Program Manager

The Deschutes River Conservancy seeks a Program Manager to join our dynamic team in restoring streamflow and improving water quality in the Deschutes Basin.

The Deschutes River Conservancy (DRC), based in Bend, Oregon, is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization founded in 1996 to restore stream flows and improve water quality in the Deschutes Basin. We bring together tribal, irrigation, environmental, hydropower, and federal, state and local government interests to accomplish our mission through financing and implementation of voluntary ecosystem restoration projects.

Three major program areas provide focus to our work:

• Irrigation Infrastructure Improvements
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  The DRC facilitates water conservation projects with irrigation district partners and their patrons that restore stream flows and improve water quality.
• Voluntary Market-Based Transactions
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  The DRC integrates technical support, innovation, program design, financing, and project execution to implement voluntary market- based transactions to restore stream flows.
• Basin-Wide Water Management Planning
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  The DRC coordinates and leads multi-stakeholder partnerships and cultivates relationships to design strategic solutions to Deschutes Basin water management needs.

We are governed by a 15-person board of directors and managed by a full-time Executive Director with eleven employees. The DRC has a $2-$5 million annual budget.

We are an innovative, consensus-based, and highly collaborative organization. We proactively seek new solutions for solving old problems. We don’t engage in litigation, preferring instead to leverage partners’ strengths to get the watershed-scale outcomes we seek. And we live the values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Click to read our full Mission, Vision and Values .

We honor the native people who have called this region home for thousands of years. We join them in stewardship of our rivers for the next seven generations.

You are someone who can:

• Think creatively, strategically, and entrepreneurially around complex problems
• Lead in a dynamic and evolving context and create structure out of ambiguity
• Distill complex and diverse information into effective planning and management strategies
• Understand western water rights laws and their context in Oregon water management issues
• Rapidly develop an understanding of Deschutes Basin water management context and issues
• Understand and integrate scientific, legal, and social factors to enhance strategies and tasks
• Manage multiple concurrent tasks, schedules, and budgets to meet desired goals and deadlines
• Develop and maintain trusting relationships with landowners, irrigation districts, government agencies, and other conservation organizations
• Negotiate with landowners and other partners to develop water transactions programs
• Build consensus-based solutions to move water management strategies forward
• Foster collaboration and partnership among diverse stakeholders
• Inspire innovation with internal and external teams and partners
• Communicate complex technical issues in clear and accessible forms to a variety of audiences

Basin-Wide Water Planning and Collaboration – Program Development and Management (~45%)

• Build and maintain trusting relationships with diverse groups of stakeholders to advance Deschutes Basin collaborative efforts
• Identify emerging opportunities, build collaborations, identify resources, and develop projects and programs to restore streamflow within priority stream reaches leading to lasting benefits
• Support efforts to convene and facilitate stakeholder processes in the Deschutes Basin and for priority stream reaches
• Cultivate shared vision among stakeholders