Chief Program Officer

Position description

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) uses the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society. We work at the intersection of environmental protection and human rights, across sectors and borders, and in close collaboration with global partners and local communities.

Position Summary

In the newly created role of Chief Program Officer (CPO), you are not just a leader; you’re a facilitator, bridge, a coach, and a force for coherence and impact. Grounded in deep experience using the law to protect people and the planet, you have successfully led senior teams to maximize integration, effectiveness and alignment. Your superpower is translating ambition into concrete plans, strategy into shared action, and values into practice. You bring humility, facilitation skills, deep listening capacities and global-mindedness. You’ve worked across cultures, geographies, and power dynamics, likely within human rights or environmental organizations or social justice networks. You’ve held space for tension and conflict without absorbing it, built cohesion and helped teams move through change with adaptive leadership, clarity and confidence.

Your role will support the organization to learn and respond to evolving needs by fostering reflection and supporting teams to be agile and pivot in response to changing and complex circumstances and new information, keeping CIEL on the front edge of innovative and effective strategies for change. You will drive cross-programmatic strategies and alignment, and support organizational sustainability and effective planning in collaboration with the development and operations teams.

This role directly supervises three Program Directors (Climate & Energy, Environmental Health, and Fossil Economy) and the Communications Director; works in close collaboration with the Director of Development and Director of HR; reports directly to the CEO; and serves as a member of the Executive Team alongside the CEO, COO, CFO and General Counsel.

Key Responsibilities

Program Strategy and Planning

• Provide guidance and collaborate with Program and Communications Directors to develop and evaluate cross-programmatic legal, advocacy and campaign strategies to protect the environment and human rights globally.
• Collaborate closely with key leaders across the organization in defining and executing the strategic and annual planning process.
• In collaboration with Program and Communications Directors and the CEO, provide strategic direction for the organization's programs, ensuring alignment with its overall mission and goals and clearly communicate decisions on priorities.

Program Leadership

• Support the consolidation of our Programs Dept, which will include Communications, leveraging the expertise and experience of Programs/Comms Directors, Managers and staff across the dept.
• Work in collaboration with the CEO, General Counsel, Program and Comms Directors to ensure programmatic decisions account for relevant risk analysis and role of organization.
• Build capacity for program monitoring and evaluation processes - ensuring continuous learning, adaptation and impact.
• Support implementation of evolving structures, processes and procedures with confidence and compassion, building trust across teams.

Supervision

• Facilitate a high-performing team of Directors to lead their teams, ensuring integration and program impact.
• Work with Program and Communications Directors and COO to develop work plans and budgets in line with both short-term and long-term goals.
• Support professional development of staff together with the HR Director.

Organizational Leadership

• Contribute to organizational fundraising, and support Program and Communications Directors to manage resources effectively and strategically to ensure clear prioritization and impact.
• Work closely with other departments, including Development, Finance, HR, and Operations, to ensure productive coordination and communication across departments.
• Building on a diverse work culture, ensure CIEL’s work remains values-led and globally grounded, while becoming more programmatically, strategically and operationally aligned.
• As needed, act as a key representative of CIEL with partners, media and funders.

Administration

• Support fundraising efforts, such as proposals and reports, as relevant.
• Maintain timesheets and submit them on time.
• Meet regularly with supervisor, direct reports, and other relevant teams
• Participate in leadership, management and all staff meetings and other organizational activities, including a regular performance evaluation process.
• Meet target dates, prioritize tasks, and ensure high-quality work products.

Qualifications

• JD or LLM required.
• Minimum 15 years of progressively more responsible roles in programs, with at least 5 years in a senior management role.
• Expertise in building, leading and implementing legal and advocacy strategies to protect human rights and the environment.
• Proven track record of facilitating complex processes in multi-cultural contexts.
• Strong management and mentorship experience.
• Proven capacity in raising funds and managing large program budgets.
• Strong understanding of program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Proven track record of building and stewarding strong relationships with funders and partners.
• Proven track record of developing, implementing and overseeing program plans and developing innovative strategies that align with organizational goals.
• Ability to effectively communicate with diverse audiences, including media, funders, partners, and staff.
• Ability to adapt to change and work effectively in a dynamic environment, and to guide teams effectively through change.
• Fluency in written and spoken English required.
• Ability and willingness to travel frequently to work from CIEL’s offices in Geneva and Washington DC, as well as to other meetings, conferences and events in all regions of the world, as requested.
• Commitment to incorporating principles of justice, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the work.

Preferred Qualifications

• Academic focus on international environmental and/or human rights law
• Working knowledge of Spanish and/or French
• Experience living and/or working in the Global South

A successful candidate will demonstrate the following competencies:

• Action-Oriented: Makes things happen. Takes on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of curiosity, proactivity, and constructiveness.
• Openminded and Flexible: Approaches unfamiliar tasks proactively and with an open mind. Can quickly adapt to new situations and to draw on past successes and failures to solve current problems.
• Effective Communication: Understands the value of effective communication. Can deliver messages in a clear, compelling, and concise manner. Actively listens, checks for understanding, and adjusts content and style to meet the needs of different stakeholders.
• Collaborative: Brings people together to leverage their skills, talents, and knowledge to achieve a common purpose. Creates synergy resulting in a combined effort with greater results than what can be achieved by individuals.
• Resourcefulness: Is able to make the best of limited resources and find a way to get things done even when the odds are against them. Can look beyond the obvious for viable approaches to accomplish the goal.

Location note: This position may be eligible to work from the following locations:

• In our Washington, DC office or remotely elsewhere in the United States (some jurisdictions excluded) provided you have the ability to legally work in the US.
• In our Geneva, Switzerland office provided you have the ability to legally work in Switzerland (i.e., acitizen of EU/EFTA member states).
• Remotely from a non-US country, depending on the country and provided you can work within South/North American and African/European time zones AND have obtained your own legal work authorization.Due to restrictions, not all countries will be eligible for remote hiring.

Working Hours: CIEL works with employees and partners all over the world; however, our main offices are located in US Eastern Time (Washington DC) and Central European Time (Geneva). Thus, all employees must have some core overlap hours for live meetings, which are generally 9am - 12pm ET / 3pm - 6pm CET. In terms of working hours, CIEL tries to support staff with life/work balance and working a 40-hour work week. However, there will be occasions when working more is required; in such cases, CIEL may provide compensatory time to use at a later date.

This is a full-time, exempt position. If you are selected for this position and elect to work remotely, you are expected to provide your own space from which to work. CIEL will contribute a one-time stipend of USD $750 for fully remote workers, with an additional USD $250 per year for the purposes of maintaining your remote work space.

Application instructions

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