Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Classification: Full-time, Exempt
Location: Remote
Apply by: August 21, 2026
Salary band: $135,000 - $160,000
About Sustain
Our Future Foundation Sustain Our Future Foundation (SOFF) is a national nonprofit organization that advances equitable community benefits by embedding justice-driven capital strategies within large-scale renewable energy and other sustainability infrastructure projects.
SOFF works alongside corporations, developers, governments, investors, and communities to redesign how large-scale infrastructure projects generate public value. SOFF was founded in 2023 to promote accountability, meaningful community participation, and equitable community benefits. For SOFF, community benefits include development standards that center people and planet protections, and community-defined grants that improve local economic opportunity, environmental quality, public health, and overall community well-being.
SOFF’s work includes structuring and implementing community benefit funds, and facilitating community co-developed grantmaking processes that resource communities to lead their own climate and environmental priorities. SOFF also supports infrastructure project implementation by bridging companies and local communities to advance thoughtful project planning, siting, and deployment guided by development practices that center local economic prosperity and long-term wellness for people and the planet. To date, SOFF has deployed $15 million in grants to advance local community benefits.
By leaning into a radical imagination for transformative change, SOFF envisions a health-oriented, equitable, and regenerative economy that bridges sustainable development, community wellness, and ecological preservation. By combining innovation, collaboration, and practical implementation, SOFF is helping build the institutional infrastructure necessary for a just and regenerative economy.
Based in Washington, D.C., with a fully remote team across the United States, SOFF works nationally through its community-centered infrastructure solutions and community investment programs to advance equitable and sustainable infrastructure development.
For more information, please visit our website at www.sustainourfuture.org.
Who We Seek
SOFF seeks an entrepreneurial, strategic, and collaborative leader to serve as our Director of Strategic Initiatives. This role will help shape the future of our community-centered infrastructure development by cultivating strategic partnerships, originating innovative community benefit collaborations, advancing development accountability standards, and designing scalable approaches that strengthen relationships between communities and sustainability infrastructure developers.
The Director will work across renewable energy and other sustainability infrastructure sectors to help corporations, developers, governments, and communities move beyond traditional stakeholder engagement toward collaborative models that generate meaningful, measurable, and community-defined accountability and benefit frameworks. They will develop repeatable approaches that enable community-centered infrastructure development across projects and sectors.
The Director will create the partnerships, frameworks, and implementation models that enable SOFF to successfully deliver community benefit initiatives at scale. Working closely with SOFF’s Program Director and cross-functional teams, this individual will bridge strategy and implementation by developing new opportunities while ensuring partners have the tools, technical assistance, and support necessary to achieve successful outcomes.
This position is ideal for someone who enjoys building new models, cultivating trusted relationships across sectors, translating ambitious ideas into practical implementation strategies, and helping shape an emerging field.
The ideal candidate will possess the following qualities:
- Strategic Relationship Builder: Builds trusted partnerships across corporations, community organizations, and governments while identifying opportunities for collaboration and shared impact.
- Innovative Systems Thinker: Designs creative solutions to complex challenges and enjoys building new models that can be replicated and scaled.
- Entrepreneurial: Comfortable operating in ambiguity, identifying emerging opportunities, and transforming ideas into action.
- Collaborative Leader: Leads through influence, creates cross-functional collaboration, and empowers teams and partners to succeed.
- Diplomatic Facilitator: Navigates competing interests with empathy, credibility, and professionalism while building consensus among diverse stakeholders.
- Exceptional Communicator: Communicates complex ideas clearly through writing, presentations, facilitation, and relationship management.
- Mission Driven: Demonstrates a deep commitment to environmental justice, equitable sustainable development, and community-centered decision making.
The ideal candidate will possess the following experiences and competencies:
- 8–10 years of professional experience spanning sustainability, infrastructure, corporate partnerships, consulting, community development, community benefit agreements, public-private partnerships, environmental justice, philanthropy, or related fields.
- Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree in sustainability, environmental management, public policy, planning, business, engineering, public health, or a related discipline preferred.
- Demonstrated success cultivating strategic partnerships across multiple sectors. - Experience working with corporate sustainability teams, infrastructure developers, or utilities.
- Experience designing and managing multi-stakeholder initiatives involving corporate, nonprofit, and community partners.
- Knowledge of renewable energy, carbon removal, circularity, sustainable infrastructure, climate strategy, environmental justice, community development, or related fields.
- Demonstrated understanding of community engagement, community governance, or community benefit strategies.
- Experience developing innovative programs, partnerships, frameworks, or organizational initiatives.
- Strong strategic thinking, problem solving, and organizational design skills.
- Experience facilitating collaborative meetings, workshops, or stakeholder processes.
- Experience managing staff while leading cross-functional teams and external partners.
- Excellent writing, presentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
- Strong project leadership and organizational management abilities.
