Green Infrastructure Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Chollas Blue Green Vision Director

Organization: Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek

Location: 5106 Federal Blvd. STE 203 San Diego, CA. 92105

Position Type: Full-time, Exempt/Salaried | 40 hours/week | In-person | Some evenings and weekends required

Compensation: $90,000- 95,000 annually, commensurate with experience

Benefits: Paid vacation & sick leave, all Federal holidays, mileage reimbursement, CalSavers Account, Health Insurance 

Focus Areas: Climate Justice, Urban Planning, Green Infrastructure, Community Empowerment

How to Apply: Submit your resume and cover letter to jobs@groundworksandiego.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Who is Groundwork San Diego - Chollas Creek 

Founded in 2007, Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek (Groundwork) works at the intersection of social, environmental, and climate justice, grounded in strong community and university partnerships, to deliver education, green infrastructure, and climate safe neighborhoods. Our efforts focus on San Diego’s climate and equity policies, parks, and infrastructure improvements that reflect the needs and aspirations of our underserved Southeastern San Diego communities.

Powered by grant funding, we achieve our goals through City and State policy work, coalition building, neighborhood-scale grassroots organizing, and student and community education programs. 

Groundwork also operates the EarthLab Climate Action Park, a 4-acre outdoor classroom and community hub for climate education and blue-green infrastructure demonstration projects, including a sustainable urban farm. 

Position Summary

The Chollas Blue Green Vision Director is a senior implementation, project management, and community engagement leader who works closely with the Deputy Director to turn Groundwork's organizational vision and program strategies into action.

The Deputy Director leads organizational strategy, program alignment, long-range planning, program design, and goal setting. The Chollas Blue Green Vision Director is the partner responsible for making that vision happen: building work plans, coordinating teams, managing timelines and deliverables, developing community participation, solving implementation challenges, and ensuring that projects move from ideas to tangible outcomes.

This is a highly hands-on position. The Chollas Blue Green Vision Director should be equally comfortable developing a project management plan, coordinating Groundwork activities, calling community partners, facilitating community meetings or activities, building relationships with participants, and troubleshooting a project that is falling behind.

The Chollas Blue Green Vision Director will coordinate across Groundwork's Chollas Blue Green Vision work which includes climate education, urban forestry, communications, youth development, and community programs to create a more integrated watershed-wide approach to community engagement and climate action. The Chollas Blue Green Vision Director will coordinate existing Groundwork teams to deploy their expertise effectively in support of shared watershed projects and community priorities.

In the first year, the Chollas Blue Green Vision Director will serve as a primary on-the-ground presence for Groundwork's community engagement work across the Chollas Creek Watershed. As the program grows, the Chollas Blue Green Vision Director will help develop and manage a team of community-based staff organized around planning-group areas, creating a sustained neighborhood presence throughout the watershed.

The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker who is also a do-er: someone who can understand the big picture, translate strategy into an actionable work plan, build relationships, manage details, and get things done.

Key Responsibilities

Project Management & Cross-Team Coordination

The Chollas Blue Green Vision Director will be responsible for orchestrating the big picture out of many interworking pieces and projects.

• Manage multiple concurrent projects with different partners, timelines, grant requirements, and deliverables.
• Coordinate workflows across Groundwork's community engagement, youth education, urban forestry, and communications staff.
• Create and maintain shared project calendars, implementation schedules, meeting agendas, action-item lists, and project tracking systems.
• Coordinate staff and partner responsibilities without unnecessarily duplicating or taking over specialized program roles.
• Serve as the primary project-management point person for selected watershed projects and community initiatives.
• Coordinate with external partners, consultants, schools, government agencies, community organizations, and contractors to keep projects moving.
• Organize project meetings, site walks, community walk audits, planning sessions, workshops, stewardship activities, and public celebrations.
• Ensure that project documentation, participant information, outreach records, photographs, deliverables, and other materials are maintained throughout implementation.

Community Engagement & Community Activation

The Chollas Blue Green Vision Director will be a highly visible, hands-on member of Groundwork's community engagement team.

• Build and maintain authentic relationships with residents, neighborhood leaders, Community Planning Groups, schools, youth, community-based organizations, faith organizations, local businesses, and other community partners.
• Recruit residents and community members to participate in Groundwork programs, workshops, trainings, stewardship activities, and project planning processes.
• Personally conduct and participate in community outreach, including door-to-door outreach, tabling, phone calls, email outreach, neighborhood walks, school events, and community meetings.
• Plan and deliver community workshops and other public-facing programs, like our Resident Empowerment Training.
• Facilitate community conversations, presentations, small-group activities, and project feedback sessions.
• Attend and represent Groundwork at Community Planning Group meetings, neighborhood meetings, public meetings, school events, community celebrations, and partner events.
• Coordinate community volunteers and stewardship activities.
• Help build pathways from one-time participation into sustained community leadership and stewardship.

Grants, Evaluation & Organizational Support

• Support grant implementation, evaluation, reporting, and compliance.
• Track program deliverables and deadlines across multiple grants and projects.
• Prepare project updates, presentations, reports, and other written materials.
• Maintain accurate records of community participation, outreach, events, and project milestones.
• Support development of grant applications and funding opportunities as requested.
• Help identify funding opportunities that support Groundwork's community engagement and watershed-wide goals.

Candidate Profile

Hands-On Implementer: A person who enjoys making things happen. Comfortable moving between high-level planning and detailed execution, from developing a project timeline to calling residents, setting up an event, facilitating a workshop, and cleaning up afterward.

Strong Project Manager: Highly organized and able to manage multiple projects, deadlines, partners, budgets, and moving pieces simultaneously. Knows how to turn a large goal into manageable tasks, assign responsibilities, track progress, and follow through.

Strategic Thinker: Able to understand the larger organizational and watershed-wide vision and recognize how individual projects contribute to broader climate justice, community empowerment, and green infrastructure goals. Does not need to be the primary strategist, but must be able to understand strategy and translate it into action.

Community Connector: Enjoys being in the community and building genuine relationships. Comfortable talking with residents, youth, families, school staff, elected officials, nonprofit partners, community leaders, and government agencies.

Required Education, Experience & Skills

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as City Planning, Environmental Planning, Public Policy, Public Health, Environmental Science, Community Development, Urban Studies, or a related field.
• 5+ years of professional experience in nonprofit programs, project management, community engagement, environmental justice, education, planning, organizing, community development, or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex projects involving multiple teams, partners, timelines, and deliverables.
• Experience supervising, mentoring, or coordinating staff, fellows, interns, contractors, or volunteers.
• Demonstrated experience planning and delivering community events, workshops, or other public-facing programs and maintaining relationships with diverse community members and community-based organizations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability and willingness to work evenings and weekends as required for community programs and events.
• Valid driver's license and reliable transportation.

Desired Knowledge & Skills

• Familiarity with the Chollas Creek Watershed and Southeastern San Diego.
• Deep understanding of climate, environmental, and social justice issues.
• Experience working in historically under-invested or environmental justice communities.
• Experience with community organizing, resident leadership development, or grassroots engagement.
• Experience with capital improvement projects, green infrastructure, urban forestry, parks, transportation, stormwater, or urban planning.
• Grant application, implementation, evaluation, and reporting experience.
• Experience working with local government agencies and/or Community Planning Groups.
• Experience developing community science or environmental monitoring programs.
• Bilingual English/Spanish.

How to Apply

Submit your resume and cover letter to jobs@groundworksandiego.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.