Job Details

Job Title: Director of Value Chain Innovations

Location: Remote

Terms: Full Time

Reports to: Executive Vice President of Business Innovation

Posting End Date: January 23, 2026

About Us:

The American Forest Foundation (AFF) unlocks the power of family forests as a climate solution while helping thousands of landowners care for their land and improve forest health. Through its Family Forest Carbon Program, AFF expands access to the voluntary carbon market for family forest owners from all walks of life while producing high quality forest carbon credits to help companies reach their net zero goals. The organization's strategic direction seeks to enable family forests to capture and store one billion tonnes of carbon by 2050.

We do not do this alone. AFF works across a broad coalition of conservation partners, corporations, and policymakers to equip family forest owners with financial and technical support to implement sustainable forest management practices on their lands and activate their forests as a critical tool in the fight against climate change.

AFF is in a mode of complex problem solving and rapid iteration. All teams at AFF are working to discover solutions to the planet's most pressing climate issues through developing and iterating viable and scalable models for impact. AFF is driven by values of our shared purpose, measurable and verifiable results, and learning for continuous improvement to tackle big conservation challenges.

About the Role:

Over the next strategic period AFF is focused on successful growth of the Family Forest Carbon Program and leveraging that expertise to unlock additional pathways for full potential of family forest climate impact. As a Director of Value Chain Innovation you will play a leading role in identifying, qualifying, and cultivating growth opportunities in climate mitigation through the forest products value chain. You will source aligned partners, foster collaborative relationships, navigate market frameworks and regulations, run scoping and feasibility assessments, and ultimately design strategies for investment and project development. The role will require stewardship of AFF's cross team expertise, building generative structures for project investment, and negotiating partnership agreements.

Requirements

Responsibilities:

• Direct AFF's efforts to pilot and subsequently scale co-developed Scope 3 interventions with forest product manufacturers and their customers, working with key internal stakeholders throughout the organization to ensure that the resulting program meets AFF requirements for mission impact, scientific integrity and financial viability.
• Establish and maintain subject matter expertise on issues related to forest carbon reporting, accounting, and target setting within a corporate inventory. With the support of external partners and consultants, serve as AFF's chief source of expertise on a variety of initiatives and standards, including but not limited to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the Taskforce for Corporate Action Transparency, and the Science Based Targets initiative's Forest, Land and Agriculture pathways.
• Work with colleagues on AFF's Policy and Market Making teams to help set advocacy objectives related to these issues.
• Working with the Climate Funding team, identify and develop additional opportunities to advance AFF's mission, vision and values through meaningful partnerships with actors in the forest products value chain.
• Collaborate with AFF's science teams to ensure that the monitoring, measurement, reporting and verification frameworks developed in a broader organizational context are applied appropriately and effectively to a value chain context, and / or lead efforts to modify those frameworks appropriately.
• Support colleagues on the Climate Funding team in the preparation of grant proposals, reports, and technical documentation to support funding requests and keep donors engaged and satisfied with the work.
• Serve as AFF's chief point of contact for partner companies working within the forest products value chains in need of technical or programmatic guidance and assistance in inventorying, mitigating, financing and reporting on value chain outcomes.
• Engage with external stakeholders - including researchers, standard-setting bodies, market actors and other critical stakeholders - to represent AFF and advance integrity and innovation in reporting and accounting for carbon and other impacts within the context of corporate inventory accounting.

Candidate Requirements:

• M.A. or equivalent experience in forestry, sustainability, greenhouse gas management, or related field.
• 10+ years demonstrated experience in:
  • Stakeholder engagement and management
  • Managing and reporting on risks and impacts in forest products (preferred) and / or other agricultural value chains
  • Identifying, developing and activating partnerships, including but not limited to funding partnerships
  • Building relationships within the natural resource, climate, and / or forest products sectors
• Familiarity with standard setting bodies and processes
• Ability to communicate programmatic initiatives and results to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across interdisciplinary teams and with external partners.

Core Competencies:

• Agility - Thriving in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments by anticipating and responding to changes with swift, focused and flexible actions.
• Collaborating with Others - Working together with others in a cooperative and supportive manner to achieve shared goals.
• Ensuring Accountability - Holding yourself and others to high standards of accountability, creating an infrastructure and transparent organization culture that supports and measures personal and organizational responsibility and accountability.
• Problem Solving - Identifying problems and the solutions to them. Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.

Leadership Competencies:

• Thinking Strategically - Seeing and synthesizing different sides of an issue, examining the full range of options and outcomes, and building intellectual frameworks to guide analysis and action.
• Leading Change - Recognizing the need for change, being open to new ideas and methods, and championing transformational change with the organization and beyond. Demonstrated ability to strategically translate organizational strategy and policy priorities into tangible actions.
• Decision Making - Using critical thinking, good business sense and organizational values to make decisions involving varying levels or risk and ambiguity.
• Diversity and Inclusion - Working effectively with individuals of diverse backgrounds in a variety of work contexts.

Job Function Competencies:

• Scientific Rigor - Ability to design and implement methods that withstand peer and market scrutiny.
• Data-Driven Analysis - Skilled at managing large, complex datasets and generating actionable insights.
• Collaboration - Works effectively with internal teams and external partners to advance shared goals.
• Innovation - Applies creative approaches to methodological development and co-benefit quantification.
• Communication - Able to translate technical outputs into accessible insights for funders, landowners, and partners.

What's attractive to the candidate?:

• You have the unique and exciting opportunity to work with amazing colleagues, partners and landowners to help connect forest landowners with technical and financial assistance to better steward their land and achieve vital landscape-scale conservation impacts.
• Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.
• We offer a flexible work environment that respects your life outside of work.
• Salary is commensurate with experience.
• AFF offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package.

Contact us to apply We know there are great candidates who may not check all these boxes, and we also know you might bring important skills that we haven't considered. If that applies to you, don't hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.



We are committed to creating a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other basis protected by law.

Salary Description

$110,600 - $122,500