Partner, Community Water Solutions

Willamette Partnership is a conservation non-profit that helps people and nature thrive together. We believe that people need nature, and that the well-being of communities and natural systems is inextricably linked. We do our work by building and supporting strong, multi-partner, multi-benefit solutions through collaboration.

We are hiring a new partner who will project manage collaboratives, support state and local planning and policy research, and provide direct technical assistance (TA) to communities, local governments, and tribes facing water infrastructure-related challenges.

Across a number of projects and with varying degrees of engagement (some short-term, some likely multi-year), this work will likely include planning, policy research and change, community engagement, and navigating and applying to state and federal funding sources on behalf of communities facing drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater challenges. This position will work directly with local partners throughout the Pacific Northwest to craft innovative water infrastructure solutions that improve environmental, health, and community development outcomes.

This new partner will help grow our technical assistance work, with a focus on finding sustainable, community-centered water solutions for small, low-income, and rural communities, tribal governments, and others.

Where We Work

The Willamette Partnership team has a hybrid work environment. We maintain a small collaborative office on Portland’s east side with meeting space and shared desks. Team members are welcome to use the space to their comfort level and are provided with an annual work-from-home stipend to provide equipment and materials for a safe and comfortable workspace. This position is expected to meet occasionally with the team in-person in Portland (quarterly) and involves regular (10% - 20%) regional travel (including day trips and overnight trips as needed) around Oregon and Washington, as well as occasional travel to other locations.

This position provides a unique opportunity to:

• Manage and support an exciting variety of projects (likely 4-8) that span water infrastructure planning and implementation, natural infrastructure and restoration, collaborative decision-making, local and state policy change, and community visioning.
• Work collaboratively with communities and sectors to imagine and implement solutions individualized to meet each community’s values and their water challenges in ways that benefit the environment, human health, and community development.
• Lead creative problem solving with collaborative groups representing divergent interests through facilitation, process management, and/or community visioning & engagement.
• Maintain and grow a robust network of partnerships and professional relationships.
• Support colleagues and external partners as they seek funding from foundation, state, and federal sources.

Project Example: Environmental Finance Center

While there’s room to grow your own body of work during your tenure at WP, there are a couple of specific programs we’ll need this position to lead within a few months of hiring. One of those is our work in supporting the Rural Community Assistance Corp (RCAC) for the Pacific Northwest (Region 10) Environmental Finance Center (EFC). Funded through the EPA, this five-year program started in 2023 and delivers direct support to communities and utilities to help them access federal funding for water-related basic services. This TA model builds capacity for utilities by reducing the administrative burden of receiving and managing federal grants, increases their ability to meet regulations, and provides net positive benefits to water quality and the environment.

The specific types of TA this position will likely be providing include:

• Supporting the formation of new interjurisdictional and cross-sector collaboratives that support water utilities and local communities;
• Developing funding strategies for utilities that utilize new programs (eg. stormwater utility fees) or grants;
• Guiding partners through state, federal, and private grant writing processes, or writing grant applications on their behalf;
• Developing decision making documents (ex. Roadmaps, Viability Checks, etc.) for informed and nuanced planning by utilities and communities;
• Facilitating collaborative decision making to select projects that yield multiple benefits for utilities and communities, including environmental, human health, and economic benefits.

Project Management Focus

The focus of this role will be to manage a variety of projects at once (4-8), with the expectation that a few of them are typically dormant. This is often due to needing to put work on pause while local partners focus on more pressing matters or waiting to hear back from a grant application we helped a community apply for. At Willamette Partnership, project management looks like coordinating work with your colleagues and the community partners, being a point-of-contact for the work, and ensuring the work gets done on time.

Qualifications

We are looking for an experienced professional with at least 5 years of experience in relevant fields, including water resources, infrastructure, urban or rural planning, community development, conservation or conservation planning, community engagement, natural resource management, environmental science, or public policy.

Ideal candidates will demonstrate knowledge, skill, and experience in:

• Building relationships and working with communities that experience challenges under current approaches to infrastructure and conservation, including tribal governments, rural communities, and low-income communities.
• Project management, including seeing projects through to completion, even if you weren’t there when the project started.
• Working with water service providing entities, including local municipalities, utilities, and special districts.
• Natural water infrastructure solutions such as floodplain restoration, treatment wetlands, green stormwater infrastructure, riparian restoration for water quality, etc. This could include technical assistance, public works, finance, policy, or other relevant experience.
• Understanding of how infrastructure and policy change is planned and implemented at the community or regional scale.
• Communicating clearly through concise writing, public speaking, in-person professional interactions, and collaboration with team members.
• Applying for funding from foundation, state, or federal sources, especially State Revolving Funds (SRFs).
• Working effectively both independently and in a hybrid team environment.

We will prioritize candidates who demonstrate skills and experience in one or more of the following areas:

• Project management experience leading environmental or infrastructure projects with public and/or philanthropic funding.
• Working directly with local, state, and federal governments, and/or private landowners and agricultural producers.
• Tribal government relations.
• Infrastructure and conservation finance (e.g., municipal finance, environmental markets, or public-private partnerships), and/or infrastructure budgeting and planning.
• Navigating and applying for federal funding.
• Familiarity with water policy and politics at the local, state (especially Oregon), or federal level.

The Partnership strives to be competitive, equitable, and transparent in our compensation approach and will share additional information on long-term compensation potential on request. We also offer a generous benefits package, including health, vision, and dental insurance, 11 paid holidays, paid sabbatical leave after 5 years of service, matching 401K, and paid time off accrued at ~6 weeks/year.