training

Required Qualifications:

• Experience working with frontline environmental justice communities
• Demonstrated track record of advancing racial and economic justice in a diverse range of energy policies with a combination of research, mentorship, and facilitative leadership
• Strong writing and communication skills
• Bachelor’s degree with five or more years working in the field of energy policy or social justice policy OR graduate degree (e.g., JD, MPP, MBA, MS, or PhD) with three or more years working in the field of energy policy or social justice policy
• Demonstrated strength in a minimum of 3 of the following 9 areas to complement other Program Directors and holistically share leadership of IEJ’s programs. 
  • Area of practice:
    • 1) Research – well-versed in research, thought leadership, writing reports, and publishing
    • 2) Engagement – coalition-oriented and experienced in engaging directly with community members, social justice organizations, and frontline networks, assemblies, coalitions, etc. 
    • 3) Regulation – experienced in regulatory engagement with public utility commissions (preferred) or legislative advocacy
  • Organizational development strengths: 
    • 4) Education – skilled in giving trainings, webinars, creative/alternative communications, or other methods of advancing knowledge and building stakeholder capacity
    • 5) People management – skilled in establishing organizational culture; supervising and mentoring young professionals
    • 6) Project management – skilled in implementation, project plans, work plans
  • Subject-matter expertise:
    • 7) Utility-Scale Energy Equity – substantial expertise in electric utility power, including current challenges, research, and models for advancing social equity in state-wide utility-scale renewable energy policy (e.g., renewable portfolio standards, clean energy standards, and 100% clean energy policies)
    • 8) Local Solar Equity – advanced knowledge in equitable local solar (rooftop/community solar), including at minimum, a basic understanding of the current debate around equity in net energy metering policy
    • 9) Justice – substantial expertise in concepts of justice, equity, inclusion, systems of oppression, and marginalization; including theory, frameworks, and facilitating participatory dialogue on these issues

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience in providing equity analysis in the energy and climate policy space
• Deep understanding of state energy policy and relevant literature on energy justice, climate justice, and environmental justice
• Experience working with policymakers on the technical aspects of policy evaluation and design
• Experience presenting policy analysis and recommendations
• Written and spoken Spanish

About the Initiative for Energy Justice

The Initiative for Energy Justice (IEJ) envisions a transition across all U.S. states and territories to true energy justice – ensuring energy is accessible, affordable, clean, and democratically managed for all communities, while also remediating past social, economic, and health burdens on those disproportionately harmed by the current energy system.

Virtually housed at Northeastern University School of Law, IEJ was founded by lawyers entrenched in the policy debates concerning the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels and an extractive economy towards an equitable and renewable energy future, with direct connections to communities working on that transition.

IEJ aims to contribute to a bottom-up movement of energy justice, originating in frontline communities, by arming movement and base-building organizations in environmental, racial, and economic justice spaces with well-supported policy research and workable models for operationalizing a just transition to renewable energy. IEJ also intends to provide city and state policymakers with concrete energy policy frameworks and best-practice tools that foreground equity in the transition to renewable energy, drawing on the best-available data collected from frontline advocates and existing energy policies.

IEJ currently aims to deploy three complementary strategies through its programs:

1. Research and Resource Development: Develop a range of resources for policy advocates and policymakers by conducting novel research on 100% Renewable Energy, Utility Structures, Community Solar, Rooftop Solar, and Access to Energy
2. Engagement and Capacity-Building: Collaborate with stakeholders to design and apply IEJ research, resources, and model policies
3. Leadership Development: Build the field of energy justice professionals and leaders

Learn more about the Initiative for Energy Justice’s vision, strategies, objectives, and activities.

IEJ’s culture and benefits:

• Our core values are voice, inclusion, and equity. The unique voices of frontline communities and communities of color must be included in the transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy. And equity must form the core of this transition, given the burdens borne by frontline communities under the energy system. 
• We strive to cultivate a workplace culture of joy, collaboration, thoughtfulness, and growth. We recognize that work to dismantle inequities and advance justice can be draining, complex, and involve facing past trauma. Yet by embracing hope, collective care, and recognizing our intertwined journeys for liberation, we aim to find joy and meaning by working together to advance energy justice.
• Salary: the salary for each Program Director will be in the range of $105,000 to $125,000+ depending on experience. 
• Benefits include health benefits, paid time off, retirement benefits, wellness and more. More at https://hr.northeastern.edu/benefits/. 

Additional information:

Location: Remote within United States

The Initiative for Energy Justice is housed at Northeastern University School of Law. Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. Our world-renowned experiential approach empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create impact far beyond the confines of discipline, degree, and campus.

Northeastern University is an equal opportunity employer, seeking to recruit and support a broadly diverse community of faculty and staff. Northeastern values and celebrates diversity in all its forms and strives to foster an inclusive culture built on respect that affirms inter-group relations and builds cohesion.

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

To learn more about Northeastern University’s commitment and support of diversity and inclusion, please see www.northeastern.edu/diversity.

How to Apply: 

Use the link below to submit an application, including a resume and cover letter. In the cover letter, please:

• Explain what excites you about this shared program director model and working as staff at IEJ. 
• Identify and share examples of your three (minimum) areas of demonstrated strength from the team-wide qualifications section. While you may list all of the areas you are skilled at, we are interested in authentic elaborations – for example distinguishing your most advanced strengths from other secondary strengths – so that we can find a team of directors with complementary skills.
• Please indicate any affiliations or experiences working with frontline environmental justice communities.

Please email hello@iejusa.org with any questions. 

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