Executive Director

Are you a proven leader whose passion for conservation inspires love and lasting protection for important California lands?

Do you have the managerial expertise to channel the energies of the remarkably talented, highly educated, and strongly self-motivated staff of one of California’s most prominent, nationally-accredited land protection organizations?

Would you thrive in a high profile leadership position in a vibrant Central California community?

Are you committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in every endeavor?

If you answered YES to all the above, the Board of Directors of Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) is eager to discuss your potential leadership role with our well-established, notably innovative nonprofit land trust. The leadership challenge is multi-faceted. With an annual operating budget of $2.4 million, SRT’s staff of 20 exceptional professionals steward nearly 43,000 acres of California’s most valuable natural and agricultural lands. In addition to fulfilling our traditional land trust mission, you will continue SRT’s advances in the fields of mitigation services, water and land use policy, and environmental education.

Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) is an LTA-accredited regional land trust headquartered in Visalia , CA, and currently operating throughout the San Joaquin Valley and on the California coast. SRT has active projects in Tulare, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Inyo, San Luis Obispo, Merced, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara Counties. While the core of SRT’s mission is the preservation and management of a strategically selected network of over 42,000 acres of agricultural lands, open space and wildlife habitats, our complementary programs in environmental education and policy formation are considered essential as well. For more detailed information about SRT and our programs, please visit our website at www.sequoiariverlands.org

SRT’s new Executive Director will be responsible for leadership and management of our 20-person exceptionally talented staff, for fundraising, for community outreach, and for management of SRT lands. The ED will work collaboratively with an active Board of Directors that provides policy direction and expects accountability.

Salary range: $110,000-$130,000

The elements of SRT’s Executive Director position:

• Leadership and Relationships: The ED provides inspirational leadership emphasizing innovation; team building; collaborative working relationships; consensus building; and dedication to diversity in all its forms–age, gender, ethnicity, thought, and values–at staff, partnership and community levels.
• Management of the Organization: The ED demonstrates results orientation; financial management; ability to hire a staff reflective of the community by emphasizing equity, diversity and inclusion; ability to create a team-oriented work environment emphasizing communication, respect and empathy; and regular, periodic communication with, and accountability to, the Board.
• Land Protection: The ED applies conservation principles to continue the creation of a network of strategically selected agricultural lands, open space and wildlife habitats.
• Land Stewardship: The ED applies science-based, innovative and effective management approaches to enhance existing conservation values and to restore degraded lands.
• Community Outreach: The ED establishes SRT as the community’s indispensible conservation organization and source of conservation expertise by publicly demonstrating and marketing that expertise; by championing educational programs emphasizing equity, diversity and inclusion; and by participating in land and resource policy formation.
• Development: The ED formulates and implements an overall development plan focused on broadening the funding base by including a wide range of individual and corporate donors, grants, and management strategies of endowment funds

Qualifications of the Successful Applicant:

• Proven leadership and management of an organization of similar or larger size in the nonprofit or for-profit sector
• Proven ability to encourage collaboration and innovative thinking on the part of board, staff, and broader community
• Proven dedication to diversity in all forms
• Proven ability to work in the executive implementing role with a board of directors providing policy direction and ensuring accountability
• Proven community leadership
• Proven fundraising success
• Proven volunteer organization and leadership, and
• Proven communication skills, written and oral

In addition, the successful applicant is energetic, engaging and approachable; is collaborative in both management and leadership styles; has integrity and inspires trust; is calm under pressure; and enjoys a public role in service to our mission. The successful applicant lives in or near Visalia, CA, in order to provide in-person leadership to staff.

Sequoia Riverlands Trust provides equal employment opportunities to all employees, contractors, and applicants for work and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type, without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.