Chilean Patagonia Project Operations Officer

Chile (Santiago)

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The Environmental Portfolio at The Pew Charitable Trusts

For the past twenty-five years, Pew has been a major force in educating the public and policy makers about the causes, consequences, and solutions to some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Our environment work spans all seven continents with close to 250 professionals working full-time at the local, national, and international levels to reduce the scope and severity of global environmental problems, such as the erosion of large wilderness ecosystems that contain a great part of the world's remaining biodiversity and the destruction of the marine environment.

Pew has worked in the United States and Canada since 1990 to protect vast stretches of unspoiled wilderness and more recently expanded our land conservation efforts to Australia's Outback and Chilean Patagonia. Preserving these places offers an opportunity to conserve wildlife habitat, shorelines and pristine landscapes for future generations. Our work relies on the sciences of conservation, biology, and ecology to advocate for sound solutions to the loss of biodiversity.

In the sea, reforms to how our oceans are managed are essential to address overfishing, pollution, and loss of habitat. Pew began its oceans program in the United States, focusing on ending overfishing and protecting fragile marine habitat. Since 2005, Pew's ocean conservation program has expanded around the world and has played a significant role in reforming marine fisheries management in the European Union and on the high seas. Our work is grounded in the best available science and our goal is to reverse the decline of ocean life ranging from sharks and tunas to penguins and whales, and the habitat on which they depend.

Chilean Patagonia

Chile's Patagonia is one of the last remaining intact wilderness areas of the world, yet today it is both under-recognized and under-protected. Pew and its partners are working to change that by promoting this region's unique value in the world and developing and implementing policies to secure the long-term protection of this remarkable landscape.

Chilean Patagonia is on the west coast of the southern cone of South America, where the continent tapers toward the Antarctic Ocean. While many of Chile's natural lands all have important ecological values, Patagonia is special because of its high degree of intactness, endemism and exceptional land and sea interconnectedness.

Approximately 80 percent of this area remains unspoiled, therefore making it similar in ecological condition to Australia's Outback and Canada's Boreal, other places where Pew works. Although it is approximately one-fifth the size of the continental-scale Boreal in Canada and Outback, Chile's Patagonia stretches over several hundred miles of important wilderness that features unique geography, oceanography and ecological productivity, including a lush temperate rainforest, glacier-carved valleys, windy grasslands, inland shorelines, and countless fjords and islands.

In partnership with a robust network of non-governmental organizations in Chile, local governments and local stakeholders, Pew will work to improve and enhance the protection of this landscape through the country's park and reserve system, while also promoting public-private partnerships for new conservation efforts.

Position Overview

The officer, Chilean Patagonia project supports the project director, Chilean Patagonia project in providing broad project leadership and coordination to further outcomes, and serves as a representative on all project matters to Pew's institutional and program leadership and units in Portland, Oregon and in Washington, D.C. and with some external constituents and stakeholders in Chile and elsewhere.

The officer also ensures the effective management of resources, including developing and managing contracts, maintaining budgets, coordinating Pew's office management needs in Santiago, and assisting in preparing content for reports to donors as well as Pew's board of directors. The officer provides direction to an administrative assistant in support of office management tasks such as purchasing of office supplies, interactions with vendors, and administration of conference space.

The officer reports to the project director, and is located in Pew's Santiago, Chile office. The position has a set time frame that could be extended based on the success of the program, funding sources, and board decisions on continued support.

Responsibilities

• Provide TOP-wide leadership, in collaboration with the project director to coordinate the implementation of activities to meet TOP goals. Work with the project director to maintain a system to monitor progress against TOP deliverables, so adjustments can be made to support successful program outcomes.
• Prepare campaign materials as well as documents for the Pew board of directors, including the annual plan scorecard.
• Design and produce materials for internal use that synthesize a very complex, multi-layer project and summarize large amounts of information and to focus quickly on the essence of issues.
• Manage and maintain budgets, and track project expenditures and projections for the project and particular projects. In partnership with the project director, maintain the project budget, oversee expenditures, and review financial reporting.
• Serve as the project liaison with other Pew departments, including with other colleagues from environment, program coordination services, finance, organizational continuity management, and institutional partnerships.
• Develop and manage contracts. Identify and recommend highly measurable goals, targets and timelines for all contracts to ensure the project is successful. Monitor the progress of ongoing contractual arrangements and prepare regular oral and written summaries. Determine when contracts are at risk of not meeting their goals, identify the causes and recommend to the Project director appropriate steps to fix the problem in ways that keep the contracts on course.
• Identify, support and develop donor relationships by assisting the project director and Pew's philanthropic partnership group with developing content for proposals to funders and effectively communicating project developments and achievements. Additionally, explore complementary public and/or multilateral funding opportunities for project-related activities and partners.
• Represent Pew by participating in external meetings and events with constituents, contractors, grantees and partners.
• Serve as the project liaison to the legal department, research review and support team, and the international conservation unit. Represent the project and ensure any needs are addressed within the project team, including lobbying and review process compliance, and participation broad initiatives.
• Guide and mentor administrative assistant to ensure office management tasks are completed and programmatic functions are supported.