Senior Director, Decarbonization

URBAN LAND INSTITUTE•Washington, DC

8h•$120,299 - $144,347•Onsite

About The Position

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is seeking a Senior Director, Decarbonization to lead strategy and implementation for decarbonization initiatives within the real estate industry. This role is part of the ULI Impact Lab, a do-tank focused on accelerating practical, scalable solutions in the built environment. The Senior Director will translate strategy into campaigns, field engagement, demonstration projects, practical tools, and funder-ready narratives. This position requires a strategic operator who understands systems, can engage practitioners, and design credible and useful initiatives. The role involves working with internal ULI teams, including the Greenprint Community of Practice and various Councils, as well as building external partnerships with issue-based organizations, finance-sector partners, public agencies, utilities, and philanthropic supporters. This is a mission-driven opportunity within a well-established organization with significant philanthropic backing and a mandate for market impact.

Requirements

8 to 12 years of experience in building decarbonization, clean energy, climate policy, real estate, urban planning, public affairs, coalition building, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience designing, managing, or supporting initiatives that move beyond research into adoption, implementation, or market change.
Exceptional writing and analytical skills, with the ability to turn complex policy, financial, and technical issues into clear arguments and practical tools for senior practitioners, funders, and public-sector audiences.
Experience working with practitioners, members, public-sector partners, or geographically distributed teams to move work from concept to execution.
Working knowledge of building decarbonization issues, including energy efficiency, electrification, embodied carbon, grid constraints, financing, and implementation barriers.
Ability to connect decarbonization to market realities: asset performance, development feasibility, investment risk, capital markets, and community outcomes.
Bachelor's degree required.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in urban planning, public policy, environmental studies, climate or energy policy, real estate, business, or a related field.
Familiarity with federal, state, and local policy dynamics affecting the built environment.
Experience with nonprofit, philanthropic, member-based, or civic organizations.
Understanding of 501(c)(3) nonpartisan public education principles and policy-adjacent communications.
Familiarity with project management, collaboration, survey, webinar, or member relationship platforms.

Responsibilities

Contribute to the ongoing evolution of the Impact Lab's decarbonization strategy, with a focus on market transformation, systems change, and adoption across the real estate industry.
Identify emergent opportunities and evaluate priorities based on impact potential, member interest, implementation feasibility, timing, and funder alignment.
Work with market intelligence colleagues to diagnose barriers and opportunities in building decarbonization, including policy design, capital flows, insurance, energy systems, and operational practice.
Synthesize member insights, field intelligence, market analysis, and policy trends into clear recommendations that help the Lab decide where to move and where ULI can have the greatest practical influence.
Engage ULI members and staff through the Greenprint Community of Practice, District and National Councils, Product Councils, convenings, and other forums to surface the most salient barriers to decarbonization.
Work with District Councils and Technical Assistance Panel teams to identify and support state and market-level engagement, demonstration, and technical assistance opportunities.
Develop and manage collaborations with external partners whose capabilities align with ULI's market-facing role.
Represent the Impact Lab in meetings, workshops, member convenings, and external discussions related to decarbonization and market transformation.
Design and help launch multi-stakeholder initiatives and campaigns that advance Impact Lab priorities, with a principal focus on decarbonization.
Create project plans, partner maps, stakeholder engagement strategies, and implementation pathways for decarbonization-focused campaigns and demonstrations.
Codify what works into practical, user-friendly tools, playbooks, case studies, and implementation guides designed for real-world adoption by ULI members and partners.
Build pathways for replication across regions and markets so that promising approaches can be adapted and scaled across ULI's broader network.
Develop market-facing products including briefs, case studies, reports, implementation tools, and executive summaries that translate complex issues into practical framing.
Contribute to monitoring and evaluation frameworks that help the Lab understand whether campaigns, demonstrations, and partnerships are influencing practice, policy, or capital allocation.
Use interviews, surveys, convenings, and secondary research to capture insights and translate them into actionable resources.
Develop presentations, talking points, concept notes, and funder-facing narratives that articulate the Lab's value proposition in decarbonization and market transformation.
Support the translation of programmatic ideas into fundable concepts for foundations, corporate partners, and institutional funders.
Ensure communications and fundraising materials are clear, credible, action-oriented, and grounded in member needs and measurable impact.