Climate Policy Specialist

Are you passionate about building an equitable and resilient food and agricultural system? Do you love working collaboratively? Do you keep the latest IPCC assessment within arms reach at all times? The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is seeking a Climate Policy Specialist to lead our Coalition’s climate change policy work. This role will build on your skills and experience in sustainable agriculture and climate policy, scientific analysis, direct advocacy, and grassroots engagement. If you are just as excited about applying a climate lens to farm policy development as you are about collaboratively building advocacy campaigns, this is the job for you.

The Climate Policy Specialist will engage in all elements of the Coalition’s climate change policy work in close collaboration with NSAC policy and grassroots staff and coalition members. In addition, the Climate Policy Specialist will work with other members of the policy team on shared campaigns and help to further our racial equity efforts, including through engagement with NSAC’s Racial Justice Committee. Because climate change is a cross-cutting issue, the Climate Policy Specialist will necessarily play a highly collaborative role alongside NSAC members, staff, and external partners and stakeholders to ensure that NSAC's overall approach to climate and agriculture is science-based, forward-thinking, and informed by climate-related priorities across NSAC's policy work.

This is a full-time, exempt, bargaining unit position that offers benefits as outlined in the employee handbook and reports to NSAC’s Policy Director. NSAC operates with a flexible work policy allowing for hybrid/remote work when possible. We strongly prefer that candidates be able to work on a regular basis from our Capitol Hill office at 110 Maryland Avenue, NE, Suite 209, Washington, DC. We will consider strong candidates based elsewhere with willingness to travel regularly to Washington.

Desired Qualifications

This is not an entry level position. The ideal candidate will have at least 3-5 years of climate policy or advocacy experience and possess strong organizational and analytical skills, excellent attention to detail, and a demonstrated interest in advancing equitable and resilient farm and food systems. We strongly encourage interested candidates to apply if they meet at least 75% of the qualifications. We also strongly encourage applications from people of color, people from working class backgrounds, women, people with non traditional academic backgrounds, LGBTQ people, or those who are members of other marginalized communities.

• An understanding of and passion for sustainable agriculture and food systems.
• Demonstrated understanding of how racial equity intersects with agriculture and food systems and the ability and enthusiasm to apply this understanding to specific research and analysis, policy development, ground-truthing, and decision-making.
• A master’s degree or higher in climate science, food systems, agroecology, agricultural economics, agronomy, geography, law or public policy, or related field; or a bachelor’s degree with 5+ years relevant work experience.
• Familiarity and experience with climate policy development and analysis, climate research and data analysis, and the application of scientific analyses to policy development.
• Experience engaging in the policy process at the federal, state, or local level.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to translate complex information, data, and technical details to a variety of audiences and partners.
• Exceptional initiative and interpersonal skills, including the ability to work independently and collaboratively, listen well, build trust, give and receive feedback, and model healthy conflict resolution.
• Strong project management skills; capable of planning, prioritizing, and troubleshooting efforts in an ongoing manner and working on variable, sometimes fast-paced project timelines.
• Ability to work effectively with, value differences of, and incorporate the experiences and policy impacts on diverse groups of individuals, including race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and socioeconomic circumstances.
• Enthusiasm for and experience in cultivating lasting relationships and accountable partnerships with a diverse body of stakeholders and decision makers.
• Willingness to travel domestically several times a year.

Additional Experience or Skills that Will Help You Excel

The following skills are not required, but are desired:

• Experience working in a Congressional office or with a federal agency.
• Experience with field-based or other research and data collection systems.
• Experience working on a farm or other food enterprise, or within an agricultural community.
• Experience with multi-organization grassroots coalitions, facilitation, and consensus building.
• Background with grassroots advocacy campaigns (e.g. field organizing, lobby days, etc).
• Bilingual fluency in a language other than English.

Salary and Benefits

NSAC offers a competitive non-profit salary, dependent on qualifications and experience, $72 - 90,000.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Deadline to apply is Sunday, April 28th. 

Visit our application page for position details, salary range, and more.