DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS, NORTH AMERICA

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Director of Programs, North America will be responsible for establishing Delterra as a leading NGO partner in advancing material circularity systems across the region. They will set the vision, develop and provide leadership for regional programmatic work, including setting clear priorities, delivering the implementation of our strategy, seeking opportunities to grow our impact by building and leveraging relationships with key stakeholders, and managing the North America team. The role will also be responsible for strengthening collaboration across Delterra’s teams to ensure strategic approaches are aligned and learnings shared across all geographies. 

This role will have a heavy focus on entrepreneurial growth and delivering impact, securing funding, extending our reach in the region and enhancing Delterra’s reputation as a leader in sustainable recycling and waste management and inclusive economic development.   

Specific responsibilities are outlined below: 

• Provide program leadership for our North America programs, including: 

• Set vision and strategic priorities, identify and build new programs consistent with the North America strategyin close consultation with the CEO, other country programs and North America’s program team: 
• Identify emerging opportunities where Delterra can accelerate circularity in North America, informed by market dynamics, policy developments, and stakeholder needs. 
• Develop new program concepts, partnerships, and funding strategies thatexpand Delterra’s impact beyond existing initiatives. 
• Incubate and test new models, pilots, and partnerships that address systemic barriers to circular materials systems. 
• Support program delivery for existing and future programs and ensure learnings and impact on the ground support broader scaling efforts. 
• Evaluate which initiatives should scale, evolve, or sunsetbased on impact and strategic alignment. 
• Communicate and coordinate regularly with the rest of the Global Leadership team to share learnings, raise and address issues, and ensure consistent messaging across the organization. 
• Build, deepen and manage high-level relationships with critical stakeholders, funders and program partners including relevant government officials:
• Secure ambitious funding to achieve our impact,in collaboration with the Partnerships team, CEO and Board of Directors.  
• Develop program delivery partnershipswith other NGOs and organizations that can aid in achieving impact and joint funding opportunities. 
• Develop Delterra’s reputation for external thought leadershipincluding publishing relevant knowledge pieces for the region to solidify Delterra’s position as a leader in the space. 
• Represent and speak on behalf of Delterraat relevant conferences, workshops, meetings and media opportunities. 
• Oversee the management of our North America team and programs:
• Oversee recruiting, hiring, and performance managementfor the region to support program goals on the ground.  
• Provide regular coaching and mentorship to North America program leadership, while remaining accessible to all members of the team as a thought partner and mentor. 
• Own budget forecasting and resource allocationdecisions for the region.  
• Proactively manage and mitigate program riskin region through deliberate establishment and reinforcement of internal protocols, transparency mechanisms, and contingency planning. 

• As a member of the Global Executive Leadership team, this role will also have organization-wide responsibilities that may include:  

• Strategic and operational planning: collaboratively set program goals, KPIs, timelines, and associated resourcing and budgeting; develop and implement resourcing plans, ways of working and support the CEO in preparing reports on program progress to Delterra’s board. 
• Program scaling and expansion, including Playbook:work closely with the CEO and other Program Leaders to incorporate learnings from each geography and define program priorities, strategy, and workplan, including future pilot locations, solutions and partnerships (e.g., travel to identify future locations and due diligences on potential Delterra partners). 
• Build our young but fast-growing organization: support our operations and program teams in identifying, designing, and implementing new systems and processes, as well as role modelling our organizational culture and values.  

This position reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and will serve as a senior leader within the organization, managing programmatic teams in North America and working closely with the leadership team to advance Delterra’s mission.  

QUALIFICATIONS 

• Native or professional fluency in English is required. 

• Minimum 15 years of experience in strategy, special initiatives, or program delivery, with a proven track record in building and managing large, diverse, high-performing teams and delivering successful programs. 

• Experience ideally in waste management and recycling, packaging design, or broader related sustainability topics (e.g., circular economy, reuse) and/or related industries (e.g., fast-moving consumer goods, manufacturing, municipal services/utilities), with a strong established network in the space. 

• Strong track record as an inspirational team leader, who fosters a non-hierarchical, high-performing and supportive culture, with extensive experience coaching others to become effective leaders themselves and a passion for improving ways of working. 

• Ability to structure and communicate complex information effectively to a highly diverse set of audiences – particularly context, main points to understand, implications for strategy/project delivery, asks and next steps. 

• Strong track record building respect and credibility with senior decision makers, such as government officials, corporate executives, major donors, and community leaders. The ideal candidate will have existing relationships in North America in the public sector or circularity space that can be drawn upon to accelerate our growth and impact.  

• Ability to thrive in “build the plane as you fly it” environments: comfortable managing the ambiguity and risks inherent to innovation; adapting to the situation at hand, helping teams prioritize dynamically based on new information; staying positive and creative in the face of setbacks and driving rapid progress. 

• Minimum a Bachelor Education in Environmental, Public Policy, Development, Economics, Business, and/or relevant fields. Advanced Degree preferred.  

• Pluses include: 

• Experience developing compelling program proposals that attract grants and donations is strongly preferred. 

• Experience managing diverse teams both in-person and remotely. 

• Experience working in social impact and emerging economy contexts, especially building inclusive solutions in partnership with local stakeholders. 

• Experience in a start-up environment (i.e., resource constrained, fast evolving, flexible). 

Further details: 

• This role will be based in the USA or Canada, with regular travel for meetings.  
• All nationalities are welcome to apply but applicants must have the right to work in the country in which they reside. We cannot sponsor visas.
• We are an equal opportunity employer