Ocean Innovation Project Advisor

**Who We Are**:
The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to protect the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science-based organization, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that we can create a world in which people and nature thrive. We’re rooted in our Mission and guided by our Values, which includes a Commitment to Diversity and Respect for People, Communities, and Cultures. Whether it’s career development, flexible schedules, or a rewarding mission, there’s lots of reasons to love life #insideTNC. Want a better insight to TNC? Check out our TNC Talent playlist on YouTube or on Glassdoor.

**What We Can Achieve Together**:
The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. TNC works directly on-the-ground and through science, policies, and partnerships to address the primary threats to the ocean and coasts, including overfishing, habitat destruction, and climate change. With projects in 81 countries, TNC works with communities, NGOs, academia, private sector, and governments, to leverage science, policy, and markets to sustain ocean health and transform supply chains. Traditional conservation activities are not scaling fast enough to meet the escalating challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change. To reach TNC’s ambitious ocean conservation goal, to conserve 4 billion hectares of ocean by 2030, public and private investments are needed to create the conditions for rapid adoption of conservation activities and technologies at the necessary scale and scope to address the most urgent ocean conservation challenges.

The Ocean Innovation Project Advisor assists in the development and implementation of a key strategy to drive collaboration amount partners to identify and test and adopt new technologies to address key conservation challenges and support progress towards TNC 2030 goals.

**ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS**

The Ocean Innovation Project Advisor supports Global Oceans and regional leadership by managing the Ocean Innovation Challenge to:

- Identify conservation challenges to tackle with new technology and promote key enabling conditions that support successful development of solutions for improved ocean health.
- Drive collaboration among stakeholders, governments, communities, and identified startups to test and adopt solutions.
- Launch and operate a network of purpose-designed pilots to validate technology-led solution pathways that ensure tangible impact and return to conservation.
- Build a portfolio of solutions to be integrated across TNC and partner sites.
- Advance widespread adoption and scaling of suitable technologies to achieve TNC 2030 goals.

They serve as a key liaison and informational contact between the global strategy team and other TNC staff, as well as external partners. They advise TNC communications, marketing and philanthropy staff on issues related to the Ocean Innovation Challenge or other priority projects to ensure that TNC’s internal and external communications accurately reflect the strategy and conservation goals.

**RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE**

Lead the overall design and strategy execution to deliver the workplan and successfully launch the new Global Ocean Innovation Challenge between The Nature Conservancy and key partners (including the Ocean Tech Accelerator, Ocean Exploration, local NGOs and government).

Activities include:

- Establish project workplans, deliverables, project management structure, clear roles and expectations of TNC (global and field teams) and partners, schedule for donor reporting, metrics, and outcomes.
- Clarify plan and roles needed to articulate and collect relevant project and internal reporting metrics (e.g., conservation metrics, site requirements, donor requirements) and oversee reporting.
- Lead development and management of budget, spend-plan and identification of fundraising needs to complete project based on agreed roles and activities.
- Oversee execution of project, monitoring and evaluation of program deliverables to ensure outcomes are met and ensure the project is delivered on time and within budget while ensuring that stakeholders are kept informed as appropriate.
- Serve as the main point of contact for the project among internal and external project partners.
- Serve as liaison and the core node between TNC’s field teams and project technology partners.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with key project partners, including project teams, investors, industry partners, and government agencies.
- Support in engaging potential new donors to support the Ocean Innovation Partnership and stewardship of existing donors to the partnership.
- Lead effective coordination and engagement with TNC field staff (initial pilot in Indonesia) and project partners to ensure alignment with organizational goals, support field team to secure project staff in region to support project delivery.
- Support design and execution of key events