Location: Remote position located in Southern California

Application Deadline: April 10th

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Tribal Partnerships Sr. Manager is a core member of The Wilderness Society’s Southern California Mountains Landscape Team. The Tribal Partnerships Sr. Manager plays a critical role in cultivating and maintaining relationships with a range of Native partners including activists, tribal officials and staff in order to help advance conservation outcomes and other shared goals that have been inclusively developed. A main focus of this position will be to work as an advocate between the Southern California Mountains Landscape program of The Wilderness Society (TWS) and Native Peoples within the region so that the rights, cultures, and traditions of first people are fully included and protected in our program efforts.

The Southern California Mountains landscape is made up of mountains, chaparral, and the rare Mediterranean climate (one of five areas in the world) stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Native American and Indigenous Peoples have stewarded this landscape since time immemorial, and it is the ancestral home of the Kumeyaay, Cahuilla, Serrano, Tongva, Kizh/Gabrieleño, Cumash, Payómkawichum, Acjachemen, and Tataviam people, among others. Today, 75% of this landscape is federally managed (2.8 million acres), primarily across four national forests –Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland. Situated within the California Floristic Province, a world biodiversity hotspot, the Southern California Mountains landscape is home to an abundant variety of plants and animals, now threatened by a changing climate.

The Wilderness Society recognizes Native American and Indigenous peoples as the longest serving stewards of the land. We respect their inherent sovereignty and self-determination and honor treaty rights, including reserved rights that exist off their reservations. We acknowledge the historic and ongoing injustices perpetrated against Indigenous peoples and are committed to being more conscientious and inclusive and working with Indigenous peoples to advance the establishment of trust and respect in our relationships. We seek the guidance of Native American and Indigenous peoples to effectively advocate for the protection of culturally significant lands and the preservation of language and culture. We strive to support actions that respect the priorities, traditional knowledge, interests and concerns of Native American and Indigenous peoples to ensure a more just and equitable future.

This position plays an important role in supporting an inclusive organizational culture at TWS that is grounded in trust and accountability to shared goals and outcomes. TWS has made diversity, equity, inclusion and justice strategic priorities for the organization and the Tribal Partnerships Sr. Manager will integrate these priorities throughout our California program work. Across our team, we aspire to be campaign oriented, nimble, collaborative, innovative, transparent, and supportive of staff – our greatest asset.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

· With the support of a cross functional team and in close coordination with partners, lead TWS’s Tribal Partnership efforts to design and secure long-term landscape scale protections and management that is more inclusive of Indigenous participation, rights, and traditional worldviews in the Southern California Mountains region.

· Contribute to the development and implementation of the Southern California Mountains Landscape Conservation Plan, consistent with TWS’s strategic goals.

· Develop and provide presentations and updates on the Southern CA Mountains Landscape progress and insights for variety of audiences (partners, funders, others).

· Establish and maintain key contacts with tribes and explore opportunities to co-create a network of Native partners interested in collaborative conservation efforts.

· Ensure reciprocity and respect with tribal partners and commit TWS to explore ways that increase the capacity of tribes in ways that fit with tribal priorities.

· Coordinate with regional conservation staff and the national focused Native Lands Partnerships Director to help provide coverage where needed, and to assist with Indigenous engagement, thinking, and outreach related to other elements of our California program work.

· Participate in TWS staff and coalition meetings as required.

· Assist with grant proposal and report writing and other fundraising efforts as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS

· Experience working with California Native people and communities with a solid understanding of California Native culture, traditions, tribal governments, and issues.

· Prior experience within Southern California (San Bernardino, Riverside, San Diego Counties) and advocacy connected to California Native issues is a plus.

· Track record working successfully in teams representing a rich mix of talent, backgrounds, and perspectives—across race and gender.

· Proven track record of building and maintaining strong relationships and networks with tribal partners and other diverse stakeholders.

· Demonstrated ability to think and act strategically to achieve campaign and landscape conservation goals in a dynamic environment with minimal supervision.

· Experience managing complex processes involving a wide range of interests, strategically balancing multiple assignments and priorities, and meeting deadlines with consistently high-quality work.

· Comfortable working independently in a remote work environment.

· Willingness to travel largely within the Southern California Mountains landscape but also to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and other locations as necessary. Travel requirements within the Southern California Mountains region are estimated to be 2 days/week and 2-3 nights/month. Travel requirements outside the landscape are estimated to be 1-3 trips/year of 2-3 nights/trip.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, or handle; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is not exposed to adverse weather conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of this position and it is not intended to be an exhaustive list of experience, skills, efforts, duties, responsibilities or working conditions associated with the position.

The Wilderness Society offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including: health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance; sick and vacation leave; a sabbatical program; and a retirement plan. TWS is an equal opportunity employer and actively works to ensure fair treatment of our employees and constituents across culture, socioeconomic status, race, marital or family situation, gender, age, ethnicity, religious beliefs, physical ability, veteran status or sexual orientation.

As an organization, we aspire to being inclusive in the work that we do, and in the kind of organization we are. Internally this means working as a team that listens to different points of view, recognizes the contributions of every employee and empowers each employee to bring their whole selves to work every day. Externally this means ensuring that public lands are inclusive and welcoming, so that our shared wildlands can help people and nature to thrive. We are committed to equity throughout our work, which we define as our commitment to realizing the promise of our public lands and ensuring that all can share in their universal benefits.

To learn more about our commitment, please see http://wilderness.org/our-commitment-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-wilderness-society