Chief of Staff

About Spark Climate Solutions

Spark Climate Solutions is a US-based non-profit organization focused on field-building in emerging climate areas. Spark recognizes the need for all available solutions to the climate crisis: mitigation, adaptation, and emerging, as yet unexplored areas. Spark focuses on under-addressed areas of science and technology that have the potential for large-scale mitigation of climate harm, addressing near-term warming, and contributing to climate repair. Spark works to accelerate these fields through building shared strategic roadmaps, providing research funding, seeding new organizations, coordinating a variety of stakeholders, engaging with experts, and communicating with the public. Our core team has deep expertise in science, engineering, and climate-focused philanthropy. Spark’s funders include the Grantham Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Astera Institute, and Climate Pathfinders Foundation.

Position Summary

Spark Climate Solutions is seeking an operations and coordination maverick to help our small driven team work like magic.  Our ideal candidate delights in having a different job everyday, working collaboratively to make everyone around them more efficient and effective, understanding how people and organizations work, seeing around corners, and breaking through obstacles, all driven by the desire to help repair the climate. 

We are looking for a high horsepower generalist, with at least a basic scientific background and interest, coupled with an insatiable desire to better understand how the climate, human, and natural systems all work and interact, and roll up their sleeves to help. 

Our ideal candidates:

• Effectively manage and prioritize multiple simultaneous projects, while helping others to do the same
• Have proven abilities of working collaboratively, effectively, and efficiently in ways that prioritize and center empathy and equity
• Effectively communicate to different audiences via written and verbal media.
• Synthesize complex information
• Can work independently, and know when to pull others in to collaborate, unblock, or inform
• Are highly organized
• Easily build trust-based relationships with diverse stakeholders
• Proactively engage internal and external collaborators to explore key challenges, identify and overcome blockers.
• Work well with Asana, Notion, Airtable, Google Docs and more.
• Are thrilled about the prospect of rolling up their sleeves to help build a new climate non-profit and be on the forefront of emerging climate fields. 
• Are low-ego, high-ownership, and mission-oriented.

Responsibilities

The chief of staff will be responsible for:

• Driving agendas, notes, and followups for critical internal and external meetings
• Project-managing key strategic projects
• Managing Spark’s climate and stakeholder data systems
• Quarterbacking Spark events’ purpose, goals, and logistics
• Steward and continuously improve critical processes such as hiring, report generation, non-profit formation
• Spark’s website, blogs, press, and other forms of external presence, for which content will be generated in collaboration with team members and consultants
• Grant management, HR tasks, and coordination with operations vendors (legal, accounting) as needed
• Participating in identification of where processes and projects could be improved, and make actionable suggestions, some of which they may be responsible for.

Education and/or Experience

Candidates for this role must have the following: 

• Experience independently running projects and complex worktracks in academia, consulting, or business environments
• Proven ability to initiate independent projects and work across disciplines.
• Excellent written, speaking / presentation, and interpersonal communication skills to engage effectively within the organization and with external collaborators / stakeholders.
• Ability and curiosity in science or engineering is highly desirable.
• Insatiable drive to learn about the climate problem and help drive solutions.
• Flexibility, creativity, and tenacity.
• Fluency in English.

Location

As with all positions at Spark Climate Solutions, this will be 100% remote. Employees can work anywhere within the United States, or internationally with approval. 

• Our center of gravity is in the SF Bay Area, with a possible option (not requirement) of some in-person work later in 2022.

Eligibility

• Able to work as a W2 employee for a US non-profit.
• Availability during US Pacific time work day.

Compensation

These are all full-time positions with benefits. The salary range for Chief of Staff is $90,000-$160,000 / year.  In addition, Spark Climate Solutions provides exceptional benefits including flexible PTO, sick time, holidays, generous health insurance coverage, and full-covered dental/vision/life insurance, and parental leave.