PROJECT MANAGER (Consultant)

North American Summit on Collaborating with Wildlife

The Project Manager for the North American Summit on Collaborating with Wildlife (CW Summit) is a vital part of the Wildlife Restoration Foundation (WRF) leadership team, working directly with the WRF President and Directors of Operations, Programs, and Marketing to maximize results in terms of registrations, content, funds raised, operational efficiency, and new partnerships. The CW Summit is a project of the WRF Collaborating with Wildlife Program which focuses on meeting the needs of native wildlife in North America as human communities expand across and impact essential habitats on land and in freshwater and marine environments.

The CW Summit is a large-scale, multi-sector professional convening designed as a milepost in the long game of ensuring human actions provision for, support, adapt to, and value native wildlife, particularly as human development occurs around or trammels habitat neighboring protected areas. Hosted by WRF and the Oceans & Wildlife Institute (OWI), the CW Summit is taking place at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi, Texas on February 2-4, 2027, with an OWI field trip to the Port of Corpus Christi Wildlife Rescue Operations Center on February 5.

The Summit is not a conference but uses a process of exploring Models & Methodologies (M&Ms) of “Collaborating with Wildlife,” a term that we and our partners have coined to recognize and address native wildlife needs, in advance. Our team is identifying and soliciting M&Ms from across many sectors of human endeavor—conservation, government, Tribes/First Nations, ranching, farming, zoos and aquariums, engineering, construction, transportation, and more—then engaging experienced practitioners and researchers to present their M&Ms in Workgroup Dialogues at the Summit. In the Workgroups, dialogists will discover CW best practices that can be replicated or adapted in multiple places and species. Panel Dialogues with full-group participation will strive to diagnose the innovations needed to overcome barriers to M&M implementation and identify resources and new partners that ensure success. The Summit aims to enrich the more technical content with special features—historical accounts, photography and film, art, language, and cultural expressions that inspire humans to meet wildlife needs so that four pillars of human action (Supporting, Provisioning, Adapting, and Valuing) bolster native wildlife populations and assure they can thrive in a common pursuit of ecological regeneration.

The successful candidate for the CW Summit Project Manager (PM) position will be able to understand and make a strong case for Collaborating with Wildlife to any potential participant, no matter the sector. In addition:

• The first task of the PM will be able to produce a strategic plan for meeting the registrations goal and serve in a CWS chief of staff role to ensure all WRF team members working on the Summit are engaged, productive, and valued. Once approved, the strategic plan will be the guiding document for measuring PM performance. Detailed strategic plan elements to be managed by the PM will be shared with each candidate as Key Position Responsibilities after an initial screening interview.
• The primary goal of the position is to maximize Summit registrations (minimum of 300 by December 1, 2026), managing CW Summit (CWS) subteams toward this measurable outcome.
• The PM will manage CWS subteams, labeled Programming, Operations/Logistics, Fundraising, Marketing & Communications, and Onsite. Within some of these subteams are existing coordinators that have internal teams of their own (e.g., Vendors, Exhibitors & Silent Auction or Zoo & Aquarium Training Track).

The CW Project Manager will be a consultant to WRF and paid a monthly stipend based on measured productivity. The consultant should be regularly available during the hours of 9:00a-5:00p Eastern time and can work remotely, except for during the Summit itself, which requires being on-site to lead/help meet Summit and facility-related needs from January 30 through February 5, 2027. The period of this consultancy is September 1, 2026 to February 28, 2027, engaged under a written consultancy agreement where the PM is expected to work an average of 24-32 hours per week. This PM role is intended for a highly competent, reliable and personable professional with experience, confidence, and self-motivation and exceptional degree of productivity found amongst others on the WRF leadership team and meet both goals of the PM position without prompting as committed also to the mission of the WRF Collaborating with Wildlife Program itself.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree at a minimum; Master’s or graduate work in related subject ideal
• 2–3 years of experience planning and executing large-scale events, conferences, or multi-day programs
• Strong organizational and time management skills, with demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent workstreams and deadlines and to work independently and proactively, and always responsive to the Exec Team
• Excellent communication and interpersonal abilities, with proven aptitude for managing teams well
• Proficiency in event management software and tools; experience with Whova, Wix, Slack, Mailchimp, and Google Workspace preferred
• Experience developing and tracking event budgets and financial reporting
• Demonstrated commitment to working with a nonprofit, mission-driven organization
• Passion for wildlife and the meeting of their needs, with experience working with parks and gateway communities a plus