Water Campaign Manager

Full-Time | Hybrid | Denver | Exempt

Deadline for submission: August 31, 2025

Conservation Colorado is seeking a Water Campaign Manager, preferably based in Denver, to lead our organization’s efforts to protect our rivers, streams, and communities from the impacts of climate change, drought, and pollution.

Why Conservation Colorado?

As the largest statewide environmental organization in Colorado, our mission is simple: we work to protect our state’s climate, air, land, water, and communities. We play a unique role in Colorado as our work focuses on organizing communities, influencing decision-makers, and electing conservation-minded leaders. We work for a Colorado where every community can breathe clean air, drink clean water, protect the landscapes we share and secure our climate future. And, where communities once burdened by environmental injustices lead the way forward. You can learn more about our mission here.

About Your Role

As Water Campaign Manager, you'll work to deliver policy wins on water issues at the federal, state, and local levels. You’ll serve as our organization’s policy expert on water, reporting to the West Slope Director on our Government Affairs team. This includes running issue-specific coalitions and tables and owning issue-specific policy campaigns for the organization.

What You’ll Do

Win policy campaigns

• Develop and execute strategic water campaign plans by collaborating with external partners and Conservation Colorado colleagues.
• Ensure that our equity principles are embedded within campaigns.
• Collaborate with the Community Engagement Team to support community informed policy development.
• Help identify and inform, in collaboration with partners and staff, the policies on which the organization should be prioritizing.
• Cultivate relationships with decision-makers to aid in advancing strong water policy.

Manage coalitions and build relationships

• Build and manage effective policy-focused coalitions.
• Build and deepen relationships with a broad universe of partners, particularly those working to advance issue-specific policy and who represent disproportionately impacted communities.
• Work with partners and Conservation Colorado staff to determine policy priorities, build strategic campaign plans, and develop legislative priorities.

Develop Policy Expertise

• Develop and maintain a high level of competency on existing and emerging water policies.
• Maintain a sophisticated understanding of policy issues and political dynamics especially as they relate to impacts on disproportionately impacted communities.
• Develop a fluency in working with disproportionately impacted communities to understand the problems these communities face and design policy solutions that address the challenges based on community feedback.

All staff are also expected to participate in certain fundraising efforts, take part in our election-related activities, and commit to our efforts around equity & inclusivity.

What You'll Need to Get the Job Done

This position provides opportunities to set nationally-leading water policy. Fundamentally, we want someone who loves a good fight and has the skills and desire to do this work in the context of our theory of change -- using organizing, advocacy, and elections to build the political power necessary to drive Colorado toward a better future. You will be results-oriented, resilient, thrive on problem solving, and be a great teammate. More specifically, to be successful in this job you’ll excel in these areas.

• Comfort & Experience with Resolving Conflict. Conflict is a natural part of our work, even with our closest partners. The skills needed to address conflict productively & directly are critical. Experience having difficult conversations respectfully as well as a track record of resolving issues while still being able to move forward together is helpful.
• Emotional Intelligence. This position works at the crossroads of traditional “big green” organizations, disproportionately impacted communities, and environmental justice organizations. Balancing all of that requires self-awareness, patience, the ability to evaluate a situation for the right response and empathy.
• Experience with coalitions & relationship building. Bringing together groups that represent different constituencies, perspectives, and communities to achieve a common goal is foundational to this role. Building relationships rooted in trust and mutual respect; understanding the barriers for different social identities to engage in our work; direct & open communication; experience moving work forward by managing sideways and up are all important skills for success. It’s also important to know that our role is not that of a neutral facilitator; we are also driving our own goals forward and so the skills to balance those pieces are necessary.
• Campaigner. You need experience in developing & successfully executing campaign plans, including power mapping and knowing how to engage people to take action. We’re looking for a person who has built diverse coalitions and worked toward influencing decision makers to advance our goals.
• Knowledge and commitment to equity principles. You will need a strong desire to center disproportionately impacted communities in our policy development by having a clear and demonstrable understanding of racial equity and structural racism. You will need to develop the know-how to look at policy solutions from the perspective of who will be hurt and who will be helped, discern unintended consequences, and contemplate different policy approaches and how they may have different outcomes for different communities.

This position does not have an undergraduate education requirement. Spanish/English bilingualism is a skill we value, but it is not a requirement for this role.

What you should know about us and this role

• All Conservation Colorado positions require in person work of some kind & therefore we do require our staff to be vaccinated against COVID.
• We have embraced a hybrid work model where we offer people, in consultation with their managers, flexibility on where they work based on organizational needs, job requirements, and personal preferences.
• We are committed to building a more diverse and inclusive organization and conservation movement to fully represent and engage all Coloradans and to build as powerful a movement as we can. Recruiting staff that better reflects Colorado is a priority and we encourage applicants from all cultures, race, ethnicity, geographies, political affiliation, sexual orientations, gender identities, and all other identities represented in Colorado or protected by law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

The salary for this position ranges from $80,000 to $90,000 with exact salary depending on experience. We also offer excellent benefits such as high-quality insurance, SIMPLE IRA retirement benefit, at least 28 days of vacation & holidays as well as 6 wellness days in your first year. You can read more about these policies and other benefits here.

Please note that as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, Conservation Colorado employees are not eligible to participate in the Federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

How to Apply

If this job speaks to you, please click here to submit an application, including a cover letter addressed to Luke Schafer, a résumé, and your answers to a few short questions. If you need accommodation or assistance with our online application process, please tell us how we can help by emailing jobs@conservationco.org or by calling us at 303.333.7846.