Conservation Innovation Manager

About Blue Forest

Blue Forest is a conservation finance non-profit founded in 2015 that is focused on advancing ecosystem restoration through scientific research, financial innovation, and collaborative partnerships. Since 2018, Blue Forest has managed investor capital through its flagship financial product, the Forest Resilience Bond (FRB), which deploys private capital to finance forest restoration projects to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. More recently, Blue Forest has also established Blue Forest Asset Management (BFAM), an investment management platform connecting investors to compelling, mission-aligned opportunities in a broader set of asset classes beyond FRB projects, such as private equity and private credit investments.Blue Forest is made up of an interdisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, foresters, finance, and communications professionals committed to the mission: “To accelerate ecological restoration through conservation finance, enabling climate resilience for ecosystems and communities.”Employees at Blue Forest are:

• Committed to Continuous Learning
• Driven by Collaboration
• Thoughtful Innovators for Impact
• Grounded in Science
• Passionate about Restoring Earth’s Ecosystems

About The Conservation Innovation Team

The Conservation Innovation (CI) team exists to prioritize, accelerate, and pursue high-potential initiatives, partnerships, and projects that improve existing and develop new conservation finance models, improve revenue generation potential and impact for Blue Forest, and inclusively facilitate the best ideas across the organization. The CI team proactively identifies gaps where conservation finance, Blue Forest’s internal skillsets, and the skillsets of partners can create and realize conservation value. The CI team’s work spans three thematic pillars: supporting FRB innovations, pursuing new ventures and geographies, and developing new benefit-stream innovations.

Position Summary

The Conservation Innovation Manager reports to the Senior Manager of International Programs and will support Blue Forest's Conservation Innovation team in pursuing partnerships, international business development opportunities, and new conservation finance initiatives. Day-to-day responsibilities include driving project- and department-level workstreams, proactively identifying bottlenecks and solutions, leading meetings and partner engagements with an adaptive approach, and cultivating meaningful relationships.A successful candidate is a seasoned project manager and strategic operator who can keep complex, multi-stakeholder work organized and moving while simultaneously building relationships and developing new opportunities. This role demands the expertise, capacity, and judgment to move quickly to evaluate and advance high-potential opportunities, lead through ambiguity, and take business and partnership opportunities from zero to one. Deep understanding of the conservation opportunity, the economics and motivations of collaborating partners, and the ability to formulate compelling conservation value propositions are essential to success in this role.

Responsibilities & Duties

Project Management & Internal Coordination (25%)

• Maintain organized project tracking in Asana or other project management tools
• Take thorough meeting notes, identify action items, and ensure accountability to project milestones
• Support structuring timelines, milestones, and resource needs for new initiatives
• Help coordinate cross-departmental collaboration around CI team priorities
• Navigate ambiguity between business development opportunities, science, finance, and project execution
• Stay informed on trends in conservation finance, carbon markets, ecosystem services, and related fields to identify emerging opportunities

Communications & External Engagement (25%)

• Contribute to external-facing materials including pitch decks, funding proposals, partnership explainer documents, and conference content
• Support thought leadership efforts by synthesizing technical, market, and partnership information into accessible content
• Help plan and facilitate workshops, partner meetings, and internal working group sessions where science, project development, and finance intersect

Partnership & Business Development (25%)

• Support cultivation and management of relationships with external partners including government agencies, utilities, corporate partners, science collaborators, and conservation practitioners
• Help coordinate partner engagement activities, including site visits, meetings, workshops, and stakeholder convenings
• Contribute to development of compelling value proposition materials, presentations, two-pagers, and partnership collateral for diverse audiences
• Support international business development efforts and help evaluate opportunities in new geographies
• Navigate and connect across Blue Forest’s internal teams—science, finance, project development, and communications—to advance cross-functional initiatives

Conservation Business Model Development (25%)

• Research and analyze conservation finance models, identifying mechanisms that could inform and integrate with Blue Forest’s work across the CI team’s thematic pillars: FRB innovations, new ventures and geographies, and new benefit-stream innovations
• Support economic modeling and analysis to evaluate the viability of potential conservation finance projects and partnerships
• Develop an understanding of conservation finance transaction mechanics and translate that understanding into new business development opportunities and initiatives
• Relentlessly ask “what would have to be true?” for a conservation finance project to move forward, applying first-principles thinking to identify and address barriers
• Contribute to maintaining and advancing the CI team’s opportunity pipeline, supporting stage-gate processes that prioritize initiatives by mission alignment and feasibility

Key skills/competency

Conservation Innovation Manager

• Project Management
• Partnership Development
• Business Development
• Conservation Finance
• Financial Modeling
• Strategic Operations
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Non-profit Management
• Climate Resilience