Job Description

STATUS: Full-time, exempt
REPORTS TO: Vice President, Buildings
LOCATION: Remote within the United States

Job Description
The Director, Buildings, serves a key role on the Buildings Group of the International Living Future Institute. The Buildings Group manages all aspects of ILFI’s building scale programs including the creation and maintenance of visionary standards, tools, and resources to push the building industry toward a Living Future. Informed by research, industry feedback, collaborative partnerships, and forward-thinking dialogue, the Buildings Group defines the philosophy, performance goals and metrics, and advocacy frameworks for reaching the highest bar of holistic performance in climate, health, and equity for buildings, products, and organizations within the building industry.  

The Director is specifically responsible for directing the evolution, development, and maintenance of ILFI’s building programs which currently include the Living Building Challenge (LBC), Zero Energy Certification (ZE), and Zero Carbon Certification (ZC). This role requires someone who can think big picture, holistically, and into the future; and someone who can dive into specific details and topics as needed. It requires a broad knowledge base in regenerative design and experience/expertise in program development, project management, partnership buildings, and staff management.

Job Responsibilities
 

Program Development

• Envision and direct periodic updates to and development of ILFI’s building programs including the Standards, Handbooks, and related resources. This includes managing the process of:
  • gathering and incorporating internal and external input and feedback; 
  • developing and managing the scope, timeline, budget, and work plan; 
  • managing staff and consultants assigned to the work; 
  • managing internal cross-team coordination; 
  • drafting, reviewing, and finalizing all written and graphic content
• Understand, integrate, and lead the alignment of concepts and strategies between different regenerative building tools, standards, certifications, and rating systems.
• Lead and support the development of processes, protocols, and guiding principles for Standard and Handbook updates for ILFI building scale programs. 
• Lead and support the development of processes, protocols, and guiding principles for gathering data, input, and feedback on ILFI’s building programs from diverse internal and external stakeholders. 
• Support the development of grant proposals and deliverables as needed to further the evolution of ILFI’s building standards and research. 
• Assist the VP of Buildings, with developing and advancing the long-term vision of ILFI’s Standards.

Innovation, Industry Leadership, and Collaboration

• Manage and support ILFI’s building-related Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) and Technical Advisor leaders. Direct the process to synthesize and incorporate TAGs’ and advisory members’ contributions toward strategic development and continuous improvement of ILFI’s building Standards and related resources.
• Lead a team that stays up-to-date on the latest relevant research, literature, and industry best practices and provides thought leadership on regenerative design, construction, and operations practices in the built environment.
• Manage the research process (including interviews, surveys, literature reviews, and other activities) on topics related to regenerative design, construction, and operations.
• Support the publication and presentation of research results at industry conferences, events, and publications (including ILFI’s blog, Trim Tab) for the purpose of improving the content and understanding of ILFI’s mission, vision, and Standards in the broader industry. 
• Direct and support organizational partnership and collaboration that aligns with ILFI building program initiatives; maintains working relationships, and organizes collaborative projects of mutual interest.

People Management 

• Day-to-day management and support of the program development work team: establishing goals, work planning, performance management, and cross-team coordination.
• Onboarding and training of new team members in collaboration with HR. 

Qualifications

Required Qualifications
We know that you may not have all the skills listed below and we encourage you to apply if you meet the majority of the requirements.

• 10+ years of professional experience in architecture, building science, engineering, consulting, or another relevant area.
• Minimum of 2 years experience in a supervisory role.
• Bachelor’s degree in architecture, design, environmental studies, building science, construction management, engineering, or directly related field or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated familiarity with ILFI’s philosophy, certifications, and labels.
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and creating an inclusive work environment.
• Ability to inspire teams to set priorities and meet deadlines, preferably with experience leading and managing people and projects in a remote work environment.
• Ability to travel for work, with travel anticipated for approximately 10% of the position workload
• Ability to work both collaboratively in a team and independently.
• Experience with program development, project management, analytical research, and problem-solving.
• Excellent communication skills (written, oral, and public speaking).
• Comfortable learning new software applications; experience with MacOS, Google Workspace, Asana (or similar), and Salesforce strongly preferred.

Desired Qualifications

• Master’s degree in architecture, building science, engineering, consulting, energy and carbon research, or another relevant area; and/or extensive professional experience beyond the minimum required in a directly related field may be equivalent.
• Experience developing/managing voluntary standards, especially related to buildings or the built environment.
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite software applications, specifically Adobe InDesign and Illustrator.
• Living Future Accreditation and/or LEED Accreditation. Employees who are not already Living Future Accredited will be supported in achieving their LFA within one year.

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Job Description

STATUS:Full-time, exempt
REPORTS TO: Senior Manager, Materials 
LOCATION: Remote, within the United States

 
The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) seeks an experienced program manager with expertise in lifecycle assessment (LCA), knowledge of global ESG initiatives, and experience with evaluating the environmental footprint of products across their entire value chain. In this role, the Manager of Materials - Program Development will support the creation and maintenance of a label program focused on measuring, reducing, and ultimately overcoming the environmental impacts of building products, in the pursuit of regenerative manufacturing outcomes. 

Developing and managing requirements and evolving the reach, rigor, and impact of ILFI’s product programs involves collaborating with internal and industry stakeholders; addressing challenges faced by manufacturers; and interpreting and synthesizing relevant scientific research, industry standards and publications, best practices, and regulatory updates to support ambitious environmental goals for products.  An ideal candidate will have successful experience in aligning industry standards’ core principles while also identifying areas where pushing the boundaries of regenerative design are needed.

