Position: Senior
Director, Design and Development
Organization: The Natural Step Canada
Position Location: Flexible; Toronto preferred, Canada
Position Status: Full time, permanent
Salary Range: $74,000 – $85,000
Start Date: TBD with candidate. Target date: September 1, 2015
Deadline to apply: June 3, 2015
The Natural Step Canada
The Natural Step Canada is a dynamic not-for-profit organization and
registered charity that helps individuals, communities, and
organizations accelerate the transition to a sustainable society. Our
main office is in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and we have staff and
associates located across the country. For more information on The
Natural Step Canada, please refer to our website:
http://www.naturalstep.ca.
At The Natural Step Canada, we pride ourselves on our collaborative
culture and mission-focused work. We are a dynamic, energetic, and
entrepreneurial organization. We seek team members who are:
• Able to collaborate and work independently
• Committed to producing the highest quality products and services
• Creative problem-solvers, focused on solutions
• Effective time managers who are able to meet deadlines and manage
multiple priorities
The Natural Step Canada is an equal opportunity employer and is
committed to a diverse workforce. We actively seek to recruit people
with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives reflecting the
full diversity of Canadian society.
Purpose of this Role
The Senior Director, Design and Development (D&D) is a member of The
Natural Step Canada’s (TNS) Leadership Team and plays a key oversight
role in the well-being and success of the organization as a whole. The
particular area of responsibility for this role is providing
leadership and oversight to the organization’s D&D team.
The purpose of the D&D team is to design and develop programs that
create societal impact by integrating TNS’ unique blend of rigorous
sustainability science with social processes of learning and
innovation. The D&D team is the key holder of TNS’ unique value
proposition, and is also responsible for the organization’s revenue
generation. Its key responsibilities include:
• Developing partnerships and collaborations with other non-profits,
businesses, governments and funders to address complex sustainability
issues
• Designing programs and initiatives with system impact comparable to
TNS’ current initiatives such as the Energy Futures Lab, Housing
Action Lab, Natural Capital Lab, IMPACT! and Future Fit Business
Benchmark.
• Continuously evolving TNS knowledge and offerings to achieve our
mission, meet market needs and attract investment.
Leading this team offers the Senior Director, Design and Development a
compelling leadership challenge and a unique opportunity to contribute
to the realization of a sustainable future for Canada.
Responsibilities
The key responsibilities of the Senior Director, Design and Development
include:
• Ensuring programs integrate the highest quality of TNS’ knowledge &
application of strategic sustainable development with the state of the
art in social processes of learning and innovation.
• Ensuring the integration of communications and operations
innovations and functions into the program design process.
• Developing and managing strategic relationships with funders and
partners, in collaboration with the Executive Director.
• Nurturing and developing the competencies of the members of D&D Team
and the extended TNS Associates network.
• Ensuring the effective integration of the functions of
communications, operations and design in all programs and projects.
• Leading design-related knowledge sharing and learning across
different program teams.
• Coordinating with the Operations team to develop systems and tools
that support the D&D team’s purpose, e.g. performance metrics,
relationship tracking systems.
• Ensuring programs are aligned with overall organizational strategy.
• Providing project leadership for select high profile projects.
• Reporting to the Executive Director for revenue targets,
client/partner satisfaction and impact performance metrics.
Key Capabilities
The individual required for this position must have:
• Demonstrated an ability to apply the Framework for Strategic
Sustainable Development to design and delivery solutions that meet the
needs of stakeholders to address important societal issues.
• Demonstrated an ability to apply skills and abilities to enable
groups of people to create compelling shared visions and innovations,
e.g. facilitation, coaching, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to create and lead initiatives that have
resulted in significant social impact.
• Demonstrated success in revenue generation, e.g. fundraising, sales, etc.
• Exceptional leadership skills, including the ability to set
priorities, lead organizational change, build consensus, mentor and
serve team needs.
• Excellent relationship building skills including the ability to
understand needs, build support, and work effectively with a diverse
range of people.
• Exceptional communication skills including the ability to write
proposals, reports and presentations.
• Excellent team skills and the ability to contribute in both a lead
and support role, e.g. nurture direct reports and team members.
• Effective work practices including self motivation, reliability,
ability to manage stress and results orientation.
• Adaptability and comfort of working in a dynamic and complex environment.
• Demonstrated ability to use concepts of adult education and workshop
/ process design to create high-quality, impactful in-person
engagements.
• Exceptional project management skills with minimum 5 years
experience in a complex environment.
Education and Experience
• Masters degree in environmental science, management or
sustainability with business background, or equivalent work experience
preferred
• Minimum 5 years in a leadership role
Optional and Desired Skills
• Fluency in French.
Reporting Relationship
This position reports to the Executive Director.
To Apply