Associate Director, Lions and Landscapes

Organizational background

Wildlife Conservation Network is a fast-expanding organization focused on conserving wildlife through a collaborative, entrepreneurial, innovative, and philanthropy-driven model. Its mission is to help reverse threats facing endangered species by equipping conservation leaders with access to donors, resources, and practical tools that help their work succeed.

The organization operates through three core program areas:

• Partner Network: identifies entrepreneurial conservation organizations and provides them with deep, sustained support.
• Wildlife Funds: offers flexible grant funding to projects that protect threatened species across their full habitat range.
• Rising Wildlife Leaders: supports local conservationists through capacity building, leadership development, networking, and related support so they can better protect wildlife.

Role overview

The Associate Director is a senior strategic and operational partner to the Director of the Lion Recovery Fund and the Africa Keystone Fund. The position is designed to act as a force multiplier, helping keep the Lion Recovery Fund operating at full capacity while the Africa Keystone Fund is being built out, and helping establish the systems and infrastructure needed for the new fund.

The right candidate will be highly self-directed, bring strong conservation knowledge and grantmaking experience, and be comfortable leading communities of practice and managing complex relationships across many stakeholders. Preference will be given to citizens or permanent residents of African savannah range states. The successful candidate should be based in Africa and be willing to travel up to 20% of the time.

Key responsibilities

Lion Recovery Fund: operational leadership

• Work alongside the Director to deliver LRF and Keystone Fund strategy, grantmaking priorities, and new initiatives, while recognizing that final strategic authority remains with the Director.
• Build and maintain close working relationships with grantees to track progress, identify challenges, and surface opportunities.
• Conduct field due diligence to support grant decisions, with travel expected to take around 20% of work time.
• Lead proposal outreach, due diligence, pre-review, grant preparation, and performance assessment for review by the committee.
• Review program reports in depth, evaluate delivery against funded outcomes, and prepare written performance summaries for committee review.
• Supply program metrics and performance information to the Funds Manager for database entry and maintain accurate records.
• Design and lead LRF communities of practice, including convenings, peer-learning sessions, and assessment of capacity gaps across the portfolio, while connecting work with other WCN programs.

Africa Keystone Fund: development and operations

• Partner with the Director to shape the KF strategy, governance model, grantmaking processes, and operating systems.
• Support and supervise the Wildlife Funds Manager, providing direction and oversight to help deliver program goals successfully.
• Develop relationships with current and prospective KF grantees and guide them through proposal and reporting processes.
• Contribute to the design of a Keystone community of practice.
• Help build KF operational systems together with other WCN staff, including grant management tools, reporting templates, and cross-team coordination with WCN and RWF.
• Work with the WCN Wildlife Funds team to advance shared learning, cross-portfolio strategy, and collective impact.

Fundraising support and donor engagement

• Assist other WCN colleagues with fundraising for LRF and KF when needed, including preparing donor-facing updates and helping coordinate events.
• Maintain relationships with current LRF and KF donors through event participation, in-person meetings, multi-channel communication, and targeted reporting, as directed by the Director.

Experience and skills

Required qualifications

• At least 7 years of experience in conservation programme management, grantmaking, or a closely related discipline.
• A master’s degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Ability to travel up to 20% of the year.
• Native-level or bilingual English, with strong written and verbal communication skills for technical writing, facilitation, and stakeholder engagement in English.
• Background working across different African geographic contexts.
• Strong knowledge of African conservation issues, especially lion conservation.
• Understanding of conservation area management, law enforcement, community-based conservation, human-wildlife coexistence, and illegal wildlife trade.
• Proficiency with Google Suite, project management tools, and grant databases such as Salesforce or Airtable.
• Excellent organization skills, strong attention to detail, and the ability to manage several workstreams independently.
• Ability to work respectfully and collaboratively with diverse teams and stakeholder groups from different cultures.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience managing grantmaking cycles, including pipeline management, due diligence, monitoring, and impact reporting, as well as facilitating multi-stakeholder communities of practice or technical networks.
• Ability to engage and inspire donors is a strong advantage.
• Knowledge of French, Portuguese, or Swahili is an advantage.
• Experience using AI tools to improve programme efficiency or data analysis is considered beneficial.

Compensation and benefits

Compensation will be competitive with similar roles and responsibilities. The final offer will depend on qualifications, experience, and location. Relocation support is not available.

Application instructions

Applicants should send a CV and cover letter to the stated recruitment email address, using the subject line “WCN – Lions and Landscapes Associate Director”.

Equal opportunity statement

The employer follows an equal opportunity policy and does not make employment decisions based on race, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, parental status, housing status, or other protected status under applicable law. Candidates from underrepresented communities in conservation, including Black, Indigenous, people of color, women, and LGBTQIA+ individuals, are strongly encouraged to apply.