Senior Director, Climate and Rights; position

Senior Director, Climate & Rights (12-month position)

Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest, creative communication and people power to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. In just the past year, we’ve secured a Global Oceans Treaty to protect wildlife and people who depend on healthy oceans. We persuaded the Biden Administration to phase out single‑use plastics from federal operations.

And we safeguarded healthy spaces, from national marine sanctuaries to bans on seabed mining to stopping liquefied national gas terminals poisoning Gulf Coast communities. Our work spans more than 50 years of fights and successes.

Greenpeace USA seeks a dynamic, strategic, and values‑driven leader to serve as Senior Director, Climate & Rights—a senior role responsible for leading and integrating our climate and democracy campaign portfolios as a unified, coordinated body of work. This role recognizes a core truth of our time: a livable climate depends on a functioning democracy, protected civic space, and the right to dissent.

The Senior Director, Climate & Rights is a highly visible leadership role within the Programs Department, and will collaborate in close partnership with the Senior Oceans Campaign Director and other senior program leaders across GPUS’s Program, Legal, Communications, Engagement and Development teams. This position will also manage two direct reports – the Democracy Campaign Director and the Climate Campaign Director.

The Senior Director, Climate & Rights is a 12‑month contract full‑time, exempt, benefits‑eligible, hybrid position, preferably based in Washington, D.C. Candidates in other GPUS‑authorized locations (CA, NY, NJ, MA) will be considered.

• Provide senior leadership and strategic direction for Greenpeace USA’s integrated Climate & Rights portfolio, in partnership with the Chief Program Officer and Executive Director.
• Ensure that climate and democracy strategies are aligned, coordinated, and mutually reinforcing, with clear priorities and outcomes.
• Translate organizational strategy, risk appetite, and capacity constraints into focused, executable campaign direction.
• Identify opportunities where democracy and rights strategies strengthen climate outcomes—and vice versa.
• Provide leadership for our work to defend speech and peaceful protest against SLAPP lawsuits.
• Partner with Development and senior leadership to support fundraising efforts, helping translate Climate & Rights strategies and impact into compelling donor narratives, funder briefings, and strategic opportunities that advance Greenpeace USA’s revenue and growth goals.

• Directly manage and support the Climate Campaign Director and Democracy Campaign Director, serving as a coach, thought partner, and accountability point.
• Ensure Directors and their teams are aligned on strategy, timelines, resourcing, and ways of working.
• Support Directors in navigating complexity, tradeoffs, and decision‑making in a high‑risk and fast‑moving environment.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, learning, and shared ownership across the Climate & Rights portfolio.
• Ensure best practices are applied to budget management, reporting requirements and other internal processes.

• Ensure campaign strategies are developed with strong integration across legal, communications, engagement, fundraising, and operations.
• Partner closely with the Senior Director of Oceans to ensure alignment across program priorities, shared narratives, and organizational sequencing.
• Work with program leadership to assess tradeoffs, sequencing, and resourcing across issue areas.
• Support consistent evaluation, learning, and iteration across campaigns.

• Model and reinforce Greenpeace USA’s values of justice, nonviolence, and people‑powered change.
• Support healthy, sustainable workloads and clear decision‑making structures across teams.
• Foster transparent, consistent, and fair management practices that support…