Director, International Government Relations

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Full-time Regular Remote, AK, US

8 days ago Requisition

Salary Range: $ To $ Annually

POSITION TITLE: Director, International Government Relations

DEPARTMENT/PROGRAM: Conservation Programs

REPORTS TO: Vice President, External Affairs

STATUS: Regular, Full-Time, Exempt

LOCATION:Washington, DC preferred (hybrid); other states considered: AK, CA, FL, MD, OR, TX, VA, WA, WV

ABOUT OCEAN CONSERVANCY

For more than 50 years, Ocean Conservancy has delivered effective, evidence-based solutions for the ocean and all who depend on it. Today, we continue to unite science, people and policy to protect our ocean from the greatest challenges it faces: climate change, plastic pollution and biodiversity loss. We are a 501(C)3 headquartered in Washington, D.C. that inspires a worldwide network of partners, advocates and supporters through our comprehensive and clear-eyed approach to ocean conservation.

Together, we are securing a healthy ocean and a thriving planet, forever and for everyone.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Director, International Government Relations is responsible for coordinating Ocean Conservancy's (OC) international policy advocacy across conservation programs and the International Government Relations (IGR) team, ensuring OC shows up before governments and institutions with a single, credible voice. The Director runs the cross-program coordination systems that keeps OC's international engagement coherent and coordinates a unified "One-OC" presence at major convenings like Our Ocean, the UN Ocean Conference and UNEA.

The Director also builds cross-program capability in international advocacy and diplomacy through shared playbooks, coaching and strategic input.

OC's international advocacy is distributed across conservation programs and the IGR team rather than centralized in IGR alone. The Director's role is to both directly drive and engage in international advocacy, and to also be the connective tissue that helps international efforts across programs add up to more than the sum of their parts. Reporting to the Vice President of External Affairs, the Director will work closely with program leads across OC's conservation portfolio — including Biodiversity, Climate, and Plastics — as well as Communications and Development, to advance OC's international policy goals.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Directly engaging in international advocacy and managing the IGR team

• Directly engage with governments and international institutions on behalf of Ocean Conservancy’s ocean conservation advocacy priorities.
• Manage IGR team direct reports.
• Ownership of the IGR team budget, annual workplan and internal reporting.

Driving international advocacy strategies and coordination across teams

• Strengthen program staff’s effectiveness at international advocacy and diplomacy through strategic guidance on coalition-building, diplomacy and negotiation strategy.
• Run OC’s internal coordination systems, including cross-program coordination calls and organization-wide global visibility updates.
• Proactively identify and address coordination gaps.

Coordinating key international multi-issue events and a unified international calendar

• Coordinate a unified “One-OC” approach at major multi-issue convenings (e.g., Our Ocean, UN Ocean Conference, UNEA) — defining institutional success, sequencing engagements and establishing a fair, transparent process for allocating scarce opportunities such as speaking roles, side events and high-level bilateral meetings.
• Maintain a shared international events calendar and planning tracker that programs actively use to plan…