Senior Manager, Planting Partnerships

Want to devote your talents to creating a better future for all of us? We're seeking a strategic and people-centered leader to oversee how we source, develop, and grow the Foundation's network of planting partners across reforestation and urban forestry programs. The Arbor Day Foundation is a place where you can do work that matters with people who care. **As we say at the Foundation:** life is short, love where you work. As one of the world's largest conservation organizations, the Arbor Day Foundation inspires people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. We help others understand and use trees as a nature-based solution to some of the biggest global challenges we face today, like air quality, water quality, climate change, deforestation, poverty, and hunger. Help build the partnerships that make large-scale tree planting possible by joining the Arbor Day Foundation as a **Senior Manager, Planting Partnerships**. The **Senior Manager, Planting Partnerships** leads the Foundation's project sourcing and planting partner network development function across reforestation and urban forestry programs. This role is responsible for stewarding and growing the Foundation’s industry-leading network of planting partners while ensuring we can respond quickly and effectively to evolving funding needs with high-quality, cost-effective project opportunities. Through a team of Project Development Leads and strong cross-functional partnerships, this role drives sourcing strategy, grows the network and strengthens partner relationships, and continuously improves how we deliver the greatest possible impact from every dollar invested. **What you’ll bring:** - **Passion** for the Foundation’s mission, nature, environmental stewardship, and people. - **Our ideal candidate has 8+ years of experience** in partnership development, project development, operations, supply chain or sourcing leadership, or program strategy and operations. - Experience identifying, evaluating, and developing external partnerships and projects. - Experience leading and developing high-performing teams. - Demonstrated success developing strategies, driving operational improvements, and influencing stakeholders without direct authority. - Experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives and organizational change. - Strong communication, relationship management, and problem-solving skills. **Preferred** - Experience in mission-driven environmental, conservation, or sustainability-focused organizations. - Experience building scalable partner networks, operating models, or project portfolios. **What you’ll do:** **Operational Strategy & Functional Leadership** - Define the strategic direction, priorities, and growth objectives for the Project Development function, ensuring the Foundation maintains a strong pipeline of high-quality, cost-effective projects aligned with funding opportunities and impact goals. - Evaluate portfolio composition, market trends, partner capacity, and emerging risks to proactively respond to evolving funder needs and maximize impact per dollar. - Grow and strengthen the Foundation’s planting partner network by identifying new opportunities and developing innovative sourcing approaches. - Identify and implement improvements to operating models, processes, and tools that increase scalability, efficiency, and effectiveness. - Travel 3 to 4 times a year international and domestic as needed **Partner Network & Project Development Operations** - Design sourcing processes, tools, and partner engagement approaches that enable the Foundation to identify and evaluate the right opportunities faster, scale effectively, and maintain a high-quality experience for partners. - Establish and continuously improve partner evaluation and onboarding standards and processes that protect the quality of the Foundation’s network and ensure our work remains aligned, effective, and positioned for long-term impact. - Create operating mechanisms that provide the visibilit…