Senior Associate (Climate Solutions)

About the Organization

CEA Consulting is an environmental consultancy based in San Francisco, CA. For over four decades, CEA Consulting has partnered with a wide range of philanthropies, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies in effectively tackling urgent environmental challenges—from climate change to ocean conservation to sustainable food systems. By combining rigorous analysis with deep sector expertise, we help our clients develop focused strategies, build and execute effective programs, and assess and amplify their impact.

With approximately 30 employees across the firm, CEA strives to create a collaborative and inclusive work environment where all consultants are supported in doing the work they are most passionate about, developing their skills, and bringing their whole selves to work. We believe that a wide array of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences promotes innovation and makes our team more creative, flexible, and productive. For a more in-depth description of our approach to work, please see our Vision, Mission, and Guiding Principles. For a more in-depth description of our services and examples of past work, please see our website.

CEA’s Work

CEA supports environmental foundations, nonprofits, private‑sector businesses, government agencies, trade associations, and impact investors. We pride ourselves on being client‑oriented, insightful, and responsive. Our work encompasses a broad range of environmental topics ranging from conservation to climate solutions on land and in the water, with many of our projects having an international scope. The majority of our work serves the philanthropic and non‑profit sectors and relates to marine conservation and / or climate change. We also work regularly on climate resilience and adaptation, climate‑smart agriculture, land use and conservation, freshwater management, equity and justice in climate and conservation, transportation, wildlife protection, pollution, and urban sustainability. We often work at the intersection of these issues. Our primary offerings include :

• Strategy , including grantmaking strategies, organizational‑or initiative‑level program strategies, field‑or sector‑level landscaping and analysis, and opportunity assessments.
• Facilitation , including meeting and workshop design, insight generation, and synthesis; funder collaborative and NGO group facilitation.
• Operational Support , including initiative incubation, grant sourcing and diligence, designing and launching funder collaboratives, and board development and management.
• Analysis and Thought‑Leadership , including sector‑level climate mitigation analysis, roadmaps or frameworks for collective action, grant database creation and analysis, and field‑level state‑of‑play assessments.
• Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning , including design and implementation of multi‑year MEL programs, logic models and theory of change development, learning session facilitation, research to support learning agendas, third‑party evaluations.
• Recruiting and Organizational Design , including executive search and transition planning, staff recruitment and hiring support, strategic talent acquisition partnership, board member recruitment, and executive compensation analysis.

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Associate who will play a key role in supporting CEA’s existing climate‑related engagements that may include : supporting energy‑related strategy development and grantmaking, facilitating funder collaboratives focused on decarbonizing key sectors, and helping leading NGOs operationalize their programming, and helping to advance growth of CEA’s climate‑focused project portfolio.

This position interacts with leaders in the philanthropic field on work spanning a wide range of climate and environmental issues. Senior Associates manage day‑to‑day consulting engagements with environmental and climate‑focused foundations, family offices, NGOs, impact investors, and bilateral and multilateral agencies.

Our work environment is collaborative and intense. It requires intellectual rigor; excellent interpersonal and communication skills; strong research, analysis, and writing capacity; the ability to synthesize findings from a range of sources; superb project management skills; attention to detail; and a passion for climate solutions and environmental issues.

We are interested in candidates coming from a range of professional backgrounds, including consulting, nonprofits, academia, finance / impact investing, private sector or corporate ESG, government agencies, foundations, and think tanks. Given the requirements of the position, consulting experience and grantmaking experience is desired.

The Senior Associate cohort at CEA includes varied backgrounds and subject matter expertise. Senior Associates may range from professionals with five+ years of experience ready to lead projects, seasoned professionals with advanced credentials and 15+ years of experience who prefer not to assume further management responsibilities, or experienced professionals new to consulting who are preparing for Director‑level roles. Each of these profiles have succeeded as a Senior Associate at CEA.

About You

You are a self‑starter who finds fulfillment in a job well done. You have proven ability to manage complex projects on time and on budget, with a track record of leading teams toward climate impact. You are undaunted by ambiguity. You create structure and order to keep yourself and your team moving forward. You are adept at toggling each day between big‑picture thinking and problem solving, granular analysis, and management of complex project and logistical details. You believe individual and team success are fundamentally connected. You support your teammates and leadership in creating a collegial, inclusive, and healthy work environment. You enjoy helping colleagues grow through collaboration and sharing your expertise. You are intellectually curious, an adept problem solver, resilient when faced with unexpected challenges, and passionate about addressing climate change.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Co‑design and execute projects, including :

Desired Content Knowledge and Experience

Desired Qualifications

Work Location

CEA’s office is located in San Francisco, and about half of the team works remotely on a permanent basis. We strongly prefer that this position work from our San Francisco office, but remote candidates will be considered. This position requires some travel.

Compensation and Benefits

We offer competitive salaries, excellent health benefits, additional benefits for those working in the SF office (e.g., commuter benefits and weekly lunches), and a supportive working environment. Salary will be commensurate with skills and experience. The base salary range for Senior Associate’s at CEA is $100,000 – $140,000. Additionally, CEA offers an annual performance bonus, revenue sharing, and the opportunity to earn additional bonuses thrice a year when work exceeds billable hour targets. CEA also typically provides raises for all staff annually, usually above COLA. Therefore, altogether, the target total compensation for this role is in the mid‑to‑high $100,000s.

To Apply

To be considered for this position, interested candidates must follow the link on this page to submit a resume and cover letter.

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