The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) is seeking a Program Manager (PM) to co-lead a Nutrient Management Strategy as part of our Clean Water Program.

This work has major implications for nutrient management in the Bay. It will influence the region’s 37 wastewater treatment agencies in both the immediate and extended future, and will directly inform multi-billion-dollar investments in wastewater treatment.

The primary role will be to provide co-management oversight for a team investigating nutrient biogeochemistry, ecosystem function, and water quality in San Francisco Bay (SFB) as part of the SFB Nutrient Management Strategy (NMS). The NMS science program, based at SFEI, is a multi-year science program studying the impacts of nutrient loads to SFB and evaluating potential management options.  The NMS is a collaborative initiative comprised of stakeholders representing regulators and the regulated community. It operates under a chartered governance structure to set NMS science priorities.

This team, comprised of SFEI staff and regional collaborators, pursues NMS research priorities through a range of approaches, including long-term monitoring (ship-based and moored sensors), targeted field studies, data analysis and synthesis, and numerical modeling. Key NMS stakeholders include the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board), which is the regulatory agency responsible for water quality management in the region, and the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies (BACWA), a joint powers agency whose members are the municipal wastewater agencies in the region, as well as the US EPA, S.F. Baykeeper, and other state and federal agencies.

The Program Manager is responsible for overall NMS program management (75%), and provides management support for ongoing and new science projects (25%). The PM will work closely with the Lead Scientist of the NMS who directs the program’s scientific research program.

The PM will have the primary role in managing the overall operations—including the budget, schedule, and quality management. The duties, detailed on the follow pages, include:

• Stakeholder engagement and program development;  Integrating stakeholder input into multi-year science planning;  Strategic planning;  Budget development and tracking of all deliverables to ensure they are completed on schedule;    Reporting to Regional Water Board, BACWA, and other entities. 

Typical duties will include:

Program Oversight and Management

• Developing and implementing program and project tracking systems so deliverables are produced on time and on budget.   Supervising senior science staff, leading and motivating project team members, facilitating team meetings.  Tracking various incoming budget streams, including percent spent and percent complete, identifying variances, analyzing the causes of discrepancies, reporting findings to relevant stakeholders, proposing corrective actions to stay within budget parameters, and updating budget tracking systems with new financial data. Communicating expenditures and revenue through meetings, emails, and written annual reports to explain how funds were spent and what was accomplished.  Recalibrating project and program elements when necessary due to challenges encountered by the team, new information, or external factors (such as onset of a new algae bloom, etc.), to maintain budget and schedule. Manage changes to project scope and communicating to stakeholders about changing deadlines with rationale for change and proposing new timelines.

Stakeholder engagement 

• Reporting on program and project progress to the NMS Steering Committee and Planning Subcommittee.  Providing written and verbal updates to the Steering Committee members at all Steering Committee meetings. Facilitating NMS Steering Committee and stakeholder meetings.  Presenting synthesized information and recommendations on science direction to inform management questions. Co-developing detailed yearly workplans with the NMS Steering Committee.  Proactively addressing concerns and resolving external conflicts with stakeholders.

Communication and Reporting 

• Communication, including development of a yearly update report on important findings and how findings inform management questions, and communication on the direction and priorities of the program to stakeholders and report on dollars spent. Distilling complex science research into simplified verbal and written communication materials. Delivering program updates and high-level science product updates to the Regional Water Board, BACWA, and other entities on a frequent basis.

Fundraising 

• Coordinating grant writing as needed.

If you are excited about this role, but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this, or one of our other roles.

Qualifications Required Skills and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree (minimum) in environmental science or environmental engineering and a minimum of 15 years of relevant work experience. Relevant backgrounds or areas of expertise for technical contributions could include a combination of: environmental engineering, regulation and permitting, watershed management, nutrient loading and dynamics.     7-10 years of work experience in relevant external project and program management areas, including stakeholder governance and communication; building and maintaining scientific collaborations; developing strategic programmatic goals and priorities; and holding teams accountable for deadlines and deliverables. Work experience in relevant internal project and program management areas, including being responsible for implementing strategic programmatic goals, overseeing scientific teams on complex environmental projects, supervising staff, overseeing deliverables tracking, and work flow planning. 5-10 years of work experience developing and managing budgets, and creating quarterly and annual expenditure summaries for projects showing amount and percent spent compared to percent complete of project  Excellent written and oral communication skills. Experience communicating complex scientific information to a broad range of audiences, ability to understand key messages, and translate those to others. Team player who inspires staff and is enthusiastic about SFEI’s mandate of providing science to inform decisions.