Grant and Contract Senior Manager

POSITION TITLE: Grant and Contract Senior Manager

LOCATION: Portland, OR, preferred

ORGANIZATION: Sustainable Northwest

REPORTS TO: Senior Director of Wood Markets

SALARY: $80,500 - $91,000

BENEFITS: Sustainable Northwest offers a generous benefits package

EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Full-Time Exempt, 35-hour work week

TERM: Limited duration hire through April 2029, tied to the AMP-Wood Markets project period

PREFERRED START DATE: September 1, 2026

ABOUT SUSTAINABLE NORTHWEST

Sustainable Northwest forges locally led solutions so nature, people, and economies can thrive. We partner with rural communities and Tribal Nations throughout the Northwest on projects that promote smart water use, clean energy, and healthy forests, farms, and ranches.

Our solutions are as unique as the problems we solve and include entrepreneurship, policy, market innovations, public or private investment, collaboration, and technical assistance – but the ultimate success of our work is based on relationships, trust, and inclusion. Sustainable Northwest was founded in 1994 to forge collaborative solutions for conserving forest and community health.

Today, our challenges have multiplied with climate change, catastrophic wildfires, and persistent drought plaguing our region. Yet we remain optimistic that nature, people, and local economies can thrive together.

Benefits

Sustainable Northwest offers a generous benefits package supporting employee wellness with medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance; three to six weeks PTO (dependent on length of tenure), sick time, 11 federal holidays, and additional paid leave during year-end office closure December 26-31; 403(b) retirement plan with employer contributions; cell phone stipend; transit stipend for Portland metro residents; office stipend for satellite employees; pre-tax spending plan for medical and/or dependent care; support for professional training; and flexible daily and weekly work schedules.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Sustainable Northwest seeks a Senior Contracts and Grant Manager to oversee our USDA-funded Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) grant. This role leads the deployment of over $23 million to support forest stewardship and economic growth for Tribal nations and family forest owners in Oregon, Washington, and California.

As Tribes and landowners face increasing challenges from drought, fire, and disease, this grant provides critical resources to foster forest resilience. This position holds end-to-end responsibility for project management, including producer payments, subaward performance, market development, compliance, and reporting.

This role holds end-to-end accountability for project management and program delivery: producer payments, subaward performance, market development, compliance, and reporting. Working within our Wood Markets team and collaborating with Finance, you will engage with sub-awardees and Tribes to support 150 landowners over 30 months. This term-limited role runs from September 2026 through April 2029, with continuation contingent on project funding, and involves some travel.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:

Project Coordination

• Direct overall execution of the AMP grant ensuring all deliverables are met on time and within budget.
• Maintain strong relationships with partners.
• Secure contracts with sub-awardees and Tribal partners to guide successful grant implementation.
• Ensure successful delivery of outcomes against quarterly milestones (producer enrollment, practice/marketing payments, workshops, wood advisor projects, board-feet sourced), targeting 150 producers enrolled and $17.4M in producer and marketing payments deployed over the grant period.
• Manage subrecipient relationships with, including deliverables, quarterly billing, and performance against their AMP-specific goals.
• Engage with Intertribal Timber Council and other partners to leverage the AMP grants resources, where possible, to enable outcomes beyond specific commitments of the AMP grant.

Producer and Marketing Payments

• Work with Tribal partners, sub-awardees, and producers to ensure alignment with NRCS practice codes and approved unit-cost/reimbursement structures in the successful delivery of producer payments, marketing payments and associated branding.
• In collaboration with the Grant and Compliance Accountant, develop and implement systems to track, monitor and report on status of payments to producers and compliance evaluation and financial monitoring of subrecipients and tribal partners.
• In collaboration with the Grant and Compliance Accountant, develop and implement a risk mitigation plan for producer payment resources, to ensure full spend down.
• Manage program budget reallocation and risk, including scope adjustments across subawards as funding needs evolve.
• Track wood products from producer activities as they flow into the market to aid the Wood Advisor team with mill engagement, market development, and storytelling
• Support Tribal Wood Market Development through storytelling, communications, branding packs, premium payments and other asset creation made possible through marketing payments.

Programmatic Monitoring, Compliance, and Reporting

• Create monitoring and conformance systems and templates for partner and internal use.
• Successfully implement monitoring, record keeping, and required reporting.
• Prepare and submit required federal grant reports and represent the program to the funder and external partners.
• Track and report progress against the full quarterly milestone schedule through program close-out.
• Coordinate with internal staff playing roles in the project (Tribal Specialist, Wood Markets Senior Manager/Manager, Communications Director, Wood Advisor Specialist) to ensure integrated delivery across producer engagement, market development, and storytelling workstreams.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS/SKILLS

• 5+ years managing large-scale federal grants or programs, including experience with subrecipient/subaward oversight.
• Working knowledge of NRCS practice codes and federal grant compliance, monitoring and reporting requirements (e.g., CPA-52, 2 CFR 200).
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage multiple subcontractor relationships simultaneously.
• Demonstrated experience working respectfully and effectively with Tribal governments/communities and private landowners.
• Strong budget management and financial oversight sufficient to deploy producer payments via NRCS practice codes.
• Ability to travel approximately 10% of the time for site visits, Tribal partner meetings, and conferences.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in forestry, natural resource management, public administration, business, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Work experience in forestry, wood product business brokering, manufacturing, or milling.
• Existing relationships with Pacific Northwest Tribal nations, land trusts, or family forest owner networks.
• Experience developing producer/market incentive payment structures or supply chain traceability initiatives.

PLEASE NOTE

The skills and experience listed above are what we believe is necessary to succeed in this position. However, we encourage all interested applicants to apply even if your skills are not a match with all requested qualifications. Please, underscore applicable skills unique to you in your cover letter.

Sustainable Northwest is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of an applicant or employee’s race or ethnicity, national origin; gender, gender identity or sexual orientation; religion or creed; age, ability, or other legally protected status.

TO APPLY

Send an email with ‘Grant and Contract Senior Manager’ in the subject line. Email cover letter and resume in one PDF to Dassi Owens at dowens@sustainablenorthwest.org. Incomplete submissions after 5pm on Thursday, August 27th will not be considered. Please make no phone calls or email inquiries. Interview questions will be provided in advance. References will be requested from finalist candidates.

Sustainable Northwest offers a generous benefits package supporting employee wellness with medical, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance; three to six weeks PTO (dependent on length of tenure), sick time, 11 federal holidays, and additional paid leave during year-end office closure December 26-31; 403(b) retirement plan with employer contributions; cell phone stipend; transit stipend for Portland metro residents; office stipend for satellite employees; pre-tax spending plan for medical and/or dependent care; support for professional training; and flexible daily and weekly work schedules.