- Ability to work independently in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.
- Ability to travel nationally as needed.
- Authorization to work in the United States.
Essential Job Functions
The Director of Strategic Initiatives will play a central role in shaping how communities and infrastructure developers work together to create more equitable, accountable, and regenerative approaches to sustainable development. This position offers the opportunity to help define an emerging field by designing new partnership models, advancing voluntary standards, supporting transformational collaborations, and building practical solutions that improve how infrastructure projects generate lasting community value.
This role requires approximately 25-30% travel, nationally, to support building trust and relationships by meeting partners in their communities, and to attend conferences and other learning and networking events. Reasonable accommodation will be made for individuals with disabilities, those who have caregiving responsibilities, and those who reside in rural areas.
Essential job functions include and are not limited to the following:
Community Benefit Strategy and Innovation
- Lead the design, piloting, and scaling of innovative approaches to community-centered infrastructure development that strengthen relationships between developers, governments, and communities.
- Originate and structure community benefit collaborations tied to renewable energy and other sustainable infrastructure projects, developing partnership models that generate meaningful, measurable, and community-defined outcomes.
- Lead the development, implementation, testing, and continuous improvement of SOFF's development standards and accountability frameworks, translating lessons learned from projects into new methodologies, tools, and best practices.
- Oversee infrastructure project due diligence utilizing SOFF's standards and community-centered evaluation approaches to support responsible project planning and implementation.
- Identify emerging trends across sustainable infrastructure, environmental justice, corporate sustainability, and public policy to inform new consulting services, organizational strategy, and innovative partnership models.
- Provide strategic technical assistance to corporate partners, infrastructure developers, local governments, and community organizations to support the effective implementation of SOFF's development standards, community benefit approaches, and collaborative governance models.
- Develop practical guidance, workshops, training resources, and implementation tools that strengthen partner capacity and promote consistent application of SOFF's approaches.
Strategic Partnerships and Project Management
- Cultivate long-term relationships with corporate sustainability teams, infrastructure developers, investors, government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and community-based organizations.
- Identify opportunities to advance SOFF's climate and community consulting services through partnerships.
- Collaborate with clients to design and deliver solutions to achieve strategic priorities for sustainability initiatives.
- Manage multiple projects/project teams concurrently to build client relationships and deliver positive client outcomes.
- Represent SOFF at conferences, convenings, industry coalitions, and meetings.
- Serve as a thought partner to organizational leadership on emerging opportunities, partnerships, and organizational strategy.
Leadership & Organizational Development
- Build and supervise a team while creating a collaborative, equitable, and high-performing culture.
- Lead cross-functional project teams and coordinate effectively with SOFF's Programs team to ensure successful implementation of community benefit initiatives.
- Develop internal systems, processes, and tools that strengthen organizational effectiveness and support future growth.
- Contribute to organizational planning, annual goal setting, and strategic initiatives.
- Mentor staff and cultivate a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and collaboration.
- Provide regular coaching and feedback to staff, supporting their professional growth and development.
- Provide guidance, professional development opportunities, and performance evaluations to staff members, ensuring alignment with the program’s goals and the broader organizational mission.
Compensation and Benefits
This is a full-time (40 hours/week) exempt position. The salary band for this position is $135,000 - $160,000. New hires are typically brought in within the hiring range for the role (from the salary range minimum to the midpoint), providing room for compensation growth over time.
Sustain Our Future Foundation offers 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance for employees. Employees are able to enroll in an ESG 403(b) retirement plan, with a 3% employer non-elective match on contributions.
Directors receive 120 hours of paid vacation time, and 80 hours of paid sick leave annually. Additionally, employees receive 11 paid holidays throughout the calendar year. SOFF also provides a full office closure and paid time off during the month of December.
How to Apply
Email a cover letter and resume through one combined PDF file by August 21, 2026 to info@sustainourfuture.org. We invite you to lift up relevant qualifications not specified in this announcement that might make you ideal for this role in your cover letter. Use the subject line “Director of Strategic Initiatives.” Candidate reviews begin in late August. Advancing candidates will be invited to participate in two or three rounds of interviews with a diverse set of Sustain Our Future Foundation staff and partners. We hope to have a new Director join our team by early October 2026.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Sustain Our Future Foundation is an equal opportunity employer committed to building an inclusive workplace where all employees feel their experiences, perspectives, and ideas are valued. SOFF believes that diversity is critical to our mission. We strongly encourage applications from people with lived experiences related to our programs and applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals. SOFF is an equal opportunity employer; we do not discriminate in employment based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, marital status, sex, gender or gender identity, age, sexual orientation, nor other protected characteristics.
COVID-19
Policy Sustain Our Future Foundation’s vaccination policy requires all new hires (except those granted reasonable accommodations in accordance with applicable law) to be fully vaccinated and boosted for COVID-19.
