Applied Forest & Fire Strategy Manager

Location
:
The Nature Conservancy - This position works remotely to serve the entire western United States and can be located in any of the eleven states:
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming.

Pay: $73,000-$103,785/year

The Western Dry Forests Program is working to transform the pace, scale, and effectiveness of forest stewardship across the western United States. The program focuses on dry, frequent‑fire forest systems where proactive restoration, strong partnerships, and sustained investment can deliver meaningful ecological and community benefits.

A core element of this work is advancing a defined set of high‑priority landscapes—places where ecological urgency, community vulnerability, and strategic opportunity align, and where targeted support can catalyze durable, landscape‑scale outcomes. These landscapes serve as platforms for collaboration, learning, and investment, helping TNC and its partners demonstrate what is possible and accelerate progress across the broader region.

The Applied Forest & Fire Strategy Manager plays a critical role in helping these landscapes succeed by supporting TNC’s state chapters (also known as Business Units (BUs)) across the West with coordination, resourcing, learning, and integration. This role does not manage on‑the‑ground restoration projects or direct implementation staff. Instead, it focuses on strengthening the systems, connections, and enabling conditions that allow BU‑led work to move faster, farther, and more consistently.

Success in this role requires comfort operating in dynamic, evolving conditions—where priorities shift, roles are intentionally flexible, and progress depends on creative problem‑solving, initiative, and trust rather than formal authority. This position helps shape how the work happens as much as what work moves forward.

Working closely with BU practitioners, North America and Global programs (including North America Fire and the Fire Learning Network (FLN)), and Western Dry Forests core staff within TNC this position helps translate strategy into effective execution across the region’s priority landscapes – helping connect national expertise, network‑based partnerships, and tools with BU‑led conservation priorities.

This position works remotely to serve the entire western United States and can be located in any of the eleven states:
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of strategy and practice—who is comfortable navigating uncertainty, connecting varied actors, and helping shape how complex work moves forward at scale.

This position is well suited to someone who:

• Enjoys working across geographies and organizational boundaries
• Brings a systems mindset to conservation challenges
• Brings a relationship‑based, network‑oriented approach to complex conservation challenges
• Values listening, facilitation, and co‑creation with place‑based staff and partners
• Can balance strategic thinking with practical, hands‑on support
• Is comfortable operating in ambiguity and shaping the edges of their role as priorities, partnerships, and opportunities evolve
• Values collaboration, learning, and equity as core elements of conservation success

• Support Business Units engaged in priority dry forest landscapes by helping coordinate landscape‑level conservation planning, sequencing, and cross‑partner efforts, including co‑developing a shared understanding of landscape dynamics, priority needs, and feasible intervention opportunities—while leaving delivery authority with BUs.
• Help identify and reduce barriers that slow implementation, including gaps in capacity, coordination, conservation planning readiness (e.g., data analysis, alignment), or resourcing.
• Operate with a high degree of autonomy and adaptability, helping define approaches, clarify roles, and surface next steps in situations where pathways are not fully formed and solutions must be co‑created with partners and place‑based staff.
• Contribute to the development of practical business,…