Director of Partnerships and Project Expansion

Location: Remote, Western US preferred

Reports to: Managing Director of Project Development 

Salary: $130k to $155k depending on experience

Travel: 25-30%

Preferred Start Date: December 1st, 2025

Employment Status: Full-time, non-exempt

About Blue Forest

Blue Forest is a conservation finance non-profit founded in 2015 that is focused on advancing ecosystem restoration through scientific research, financial innovation, and collaborative partnerships. Since 2018, Blue Forest has managed investor capital through its flagship financial product, the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), which deploys private capital to finance forest restoration projects to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. More recently, Blue Forest has also established Blue Forest Asset Management (BFAM), an investment management platform connecting investors to compelling, mission-aligned opportunities in a broader set of asset classes beyond FRB projects, such as private equity and private credit investments.

Blue Forest is made up of an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, foresters, finance, and communications professionals committed to the mission: “To accelerate ecological restoration through conservation finance, enabling climate resilience for ecosystems and communities.”

Employees at Blue Forest are:

• Committed to Continuous Learning

• Driven by Collaboration

• Thoughtful Innovators for Impact

• Grounded in Science

• Passionate about Restoring Earth’s Ecosystems

Position Summary

The Director of Partnerships and Project Expansion will oversee the portfolio of launched Forest Resilience Bonds (FRBs) and other ecosystem restoration conservation finance projects, where active restoration is ongoing and finance is being deployed to support the pace and scale of work. Examples of active restoration include ecological thinning, prescribed burning, and meadow restoration. This position requires on-the-ground experience implementing such activities and a deep understanding of what is required to get work done, such as permitting, prep and layout, and surveys, as well as follow-on activities such as monitoring and maintenance. Blue Forest does not do the on-the-ground implementation itself, but provides technical assistance to implementation partners and gathers data on project impacts as work happens.

Day-to-day responsibilities of this role include: (i) technical assistance and engagement with local partners, including implementation partners, land managers, Tribes, beneficiary payors, and community leaders, (ii) driving strategic initiatives and innovation to improve the impact of conservation finance based on learnings from a portfolio of launched projects, (iii) internal portfolio management and strategy development and deployment for launched projects including data management, impact management, communication, and coordination with the finance team. 

Blue Forest often deploys FRBs with a pilot-to-scale approach. A key responsibility of this position will be to help launched projects succeed during the implementation phase and then scale up in size to achieve even more meaningful impact. 

Responsibilities and Duties

Project technical assistance, management, and expansion (50-60%) 

• Identify lessons learned and broader strategic questions based on looking across the portfolio of launched projects. With this perspective, partner with other Blue Forest Directors to develop strategies, improvements, and new innovations that can scale FRBs or broader conservation finance initiatives

• Lead strategy and oversight of launched projects, including long-term partnership development with local collaboratives, land managers, state and local government, beneficiary payors, wood products partners, and implementation partners, and working with project leads to implement strategy on individual projects. 

• Serve as the project advisor across multiple (3-4) projects in the implementation and scaling phase, working closely with project development managers and project associates. For all other projects in the implementation phase, work closely with the project development manager to have a pulse on and support the project 

• Support implementation partners, the project development team, beneficiary payors, and other project partners to problem-solve and creatively think about how conservation finance can support implementation challenges that arise throughout the project (e.g., biomass and wood products, equipment finance, etc.)
  

Implementation Portfolio Management (30-40%) 

• Manage the portfolio of FRB projects in the implementation and scaling phase of work, meaning that ecological restoration is ongoing. 

• Coordinate Blue Forest staff involvement in managing post-launch implementation projects, including partnering with the finance, communications, science, and other members of the project development team

• Enhance and maintain internal and external tools (e.g., implementation partner toolkit, geospatial tracking process documents) to support implementation partners and the Blue Forest team in launching FRB projects and managing ongoing implementation 

• Lead internal and cross-department communication around the portfolio of projects
  

Impact reporting and external communications (10%)

• Partner with the Blue Forest communications team to refine project communications and liaise with project partners (and their communications departments) to develop storytelling campaigns

• Support the FRB portions of the annual impact report, overseeing and doing quality control on impact metric data collection, and supporting storytelling

• Represent Blue Forest at conferences and panels, in partnership with implementation partners, beneficiary payors, local partners, etc. 
  

Desired Skills and Qualifications:

We encourage all candidates to apply, even if you don't meet every qualification listed below.

• 7+ years of experience in forest health, implementation of conservation projects, project management, and developing systems, including:

  • On-the-ground experience with implementing forest health or other land management activities

  • Strong background in project management and organizational leadership 

  • Experience working with Tribal nations/Indigenous communities 

  • Experience and ability to design new systems and processes that scale from individual project management to a portfolio approach, requiring new management tools

  • Experience with GIS platforms or structured databases, capabilities, and requirements to support restoration project work tracking and reporting (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, SQL, etc.) 

• Experience and desire to manage people/teams and strategically develop, support, and retain talent. This position will supervise 2-3 team members on the project development team 

• Detail-oriented and collaborative to develop strong relationships with partners, with the ability to manage a large portfolio of diverse projects and meet deadlines

• Strategic thinking with a results-driven mindset and a passion for climate resilience and sustainability

Benefits

• 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision coverage; subsidized coverage for dependents

• Access to a 401(k) retirement plan with a 5% employer match

• 4 weeks paid vacation and 17 paid holidays; paid sick time and volunteer time

• 3 months of paid family leave

• Employer-paid life and long-term disability insurance

• Access to Dependent Care FSA and Health FSA

• Public Lands Exploration stipend (reimbursements for visits to National Forests, county parks, etc.)

• Monthly Home Office stipend or co-working space provided

• Dependent care costs are subsidized for business travel

• Additional stipends for health & wellness, home internet, and cell service

• Financial support for professional development

Additional Information 

Blue Forest is a fully remote company with staff located across all four continental U.S. time zones. While we value flexibility in work schedules, you should expect to have some overlap with Pacific Standard Time working hours in order to collaborate with partners and team members. Blue Forest also hosts an in-person team retreat each year.

HOW TO APPLY 

To apply to this position, please submit a resume for your application through Recruitee. People from historically underrepresented populations and candidates with non-traditional career paths are especially encouraged to apply.

If participating in the interview process would require you to incur additional expenses to participate, such as childcare, please let us know and we are happy to reimburse for reasonable expenses incurred up to $30/hour for twice the length of each interview in which you participate. There will be space to request this reimbursement upon offer of an interview.