Water Group Director

Role Overview

• Lead and coordinate the Water Group confederation and its sectors, aligning strategy, strengthening collaboration, and fostering effective partnerships among members and stakeholders.
• Facilitate confederation governance and operations by convening leadership meetings, preparing agendas and briefing materials, documenting decisions, and translating strategic priorities into actionable workplans, budgets, timelines, and implementation frameworks.
• Monitor and analyze policy developments, campaigns, and emerging opportunities affecting water conservation and management, while conducting research and developing strategic recommendations to advance confederation priorities.
• Develop and maintain mapping, intelligence, and analytical products that identify coalition assets, strategic opportunities, partnership prospects, and pathways for collective impact.
• Create high-quality communications and engagement materials, including executive briefings, presentations, talking points, reports, and rapid-response resources to support confederation leaders, partners, and external audiences.
• Support fundraising and donor engagement efforts by developing case-for-support materials, cultivating philanthropic relationships, and helping build strategic funding opportunities for shared priorities.
• Establish performance metrics, track progress, synthesize lessons learned, and ensure effective coordination among confederation members while advancing inclusive practices throughout confederation activities and decision-making.

Requirements

• Minimum of eight years of experience in coalition or confederation management, policy advocacy, campaign strategy, partnership development, or multi-stakeholder leadership.
• Demonstrated success convening and influencing senior leaders, executives, funders, and diverse stakeholders to advance shared priorities and achieve measurable outcomes.
• Strong strategic planning and project management skills, including the ability to translate complex discussions into actionable workplans, implementation strategies, budgets, and performance measures.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience developing executive briefings, presentations, strategic communications, and stakeholder-facing materials.
• Experience supporting fundraising, donor cultivation, philanthropic strategy, and resource development initiatives.
• Ability to use research, data, and analysis to inform decision-making, identify opportunities, and guide strategic investments and partnerships.
• Proven ability to work effectively across diverse political, geographic, cultural, and organizational contexts, with a commitment to collaborative leadership, community-centered approaches, and advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.

Benefits

• Health and Wellness: Medical, dental, vision, long-term and short-term disability, and life insurance.
• Financial Security: After one year of service, American Rivers begins contributing a 3% employer contribution. There is no vesting schedule for employer contributions as employees are 100% vested upon participation.
• Time Off: Four weeks of paid leave, eleven paid holidays, three floating holidays, and sick leave.
• Professional development opportunities.
• Comprehensive Total Rewards package to our full-time, regular employees.
• Support for employee’s well-being, professional growth, and financial security, ensuring they can thrive both at work and in life.
• Focus Fridays (no internal meetings)
• Sabbatical leave (every seven years)
• Paid parental leave (six weeks w/ one year of service)