Senior Manager, Environmental Activism

Patagonia is an outdoor apparel company founded in 1973. At a time when all life on earth is under threat of extinction, we aim to use the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imagination—to influence changes needed to protect our planet. A registered B Corporation and founding member of 1% for the Planet, Patagonia is recognised internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism, contributing over $145 million in grants and in-kind donations to thousands of grassroots environmental groups around the world.

Your role

We’re in business to save our home planet. This role serves as the architect of our environmental activism agenda, transforming our purpose into environmental action and amplifying the efforts of grassroots organisation. Acting as both tactical leader and connector, this role strives to achieve long-term positive impact through cultivating expertise on key environmental issues, building trust-based relationships with grassroot organisations and activists communities, ensuring our resources and funds are invested in environmental issues that we are uniquely positioned to drive action on, and partnering with Marketing teams to amplify grassroot organisations and key issues’ awareness and drive communities to take action.

Main tasks

• Team management: lead, manage, and develop the enviro team, using goal setting, coaching, and feedback practices to drive clear objectives and priorities, foster cross-functional collaboration, enable professional development, energize around environmental issues, and drive positive impact.

• Environmental agenda and issue expertise: define the environmental issues we focus on, that inform our granting and campaigning work. Ensure dotted line teams in countries and in retail develop local issue expertise. Facilitate mutual learning and knowledge dissemination between local and Amsterdam-based teams. Act as the reference person for policy advocacy needs for key environmental issues.

• Community relationships and capability building: develop and nurture trust-based relationships with grassroot organizations and activist communities and facilitate coalition-building opportunities. Ensure we curate initiatives and programs, leveraging our internal and external relationships, knowledge, and Patagonia Action Works, to enhance the skills, effectiveness, resilience, and interconnection of our grantees.

• Protection of wild places: facilitate between grassroot organizations, government officials, and any other third parties to continue to drive the development of e.g. wild river national parks like the Vjosa National Park, managing strategic alignment and planning, stakeholder relationships, and keeping oversight of opportunities for program expansion in the Blue Heart of Europe

• Marketing collaboration and amplification: brief the Marketing teams on the environmental issues we are uniquely positioned to drive action on. Collaborate with the Marketing teams to identify the possible levels of amplification of the issues and grantees, up to and including marketing campaigns, ensuring authentic storytelling and representation of the issue, to drive positive action and community impact. Act as the liaison between the Marketing teams and grantees throughout the amplification and campaign process.

• Grant distribution: lead the strategic direction on 1% for the planet in EMEA, to ensure how we manage the granting program is aligned with our environmental focus areas and drives optimal impact, such as fund allocation, grantee selection, performance measurements etc.

• Employee activism: ensure we continue to offer, and evolve as needed, employee volunteering programs that connect our employee community to activism while supporting our grantees, to create authentic internal advocacy and action while having positive external impact