Director of Science and Innovation

WHO WE ARE

Carbon180 is a new breed of climate-focused NGO on a mission to rethink carbon fundamentally. We know that our climate goals can only be met by rapidly reducing emissions and removing the carbon in our atmosphere. The good news? Carbon is much more than mere waste. We work at the intersection of science, business, and policy to champion solutions transforming carbon from a liability to an asset and fostering a prosperous, carbon-conscious economy. Our team is based in Washington, D.C., with teammates who work remotely from other cities. Due to the nature of this role, you will need to reside in the Washington, D.C. metro area - within a 2-hour perimeter (accessible via train / driving).

Don’t meet every single requirement? Here at Carbon180, we believe there is no “perfect” candidate and want to encourage applying even if all the requirements listed aren’t met. Our goal is to build an authentic workplace by valuing diversity in our candidates. We are always looking to expand our growing team with dynamic and enthusiastic individuals. We look forward to receiving your application!

THE OPPORTUNITY

Overview

Carbon180 seeks a Director of Science & Innovation to join our growing team. You will be responsible for developing and leading the systems that Carbon180 will use to track and understand advances in science (including social and economics) and technology innovation (including startup progress), maintain communication across the organization, help craft messages that resonate with target policy audiences (including reporters and policymakers), and develop original content and thought leadership. You will manage the team’s strategic planning, projects, and staff hiring, including overseeing progress made by team members.

Major Roles + Responsibilities

• Build a world-class Science & Innovation team that flexibly and effectively supports Carbon180’s policy-aligned work.
• Thought partnership and leadership for incubating new ideas in concert with the executive team.
• Ability to develop a strategy with their teams that aligns and helps achieve the organization's North Star, Priorities, and Outcomes. Build out annual individual work plans from that team strategy.
• Lead project management and operations of the Science and Innovation Team, including the prioritization and assignment of internal S&I-led research projects. Manage them from end to end, ensuring projects remain on schedule and lead to successful outcomes. Draft initial scoping with the support of Managing Advisors.
• Manage capacity planning, prioritization, and progress tracking for the team. This includes goal setting, conducting impact evaluations, professional development, coaching and accountability.
• Develop and execute on the strategy for tracking the latest climate and carbon removal research, and keep the C180 team up to date on technology commercialization and startup progress.
• Work across teams to ensure our work reflects the best available science.
• Lead the development of our CDR knowledge into opinions, organizational positions, and best practices, which can be used to create policies that drive the industry forward in the optimal direction.
• Create frameworks to manage team science knowledge and innovation networks. Where appropriate, work with other Carbon180 teams to adopt these tools.
• Collaborate with other team leads to develop science-based targets and organizational positions for federal carbon removal policy.
• Collaborate with the environmental justice team to inform just, equitable, and highly accountable carbon removal.
• Develop thought leadership around best practices for the carbon removal industry.
• Contribute to fundraising for critical project and staffing needs for your team growth and sustainability.
• Ensure grant requirements and deliverables are met.
• Maintain C180’s reputation as a key leader in the carbon removal ecosystem through high-impact, cross-functional blogs, media engagement, white papers, and other products.
• As needed, recruit and manage new team members to extend our engagement with the innovation community.
• Display cultural competency, modeling DEIBJ and holding accountability with team/peers.

WHO YOU ARE

Our ideal Director of Science & Innovation believes deeply in our mission. Beyond that:

• You move fluidly from strategy to execution. You appreciate the big picture and feel inspired to set a bold vision, but you know it's all in the details. You manage projects fluidly, fiercely prioritize, and track timelines, data, and information in an organized and systematic fashion. You don't drop balls, miss deadlines, or forget to respond to someone's inquiry - and you’re not afraid to roll up your sleeves to do the work.
• You inspire and motivate others to action. You build relationships quickly and deftly, and people trust you. You leverage your storytelling skills to elevate the impact of our work in a way that inspires others to action.
• You’re a driver of results. You've demonstrated the ability to drive results in the pursuit of ambitious goals, and you combine your exceptional strategic, analytical, and critical thinking skills with your penchant for using data to drive decision-making to achieve impressive outcomes.
• You’re a systems thinker and creator. You're unfazed by ambiguity, and thrive in situations where you get to build something out of nothing, or create order out of chaos. You want to do work that's never been done before, better than anyone's ever done it. You build systems that last beyond your tenure in prior roles you’ve held, but you believe nimble systems bureaucracy any day.
• You build trust and leverage meaningful relationships to get things done. A relationship-builder at heart, the people you work with trust that you leverage relationships to get things done in a mutually beneficial, non-transactional way. You are both warm AND demanding. You do the things you say you will do, hold others to account, and support the people you engage in the pursuit of our shared goals.
• You are an excellent and fluid communicator. People go to you to help them convey complex ideas in a compelling manner and in the right format. You are able to leverage strong written and verbal communication skills across your responsibilities - whether it’s designing a new system/procedure and rolling it out to the team, writing a proposal for funders, or communicating complex information to stakeholders, you understand that clarity, timing, sequence, and format of communications is a key driver of our ability to succeed.
• You’re high impact, low-ego, and kind to yourself and others. Our Core Values (below) resonate with who you are and what you believe.

