This is a hybrid position which requires 8 days per month in the office. You can be based in our office in Nairobi or Kigali. Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission as WRI is unable to sponsor any visa work sponsorship for this position.
About the Program:
About 65% of Africaโs farmlands are degraded, negatively affecting soil health, water quality and quantity, food production, availability of fodder, wood fuel and other critical livelihood supporting functions. Forests, grasslands, wetlands and other lush landscapes are also facing rapid degradation, and decline, leading to loss of biodiversity, desertification, loss of cultural sites and values and accelerated impacts from climate change. Without urgent action, deforestation and land degradation pose a serious existential threat to more than 60% of people across Africa who rely on the land to feed their families. It also undermines the national and global goals of reversing biodiversity loss and action on climate change.
Yet landscape restoration presents great opportunities for people, nature and climate. Across the continent, \"restoration champions\" are leading a powerful movementโrestoring soil health, biodiversity, and addressing climate challenges. Restore Local is WRI Africaโs flagship initiative to invest in this locally led restoration movement, transforming Africaโs landscapes in alignment with the continent-wide AFR100 Initiative.
Restoring Africaโs landscapes requires a comprehensive approach that addresses every aspect of the restoration journey. WRI Africaโs blueprint outlines four essential areas of focus :
1. Develop Capacity: To ensure they are ready to receive funding and deliver impact, Restore Local provides targeted training and builds the capacity of restoration champions.
2. Deploy Finance: Through innovative financing mechanisms that blend public, private, and philanthropic capital, Restore Local directly funds champions who restore vitality to the land. Through its TerraFund program alone, it has made $17 million in investments to date.
3. Secure Policy: Restore Local supports government institutions in creating plans and policies that fund and monitor restoration. It connects policymakers with each other and with technical experts through programs such as the Landscape Policy Accelerator.
4. Monitor, Report, Verify, Learn: Through the TerraMatch platform, which combines cutting-edge geospatial data with on-the ground verification, Restore Local enables restoration champions to share the impact of their work with their community, peers and investors.
Building on nearly a decade of WRIโs restoration work in Africa, Restore Local began in 2023 and is supporting more than 200 restoration champions in growing millions of trees, creating jobs and restoring critical ecosystem functions.
Halfway through its implementation period, Restore Local is now redoubling its effort in its three target landscapes โ The Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda; the Greater Rift Valley of Kenya; and the Cocoa Belt of Ghana โ and partnering with additional countries to replicate its approach.
Job Highlight:
Reporting to report to the Director of Food, Land, and Water at WRI Africa and the Global Director of Restoration, you will lead one of the most ambitious locally driven restoration efforts on the African continent. You will direct a team of 90+ professionals in 5 African countries, including program managers, technical experts, and field officers implementing restoration.
Your mission is simple in words but challenging in execution: Empower communities to restore millions of hectares of degraded land. Your multidisciplinary team and its 10+ external partnerships will be responsible for finding, funding, managing, and monitoring projects led by restoration champions, building their technical and operational skills, and deploying cutting-edge AI datasets and tested field monitoring techniques. Your team will also build core business process that can shape the development of the โnew restoration economyโ in other African countries, including in Ethiopia and Malawi. To make this possible, you will manage an annual budget exceeding $20 million USD.
Your mandate will include strategy execution and review, staff and project management, cross-organizational coordination, and fundraising for this large-scale initiative. You will work closely with WRI teams in Africa, the U.S., and Europe, as well as Brazil, India, and Indonesia, to integrate cross-geography learnings and best practices into Africaโs restoration efforts. You will integrate equity into your work.
What you will do:
Program Strategy & Implementation (50%):
- Work with the WRI Africaโs Food, Land, and Water (FLW) Director and WRIโs Global Director of Restoration to ensure that Restore Local drives impact and is locally relevant across priority geographies
- Oversee the development and implementation of Restore Localโs annual goals, workplans, and budgets
- Assist program teams in aligning their workplans and results framework with Restore Localโs strategy and WRIโs institutional priorities
- Lead the design and implementation of team frameworks, processes, and tools for strategic and results-based management of Restore Local
- Implement Restore Localโs accountability matrix (e.g., RACI framework) to facilitate strategic decision making across a highly matrixed and cross-geography team
- Oversee measurement and reporting of Restore Local outcomes to maintain accountability to donors and WRI leadership
- Providing governance and oversight across multiple projects in Restore Local program, ensuring compliance with organizational policies, procedures, and standards
- Prepare regular written updates for internal and external communication
Staff/Team Management (25%):
- Directly supervise a multi-disciplinary team of Restore Local managers in Africa ensuring timely and high-quality delivery
- Mentor junior staff, nurturing talent for professional growth
- Manage timely execution of internal team decision-making processes, strategy reviews, pause & reflect sessions to capture learnings, annual goal setting, and team performance reviews
- Coordinate with other WRI teams (e.g., Food team, Water team, Cities team) as needed to ensure alignment and integration of Restore Local activities
Fundraising & Thought Leadership (25%):
โข Work with the WRI leadership and development experts to build, prioritize, and manage a pipeline of prospective funders and investors
โข Contribute to successful six- and seven-figure proposals to advance the objectives of Restore Local, with a focus on outcome-based finance mechanisms and innovative monitoring practices
โข Work with the Communications team to develop and implement an integrated strategy for influencing public sector leaders, private financiers and philanthropies, and restoration champions to advance the goals of Restore Local
โข Represent WRI in diverse communities, including speaking engagements, attending conferences, and participating in other key internal and external meetings
โข Help the team develop and prioritize partnerships with external organizations that can help achieve Restore Localโs desired impact; drive decision-making and course corrections when needed.
What you will need:
- Education: You have a completed masterโs degree in environmental management, public policy, finance, economics, or similar. Relevant work experience is accepted in lieu of a degree
- Experience: You have 12+ years full-time relevant work experience, at least 3 in a management capacity, in the field of program management, nature-based solutions and climate change resilience in Africa
- Demonstrated experience working in non-profit organizations and prior engagement on environmental or international development, with extensive experience in program management methods and tools
- Demonstrated experience managing complex projects from beginning to end and have familiarity with frameworks for planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (PMEL)
- Experience with non-grant funding in climate and nature-based solutions and with engaging private and public sector financiers
- Demonstrated ability in managing a complex workload with a largely remote team
- Demonstrated success in convening stakeholders from multiple backgrounds and with diverse interests around a shared vision and working in a multi-disciplinary and intercultural team
- Demonstrated interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills, managing complex situations with tact, respect and diplomacy
- Experience communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
- Position will require regular travel regionally and internationally
- Languages: Written and spoken proficiency in English. Written and spoken fluency in French is highly desired
- Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position is based. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization.
Potential Salary:
Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors.
How to Apply:
Please submit a resume with a cover letter by 19 September 2025. We may close for applications sooner if we receive a high volume of qualified applications.
You must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.
What we offer:
- A competitive salary
- Access to the WRI global network with the opportunity to exchange with and learn from passionate colleagues working at the cutting edge of their fields across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the US
- The chance to have an impact and to develop your career within a mission driven organization