Job Title: Executive Director, Urban and Rural Planning (城乡规划部执行主任)
Location: Beijing, CN
Supervised by: CEO

SUMMARY

Serving as a member of Energy Foundation China’s (EF China’s) extended management team (MT), the Executive Director (ED), Urban and Rural Planning is expected to:

• Be a visionary, innovative and strong leader to help create the future of EF China; be a good communicator; and be a confident and goal-oriented executive with extensive experience in the relevant issues who can lead the team and work with external stakeholders to ensure EF China to remain in a leading position in the field.
• Lead strategy development and execution of EF China’s organizational priorities, with a strong focus on China’s spatial landscape and natural resources. Be able to trace the course of urbanization and industrialization, including assessing their impacts on spatial, temporal, demographic, and economic/industrial distribution and the implications for energy-related infrastructure and urban and rural socioeconomic development. Be able to understand economic activities from the demand side. Be able to advise land and urban planning to achieve the functions of cities and major ecosystem units in the lowest GHG emissions generating manner, working on buildings as technological prototypes or in entire sectors, residential communities, commercial districts, and city forms, through studies, pilots, stakeholder engagement, and capacity building. Be able to work toward systematic solutions for real-world issues and advancing organizational goals.
• Demonstrate strong team spirit within and across departments; jointly build a united and supportive office.
• Lead, coordinate, and support seamless and productive collaborations within and across departments to achieve strong synergies and significant impacts.
• Oversee overall performance of projects to ensure successful delivery of the desired results at the departmental level by using a Monitoring, Review, and Evaluation (MRE) approach.
• Strengthen and cultivate trust-based relationships with external partners.
• Serve as a strong culture ambassador of EF China to strengthen the brand and communicate the organization’s message.

The ideal candidate is a person who is a visionary and strong leader with extensive experience in the relevant field. Similar working experience in NGOs is a plus.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategy Development

• Provide input to the organizational strategy and participate in strategy-related MT discussions as needed.
• Lead the development and implementation of Taskforce/Priority strategies led by ED, ensuring alignment with organizational strategic priorities and the desired high-quality outcomes.
• Guide the development and implementation of selected program strategies, ensuring alignment with EF China’s organizational strategic priorities.

Fundraising

• Cultivate new funders and resources by proactively communicating strategies and negotiating agreements in a mutually beneficial manner.
• Collaborate with existing funding partners to build a coordinated approach to the work to meet organizational goals and strategies.
• Lead the preparation of concept papers and proposals for the Taskforces/Prioritiesunder Urban and Rural Planning Department
• Provide input and feedback to all organization-level concept papers during regular updates with the extended MT.
• Review and approve proposals with specified thresholds for programs under the Urban and Rural Planning Department in collaboration with the Strategic Partnerships team.
• Support the CEO and work collaboratively with the Strategic Partnerships team in the fundraising process to foster effective communications and secure sustainable funding.

Partnership Building

• Serve as a strong culture ambassador, representing EF China externally and striving to build and maintain trust-based relationships with partners and key stakeholders.
• Identify and cultivate valuable partnerships to maximize synergy, including partnerships with grantees, policy makers, opinion leaders, funding partners, commercial partners and other experts or leaders in the field.
• Share knowledge, expertise, critical information, and networks with partners to increase support and demonstrate shared purpose, leveraging all kinds of channels, including newsletters, meetings and conferences, and informal communications.
• Provide thought leadership and/or support to partners in the field with the shared purpose of growing the field.

Budgeting and Spending

• Provide input to organizational budget allocation preparation, focusing on the Taskforces /Priorities led by the ED.
• Prepare budget allocation within the Taskforces/Priorities, andreview and approve the budget allocation of the programs led by the ED.
• Guide the preparation of program spending plans.
• Review and approve all spending plan revisions. 

Grant Management

• Review and approve grant applications.
• Ensure efficient and effective collaborations in the grant management process, delivering desired high-quality outcomes, including:
• Execute in collaboration with other EDs and other departments to ensure the implementation of Taskforce projects led by the ED.
• Oversee milestones of key projects and have regular checks in with programs.

Collaborations

• Mobilize resources across the organization to support the Taskforces/Priorities as well as other collaborations as needed.
• Advance organization-wide Taskforces and collaborative program strategies.
• Proactively identify opportunities for cross-sector program collaboration, and work closely with all related programs to deliver the impact.

Team Management

• Provide managerial supervision and demonstrate leadership in talent selection, on-the-job coaching, training, and professional development to team members.
• Lead the evalution of all Program Directors under the ED; provide input on evaluation of all other Program Directors.
• Share expertise and resource networks through various communication channels to foster team spirit and a learning atmosphere within the team.
• Review reporting materials for the department, e.g. work plan to the board and regulators.
• Budget and manage General & Administrative expenses for the department.
• Undertake additional tasks and responsibilities as assigned by the CEO.
• Back up and support other colleagues as needed.

This job description reflects the assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Education: Master’s degree or equivalent, preferably in a related field: energy and climate, environmental sciences and engineering, urban planning, and buildings.
• Work Experience: over 15 years of related work experience, including over 5 years of managerial experience; experience in energy, environment, urban planning, buildings, air quality, program management, program evaluation, fundraising, governmental relations, or communications strongly preferred.
• Language Level: native-level Chinese skills required; excellent command of spoken and written English, communicates in English effectively in public, with a deep understanding of Western cultures.
• Team Leadership: is able to define direction and develop shared purpose, build a team with strong coaching skills, provide timely constructive feedback to team members, and support them for long-term career development.
• Strategic Thinking: is able to foresee future trends, visionary with big-picture thinking, be able to prioritize, and make trade-offs based on possible resources.
• Communication and Coordination Skills: communicate logically and articulate key messages/points with a clear structure, listen actively, intuitively sense and support other participants’ unspoken views, seek interactions for all parties to achieve win-wins where possible and present benefits clearly, and synthesize different views to develop integrated messages.
• Problem Solving: is able to define and prioritize key issues, make analyses with logical reasoning, utilize and synergize various resources to summarize and find solutions, and use a holistic approach to determine the best solution.
• Networking: the ability to develop new alliances and formal networks, mobilize external resources, and foster relationships with key stakeholders to achieve long-term mutual interests.

SUCCESS FACTORS

• Ethical Behavior/Integrity – Demonstrates principled performance and sound ethics, showing consistency among principles, values, and behaviors to build trust and credibility internally and externally.
• Broader Views for Systematic Solution – Proactively link program strategy and goals with the ones of the whole organization and other related programs, as appropriate, for cooperation and organization-wide capacity enhancement.
• Mission-driven/Initiative – Inspired by the organization's vision and mission, and takes actions with ownership, a can-do attitude, and a proactive mindset.
• Team Spirit – Collaboratively works toward solutions that benefit all involved parties; willingly cooperates with others to accomplish team/organization objectives.

Please email a cover letter and resume, with subject line "Application for Executive Director of Urban and Rural Planning" to jobs@efchina.org.