Senior Director, Climate

Position summary:

The Global Programs department is responsible for supporting Rainforest Alliance's strategy through global initiatives, regional projects, and partnerships. It ensures consistent programmatic design and delivers services in a synergistic manner. The Senior Director, Climate, leads all aspects of the Climate unit within the Global Programs department, activating the full potential of the organization's climate work.

This role provides strategic direction, strengthen Rainforest Alliance’s positioning as a thought leader, and ensures that climate programs and solutions are data-driven, producer-centric and responsive to partner and market needs. The Senior Director ensures effective collaboration across Rainforest Alliance departments and is committed to providing clear direction and supporting teams in driving impact. The Senior Director contributes to a data-driven and conscientious culture by defining clear priorities and enabling creative solutions to complex problems. Identifying critical cross-departmental and external alliance growth opportunities and having the expertise and communication style to positively influence these collaborations are key to the success of this role.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the Climate unit and ensure delivery of high-quality climate services and solutions, in close collaboration with the Senior Director Global Programs and team members;
• Drive the organization’s 2030 Strategy on climate, ensuring speed, scale and simplification in program design, implementation and impact creation;
• Measure, report, and communicate Rainforest Alliance’s climate impact to stakeholders and partners, ensuring robust data collection and analysis to support fundraising and strategic engagement;
• Develop and promote climate solutions that address market needs of corporate partners, and strengthen Rainforest Alliance’s positioning in the global climate space.
• Represent Rainforest Alliance as a thought leader at key forums, coalitions, working groups, and industry roundtables;
• Provide thought leadership and programmatic expertise in proposal development, select program implementation, and integration of climate work into data and technology platforms;
• Ensure consistency, coordination, accountability, and continuous learning across expertise areas, ensuring Rainforest Alliance’s broader interests are prioritized.
• Guide program design and implementation using research, evidence, and stakeholder feedback and to deliver data-driven, and impactful climate interventions;
• Cultivate a collaborative and inclusive culture, ensuring cross-functional synergies and embedding continuous learning and simplification in processes;
• Embed a producer-centric approach across climate programs and initiatives, ensuring farmer needs are at the core of design and implementation;
• Supervise staff in accordance with the organization’s policies, laws, and corporate behavioural framework including hiring, mentoring and evaluating, performance evaluation, and professional development
• Other duties, as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Climate Change, Natural Resource Management, Environmental policy, or Sustainability-related field AND a minimum of 12 years' work experience in climate change or corporate sustainability.
• Proven expertise in climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience strategies, particularly in agricultural value chains.
• Strong knowledge and practical experience applying climate standards, guidance, and regulatory frameworks (e.g. SBTi, GHG Protocol LSRG, EU’s CSRD and CSDDD, EUDR, Canadian laws, UK laws and California’s laws), with emphasis on mitigation strategies in the forest, land and agriculture sectors.
• Experience or familiarity with carbon markets, credits and offsets, and GHG accounting methodologies for the forest, land and agriculture sectors.
• Demonstrated experience developing joint workstreams with or working within agribusiness companies on climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Knowledge and understanding of climate finance, and international and national climate policy, especially for the forest, land and agriculture sectors.
• Experience in the coffee, tea, or cocoa sectors (desired)
• Excellent communication skills, including English writing, editing and verbal communication; foreign language proficiency preferred (Spanish, French, Portuguese)
• Strong organizational and leadership skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a time-sensitive manner; adapt quickly in fast-paced environments, and maintain attention to detail.

Deadline: 28 November 2025

Salary: For USA based candidates only:

• National Salary range (Excluding NY and DC) - $106,322 - $151,887
• New York Salary Range - $115,796 - $165,422
• Washington DC Salary Range - $113,764 - $162,519

Notes: Only candidates legally authorized to work in locations where the Rainforest Alliance is registered will be considered.

If you have any questions about the job vacancy, please contact the HR department: recruitment@ra.org

The Rainforest Alliance encourages diversity and inclusion across the global organization. With this commitment to diversity, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, ages, disability and any other protected group.