Vice President of Research

The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) is the national leader in market solutions for conservation, with over 45 years of research and a network of respected scholars, practitioners, and partners. Through research, law and policy, and innovative field conservation programs, PERC explores how aligning incentives for environmental stewardship produces sustainable outcomes for land, water, and wildlife.

Founded in 1980, PERC is at the forefront of inspiring the next era of conservation, one grounded in markets, incentives, and the belief that lasting change happens when people and nature thrive together. To PERC, “how” you do conservation matters. Its research department is the cornerstone of the organization. PERC is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and proudly based in Bozeman, Montana.

The Vice President of Research leads PERC’s intellectual engine—setting a research vision and strategy that executes the organizational agenda, while conducting research and leading a program that moves ideas from concept to real-world conservation impact. PERC research operates on two horizons: translating rigorous scholarship into tangible shifts in policy and practice, and investing in the foundational ideas and emerging scholars whose work will open the next frontier of market-based conservation.

The Vice President will ensure our research is rigorous, relevant, and aligned with PERC’s mission of advancing conservation through markets, incentives, property rights, and partnerships.

This role oversees the research department, including management of a core in‑house research and publications team (4), senior fellows, and external collaborators. The Vice President will have the opportunity to expand the research team’s footprint, including additional in‑house roles and leadership over a growing external network. This role oversees more than $750,000 (and growing) in annual research budgets that are deployed to expand PERC’s network of world‑class researchers and seed bold ideas market conservation.

Since this is a senior leadership position, the ideal candidate is someone who is visionary, strategic, and has the ability to inspire a growing team of researchers. The person should also be committed to PERC’s vision of a world with healthy land, water, and wildlife sustained by voluntary, cooperative conservation and incentives for environmental stewardship. They also bring a strategic instinct and rigorous research background and will work closely with organizational leadership to shape PERC’s research direction and long‑term impact.

In that role, they will partner with the law and policy team to identify where research can shape the law, influence regulatory practice, and advance systemic change. They will collaborate with the innovation lab team to ensure ideas move from concept to field‑tested application, and that field experience loops back to inform and sharpen the research agenda. Working with the communications team, they will translate research into narratives that reach and move key audiences.

We seek a proven research leader who will help shape our future trajectory in market‑based conservation, has the network and relationships in research and academia to build and elevate the team to get there, and can maintain the relentless focus on results that PERC’s model demands. This is a leadership role for someone who can inspire, conduct, and shape research as a tool for building the next era of conservation—one grounded in markets, partnerships, and results.

The Vice President of Research will partner closely with PERC’s leadership team and report to the CEO.

• Shape and execute PERC’s organizational research vision, agenda, and strategy, ensuring the work is rigorous, relevant, and aligned with PERC’s market‑based conservation mission
• Build, oversee, and mentor a core in‑house research and publications team, as well as external collaborators, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and impact
• Set the vision and direction for PERC’s Senior Fellows and Visiting Fellows programs, ensuring their work advances and complements the broader research agenda
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