Director, Strategic Initiatives (Remote) Within the United States

GRID ALTERNATIVES•Oakland, CA

2d•$110,000 - $120,000•Remote

About The Position

GRID Alternatives is a national leader in making clean, affordable solar power and solar jobs accessible to low-income communities and communities of color. GRID is an entrepreneurial, high-growth non-profit organization that provides direct solar installation and project development; clean mobility options; workforce training and service-learning opportunities; and low-income solar policy advocacy. Our Vision: a rapid, equitable transition to a world powered by renewable energy that benefits everyone. Our Mission: to build community-powered solutions to advance economic and environmental justice through renewable energy. At GRID, we care about each other and know that each employee has a whole self that includes life outside of work. Our culture supports learning, growth and well-being of all of our team members. The Director, Strategic Initiatives is part of the Strategic Development & Initiatives team in GRID Alternatives’ national Policy & Programs department. This team is responsible for developing a rolling portfolio of new strategic initiatives for expanded impact under GRID’s overall strategic plan. The Director works in close partnership with the Strategic Impact Officer and key collaborators across the organization. Current strategic initiatives include, but are not limited to: Expanding GRID’s work and programming with the national affordable housing industry, including finding alternative mechanisms to fund projects that had been slated for implementation under the EPA Solar for All program; Developing new offerings to support long-term operations & maintenance of solar and other clean energy assets at multifamily affordable housing developments and other nonprofit facilities; Building expanded programming to deploy solar-related home upgrades for income-qualified homeowners, including unlocking virtual power plants (VPPs) to help pair solar with home battery storage, and developing scalable programming to bundle rooftop solar with roof replacement, roof repair, and/or electrical service upgrades; Developing scalable strategies for deploying emerging plug-in solar technologies in conjunction with GRID’s core competencies and existing solar installation, program administration, and workforce development programming. This role is ideal for a collaborative, highly motivated social entrepreneur with experience in the equitable deployment of clean energy technologies, who enjoys working with a diverse range of colleagues, partner organizations, and funders to drive impact for GRID’s mission to build community-powered solutions to advance economic and environmental justice through renewable energy. This position is remote and can be based anywhere in the US, with some light travel expected.

Requirements

At least five years of directly relevant experience deploying clean energy technologies with underserved communities;
Demonstrated skills and successful track record with securing large-scale governmental and/or philanthropic funding, ideally for deploying clean energy technologies with underserved communities;
Professional knowledge/experience with specific markets and technologies relevant to GRID’s current strategic initiatives;
Knowledge of/relationships with key individuals and organizations in the equitable clean energy deployment sector;
Professional knowledge/experience with key governmental policies and publicly-funded programs for deploying clean energy technologies with underserved communities;
Excellent persuasive and explanatory communication skills across a diverse range of formats - concept notes, presentations, emails, in-person, funding proposals, etc.

Responsibilities

Help develop, socialize and secure initial funding for our rolling portfolio of new strategic initiatives for expanded impact under GRID’s overall strategic plan, in close partnership with GRID’s philanthropy team and relevant programmatic leads
Create, expand, and maintain strategic relationships and strategic partnerships with both national and place-based mission-aligned nonprofit organizations to guide, advance and fund these initiatives;
Create, expand, and maintain strategic relationships and strategic partnerships with mission-aligned businesses who can help GRID implement these initiatives;
Serve as a targeted consultant for internal teams and departments who want support and thought partnership around program development and funding opportunities to implement these strategic initiatives in the flow of existing programming;
Collaborate with GRID’s policy team to identify opportunities to advance policies that would unlock and fund these strategic initiatives in key markets, and to support them in advocacy efforts as needed;
Engage in proactive thought leadership work around key aspects of these strategic initiatives, both externally and internally, in partnership with the communications team;
Work with, and in some cases supervise, project-specific contractors providing time-delimited support to advance one of our strategic initiatives; and
Work on occasional ad-hoc time-delimited projects within the overall scope of the Strategic Development & Initiatives team and Policy & Programs Department as needed.