Beyond that, you will need:

• Graduate-level research experience or equivalent required.
• Prior experience directing research for science policy from strategy setting to product delivery.
• Familiarity with climate strategies and a strong technical background in carbon removal or an adjacent field.
• A multidisciplinary mindset and the willingness to get up to speed quickly on a wide range of technical topics.
• A healthy dose of climate rage and the determination to do something about it.

WHAT WE OFFER

Carbon180 is deeply committed to providing market-leading compensation and robust benefits to our employees. Our salaries are in the 70th percentile of the Washington, DC market. We employ an external firm to conduct market analyses every three years, and we are committed to safeguarding internal salary equity. For those reasons, we have a non-negotiation policy on salaries.

The starting salary for this position will be between $178,090 - $194,280, with opportunities for growth up to $242,850.

Carbon180 prides itself on offering benefits and perks to our employees that illustrate how we live our values, including:

• 36-hour workweeks (we close at 1 pm every Friday) and dedicated no-meeting time each week.
• A remote-first flexible work culture.
• Four weeks of PTO, three weeks of paid org-wide breaks including one week in the summer and two weeks in the winter, four weeks of sick leave, and five floating holidays/personal days.
• 100% company-covered insurance premiums for medical/dental/vision/long-term disability for you and your dependents.
• Quarterly health and wellness, book, and learning and development stipends.

TO APPLY

To apply for the role of Director of Science and Innovation, please submit an application here.

On the application, you’ll be asked to

• answer some basic questions about your background and experiences,
• in place of a cover letter, answer a few written reflection questions to help us learn more about your interest in joining our team and in this role specifically, and
• attach your resume in the application form.

Interview process and timeline

• Applications are being accepted and reviewed through November.
• There will be three rounds of interviews in December and January.
• We anticipate extending an offer in late-January.

If you have any questions or issues submitting your application, please email us at hr@carbon180.org.

OUR VALUES

At C180, we believe in living by an internal set of core values, which we strive to embody and celebrate in moments big and small.

• One Boat. We work hard to ensure that we are rowing in one direction as a team, aligning our work and resources to shared goals.
• Pencil to Pen. We think critically, do our research, and weigh multiple options. Then, we commit to move to action.
• Win + Lose Together. When one of us succeeds, we all win. When we encounter challenges, we determine how best to redirect the energy and resources of the team to solve them.
• Person in the Professional. Our team is composed of real people with real passions, interests, and needs within and outside of work. We believe we need to care for ourselves and others to be our best and most productive selves at work.
• Make Space, Share Space. We believe in making space for all voices to be heard, within our team and our broader work - particularly and especially voices historically disenfranchised and disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change.
• Be a Window, Not a Door. We’re committed to transparency, and to shining light on how and why decisions are made. We are honest with one another, ask for clarity, and operate with integrity to build a culture of trust.
• Grow the Braintrust. We are committed to constantly learning, and to staying up to speed on the science of our field. We work to grow our knowledge, sharpen our skills, and to bring great minds to the field of carbon removal.

We currently require that all employees who plan to enter a Carbon180 office or otherwise meet in person with coworkers or other third parties on Carbon180 business are fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. Accordingly, this role may require full COVID-19 vaccination (subject to any exemptions or accommodations due to medical or religious reasons).

Carbon180 is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria. Carbon180 continually seeks to enrich its staff and team culture. In particular, we’re dedicated to broadening opportunities for individuals from demographic groups that are historically underrepresented in the sciences and in environmental advocacy. We’re also committed to building an inclusive workplace culture where talented people of widely different backgrounds can thrive. We've adopted this commitment because we believe the inclusion of culturally diverse perspectives will improve our work and produce better societal and environmental outcomes for all, including historically disenfranchised communities.