Senior Director, KPA Resource Mobilization

The Keystone Protected Area Finance (KPAF) Initiative is a pan-African program that strengthens the long-term financial sustainability of Africa's Keystone Protected Areas (KPAs) through a suite of Technical Assistance Facilities (TAFs). The Senior Director, KPA Resource Mobilization provides strategic leadership for the Resource Mobilization Technical Assistance Facility (RM TAF), driving KPAF's efforts to secure sustainable financing for Africa's Keystone Protected Areas. The role combines organizational leadership with deep technical expertise in public funding and resource mobilization, leading the RM TAF while directly overseeing the full scope of pipeline development, including the Public Funding workstream, and providing strategic oversight to the Keystone Funder Alliance.

• Provide strategic leadership for RM TAF.
• Lead, mentor and develop a multidisciplinary team.
• Establish strategic priorities, annual work plans and team budgets.
• Provide leadership across both the Public Funding and Funder Alliance workstreams.
• Oversee delivery against programme targets and grant commitments.
• Represent the RM TAF within KPAF leadership and across Conservation International.
• Manage and coordinate funding pipeline that aligns with KPAF Strategy and represent KPAF with donors and partners.
• Coordinate with CI's Account Managers/Leads for GEF, GCF, bilateral donors, development finance institutions, foundations, and governments to position KPAF strategically.
• Work with CI's Global Resource Mobilization team to identify and develop new funding opportunities that align with KPAF requirements.
• Work with global teams to develop a strategic engagement calendar for high-level donors and partner outreach.
• Work with the KPAF team to identify opportunities where public funding can be strategically combined with catalytic capital to unlock larger conservation finance transactions.
• Represent the RM TAF at international meetings, conferences, and senior donor engagements.
• Lead and coordinate KPAF's public funding approach, with accountability for driving results in close collaboration with CI's established public funding teams and mechanisms.
• Develop and implement KPAF's public funding strategy.
• Build and progress a pipeline across GEF, GCF, bilateral, DFI and government funding.
• Coordinate closely with CI's GEF/GCF Agencies and other relevant teams to develop and advance opportunities.
• Identify opportunities to combine public funding with catalytic capital and other finance mechanisms.
• Oversee the development of high-quality public and philanthropic funding opportunities.
• Oversee two team members in the development of major public funding proposals.
• Support multidisciplinary proposal development teams.
• Support outreach efforts of governments, Technical Assistance Facilities, and Co-management Partners in developing funding opportunities.
• Provide strategic oversight to the Keystone Funder Alliance.
• Guide the strategic direction of the Alliance.
• Support development of the Resource Mobilization Roadmap.
• Support identification and prioritization of catalytic funding opportunities.
• Support fundraising for catalytic capital that advances the development of nature finance opportunities.
• Ensure alignment between public funding and catalytic funding strategies.
• Work closely with the Director: Strategic Communications & Stakeholder Engagement to coordinate Alliance activities and shared fundraising strategies.

• Bachelor's degree in conservation, environmental management, international development, finance, economics, or a related field.
• 10 or more years of experience in public fundraising, conservation finance, international development, or a related field.
• 5 or more years of supervisory experience.
• Extensive experience building, managing, and influencing strategic partnerships with governments, institutional donors, international funding organizations, and other senior stakeholders across international and cross-cultural environments.
• Extensive experience working with GEF, GCF, bilateral donors, multilateral funding agencies, and/or other institutional funding.
• Experience leading complex proposal development processes from concept through award.
• Extensive experience engaging and developing partnerships with governments, institutional donors, and international funding organizations.
• Experience developing organizational strategy and leading complex programs.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and managing people.
• Experience working in a complex matrixed and global fundraising environment.
• Deep understanding of public funding mechanisms, including GEF, GCF, bilateral, and multilateral funding systems.
• Excellent proposal development capability.
• Strong program and project management skills.
• Exceptional strategic thinking and strategic judgment, with the ability to translate vision into implementation.
• Proven ability to build and lead high-performing, collaborative, and inclusive teams.
• Comfortable operating in complex systems and navigating ambiguity.
• Highly organized with strong prioritization and decision-making skills, delivering consistently against ambitious objectives.
• Exceptional relationship-building, stakeholder engagement, negotiation, and influencing skills.
• Skilled facilitator and convener, comfortable engaging governments, donors, and senior leaders.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including excellent proposal writing, editing, presentation.