Chief of Staff, Energy & Environment Program

Strategy and Planning

• Support development, refinement, and execution of EEP strategy in partnership with the Executive Director and senior leadership.
• Translate long term strategy into tactical priorities with clear ownership, milestones, and success metrics.
• Stress test ideas, surface risks and opportunities, and support preparation for key decisions.
• Monitor progress against goals and proactively flag tradeoffs, capacity constraints, and resource needs.

Execution and Operations

• Manage information flow to and from the Executive Director by synthesizing inputs, ensuring organized agendas, and maintaining clear follow-up.
• Organize, track, and communicate action item decisions and ensure follow through.
• Identify gaps, inefficiencies, or recurring challenges and propose practical improvements.
• Support coordination on high priority initiatives that cut across teams or require senior attention.

Leadership, Culture, and Talent

• Support the Executive Director in building a strong, aligned, and high performing collaborative leadership team.
• Help senior leaders translate strategy into executable plans and reinforce accountability across teams.
• Establish and reinforce operating rhythms such as leadership meetings, goal tracking, and cross team coordination.
• Serve as a sounding board and coach team leaders on process, communication, and execution challenges.

Communications and Synthesis

• Synthesize complex information into clear, concise materials for leadership use.
• Draft or edit briefing memos, presentations, and internal communications, including for Senior Aspen Leadership and Board of Trustees, as needed.
• Ensure consistent messaging and clarity around priorities, decisions, and direction.
• Serve as a trusted point of contact for internal partners on issues related to priorities, process, and execution.

This role advances practical solutions to the world's energy, environmental, and climate challenges by building trust, fostering collaboration, and turning dialogue into action that drives systemic change, creating ideas and unlikely partnerships that empower people, companies, and governments to strengthen the foundations of a good society.

• Demonstrated Experience: Minimum 10 years' experience in relevant field.
• Judgment, Authority, and Partnership: Strategic, low ego leader with strong judgment who serves as a trusted partner to the Executive Director. Can challenge ideas constructively, surface risks early, deliver hard messages with clarity and care, and exercise authority on behalf of the Executive Director when needed. Brings strong subject matter fluency across core program areas and can quickly learn new complex topics.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Embodies the team's 'Yes, and' ethos. Looks for opportunities, experiments thoughtfully, and helps the organization move from ideas to action. Comfortable operating in ambiguity and helping the organization test and refine new approaches.
• Operating Discipline: Brings a flexible operational and systems mindset that strengthens smart processes, establishes clear decision rhythms, and reinforces execution standards. Helps a growing organization scale with focus and quality while actively minimizing unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Integration and Alignment: Builds trust across teams and helps leaders and staff understand how priorities connect across the larger enterprise, improving coordination and shared ownership.
• Stewardship and Continuity: Operates with discretion, emotional intelligence, and institutional awareness. Comfortable working behind the scenes and motivated by sustaining and scaling the mission and values of the Aspen Institute.
• Ability to travel: Must be able to travel regularly, with some peak periods requiring frequent travel.

The Aspen Institute offers a generous benefits package including health, dental, vision, and prescription benefits, retirement benefits, and paid leave. Salary range: $145,000-$155,000.

The Aspen Institute is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society, driving change through dialogue, leadership, and action to help solve the most critical challenges facing communities in the United States and around the world.