The successful applicant will have practical knowledge, experience, and understanding of LCAs, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), Product Category Rules (PCRs), embodied carbon reporting, and holistic systems thinking. They should be adept at understanding LCA rules and various datasets, and have experience or a deep interest in learning and applying other environmental impact modeling, such as ecosystem services quantification, biodiversity protection methodologies, and product circularity by design. The applicant will also have a demonstrated passion for the interaction between environment, health, and equity in products in the building industry, and for transitioning to regenerative and circular economies.  Extra consideration will be given for experience in and knowledge of the built environment industry, product design and supply chains, and/or the various systems and certifications available for sustainability-related product and built environment attributes.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
 

Program Development

• Support the development of the new version of the Living Product Challenge - updating the requirements to improve the program’s scope and rigor, and place it at the leading edge of climate, health, and equity within the building industry. This may include gathering internal and external input and feedback; adhering to the scope, timeline, budget, and work plan; collaborating with consultants assigned to the work; supporting internal cross-team coordination; drafting, reviewing, and finalizing written and graphic content; and helping with related external communications.
• Manage periodic updates to ILFI’s Living Product Challenge and other Challenges and Labels, as directed.
• Create educational content and other resources supporting customer success with the Living Product Challenge and other programs.
• Qualify, train, and evaluate program auditors, and help continuously improve the ILFI auditor programs.
• Understand, integrate, and align concepts and strategies between ILFI and external tools, standards, certifications, and rating systems, to maximize the beneficial outcomes of the financial and time investments made by sustainability teams.
• Help create and maintain scientifically-credible, rigorous, and clear guidelines for Handprinting methodologies that are accepted by industry peers and regulatory organizations, to help ILFI evolve its global leadership in this critical area of regenerative design and product manufacturing. 

Cross Group/Team Support and Collaboration

• Support the development of processes, protocols, and guiding principles for Standard and Handbook updates, as well as for gathering data, input, and feedback on ILFI’s programs from diverse internal and external stakeholders. 
• Serve as an internal subject matter expert to other ILFI staff on lifecycle impacts and assessment topics to help respond to technical inquiries, support the development of other related resources, and exception requests from diverse project teams and manufacturers in different sectors and business contexts.
• Support the development of grant proposals and help complete deliverables for existing grants as needed.
• Work closely and extensively with the Materials programs implementation and go-to-market team to provide a keen eye on quality control and program integrity, while recognizing the need for both rapid scaling and adoption.

Innovation, Industry Leadership, and Collaboration

• Support ILFI’s Material Health and Energy + Carbon Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) of industry experts. Incorporate TAG contributions toward development and continuous improvement of ILFI standards and technical resources.
• Remain current on the latest relevant research, literature, and industry best practices and provide thought leadership on holistic lifecycle assessment and environmental impacts of building products, and methods for creating net-positive benefits through product manufacturing and usage.
• Conduct research (including interviews, surveys, literature reviews, and other) on topics related to environmental impacts of products, including but not limited to: life cycle assessment, embodied carbon, offsets, and handprinting. 
• Publish and present research results at industry conferences, events, and publications (including ILFI’s blog, Trim Tab) to improve the content and understanding of ILFI’s mission, vision, and Standards in the broader industry. (5% travel)
• Support identifying and establishing organizational partnerships that align with ILFI initiatives in environmental impacts of products; maintain working relationships with external networks that support the Institute’s mission and strategic plan.
   

Qualifications

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
We know that you may not have all the skills listed below, and we encourage you to apply if you meet the majority of the requirements.

• 3-5 years of professional experience in product sustainability, design, and manufacturing, including  lifecycle assessment, or related engineering, consulting, or research, with a strong understanding of sustainable design principles, and preferably familiarity with buildings and building products.
• Bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, product sustainability, environmental engineering, architecture, civil engineering, or directly related field, or equivalent work experience
• Demonstrated familiarity with the scope building life cycle stages for both embodied and operational carbon and other embodied environmental impacts.
• Knowledge of life cycle assessment tools (such as One Click LCA, Tally, or Athena Impact) 
• Knowledge of embodied carbon data tools (such as EC3, Beam Estimator, or One Click LCA Planetary).
• Solid understanding of, and a clearly demonstrated passion for reversing the interconnected, complex, and extensive transgressions of the Nine Planetary Boundaries with a focus in nature-positive and regenerative beneficial outcomes.
• Ability to anchor recommended solutions and rules to widely accepted science, while creating innovative methods and goals that maintain ILFI’s globally recognized “spearhead” status for pushing the boundaries of regenerative design possibilities. 
• Commitment to diversity, equity, and creating an inclusive work environment
• Familiarity with ILFI’s philosophy, certifications, and labels
• Problem-solving skills, such as thinking abstractly about problems, gathering and synthesizing data and information from diverse viewpoints, understanding the effect of decisions, and transferring knowledge from one situation to another
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Proven ability to work both collaboratively in a team and independently, and demonstrated success in working in a fully remote position.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Project management experience
• Experience developing/managing voluntary standards, especially related to sustainable building or the built environment
• Experience working in, or with both for-profit and non-profit organizations or similarly diverse environments.
• Strong affinity for technology with the ability to learn new software applications; experience with MacOS, Google Workspace, Asana (or similar), and Salesforce strongly preferred
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite software applications or other handbook software, such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Manula, or others
• Experience working across virtual teams and with remote management
• Living Future Accreditation (LFA) and/or LEED Accreditation. Candidates not already Living Future Accredited will be supported in achieving their LFA within one year.
   

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