The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities. To achieve our mission, we partner with diverse allies around the world to drive positive change across global supply chains and in many of our most critically important natural landscapes.

Our alliance spans 70 countries and includes farmers and forest communities, companies, governments, civil society, and millions of individuals. Together we work to protect forests and biodiversity, take action on climate, and promote the rights and improve the livelihoods of rural people.

As an international nonprofit organization with more than 30 years of experience in sustainability transformation, we understand that the social and economic well-being of rural communities is tightly connected to ecosystem health. This knowledge has shaped our rigorous programs to advance sustainable land-use and commodity production.

At the Rainforest Alliance we combat climate change, protect forests and biodiversity, promote human rights, and improve livelihoods. The enormity of the social and environmental challenges we are facing requires working together in a broad alliance. This is why we bring farmers, forest communities, companies, and consumers together to change the way the world produces, sources, and consumes.

Why

To protect nature and improve lives it’s becoming increasingly urgent that we approach the way we use our land and produce food and other products in more sustainable ways. For this to succeed we need to fundamentally change the way that businesses operate and source, and the choices we all make as consumers.

How

Our growing global alliance aims to transform our relationship with our natural resources and each other, to create a better future for people and nature together.

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.

POSITION SUMMARY:

At the Rainforest Alliance we are looking for an experienced Senior Director to lead and further build out our Corporate Engagement Partnerships capability. Rainforest Alliance has recently set its ambitious 2023-2030 strategy to further strengthen our organizational impact. We want to activate market push/pull, producer impact, investment mobilization and citizen activation to create value with speed and scale and accelerate our mission.

This candidate will play a pivotal role in making our strategy a reality by strengthening our position as a trusted and highly valued thought partner for businesses to work with us on a comprehensive sustainability agenda. We look to grow our impact and partner with businesses expansively beyond certification, while protecting and growing the value of our certification program.

The Senior Director Corporate Engagement Partnerships reports to the newly appointed Chief Revenue Officer responsible to build an integrated revenue engine that will fund our ambitions.

As a leader, the Senior Director will be committed to providing clear direction and to support the teams in driving impact. As we move forward into a more agile Rainforest Alliance, our leaders will be at the forefront of innovating what and how we make that impact as well as how we support our people to grow whilst doing so.

Everything we do focuses on what serves our producers, and our leaders develop teams who work across and beyond organizational boundaries to deliver excellence to our producers. By defining clear priorities and enabling creative viable solutions to complex problems through robust yet flexible decision-making processes, the Senior Director will contribute to a data-driven and conscientious culture.

Identifying critical cross-departmental and external alliance growth opportunities as well as having the expertise and communication style to positively influence these successful collaborations is key to the success of this role.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Responsible to set up account management structure and define go-to-market strategy for our strategic priorities;

• Support the Chief Revenue Officer in building an integrated revenue engine and increase our share of corporate funding so we can accelerate our impact;

• Mobilize, activate and transform the team around a clear vision and operational excellence;

• Develop a comprehensive account strategy, identifying drivers for growth in the existing relationship as well as identifying new partnerships to scale our impact

• Lead the implementation of market segmentation approach for producer markets, consumer markets and existing market partners;

• Provide (thought) leadership in consultative selling and business engagement. Coach the team in translating the suite of offerings to clients’ needs and building a convincing narrative on the value we provide;

• Collaborate with other departments to sync go-to-market strategy with our suite of offerings or innovation pipeline;

• Inspire, lead and motivate the team, championing a culture of learning and accountability;

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s degree in business administration, economy, or another relevant international development discipline;

• At least 15 years of experience developing and implementing department level strategies and budgets and leading senior staff in multiple countries;

• At least 5 years of experience performing in a global business unit and with PL responsibilities;

• Extensive experience with complex sales, relationship building, corporate affairs or marketing;

• Experience in implementing an integrated revenue engine to increase the Rainforest Alliance’s share of corporate funding;

• Consistent track record in leading complex sales processes, external engagement, high-level stakeholder management and representing an organization in a multi-stakeholder environment;

• Enterprise and servant leadership with consistent track record of collaboration and teamwork. Confirmed experience in leading teams through change;

• Demonstrated track record of effective partnerships at global level to build joint initiatives;

• Extensive knowledge of the corporate ESG investment space;

• Knowledge and understanding of voluntary certification programs;

• Working knowledge of international commodity supply chains, including, coffee, cocoa, palm oil, fruits, and forest products;

• Experience facilitating industry collaboration, cross-sector coalition building, and systems change methodologies;

• Key competencies: Sales, partnership design and negotiations, transformational leadership, innovation, adaptability, persuasion, critical and reflective thinking, public speaking, resourcefulness, relationship builder based on trust, empathy and openness, and strong organizational skills to lead multiple priorities in a time critical manner;

• Excellent writing, editing and verbal communication skills, written and verbal proficiency in English is required;

• Ability to travel.

Job Level: 1A*

Salary: Commensurate with experience.

Deadline: June 02, 2023

Notes: Only candidates authorized to work in the USA, Europe or the UK will be considered.

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