JOB TITLE: Director
STATUS: Exempt, 40 hours per week
LOCATION: Madison, WI, Portland, OR, or Tucson, AZ, or negotiable based on level of experience
CULTURE AND COMMITMENT AT ILLUME
Our Vision: ILLUME is the premier consultancy for advancing, re-envisioning, and equitably transforming the energy industry. We align with clean energy and social justice imperatives and give primacy to human dreams and aspirations so that all can thrive in a clean energy future.
Our Commitment to Team Values: At ILLUME, we value the diverse lived experiences of our team. We view diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as an on-going commitment and investment in the growth of our employees, the growth of our company culture, and the growth of our industry. By centering environmental justice, climate change mitigation, and social justice in our work, we aim to transform the way the energy industry looks at its challenges. We believe that our collective well-being depends on how well we explore, elevate, and communicate the experiences of all people who use the electric grid. We quantify the impacts of our public investments to reduce energy demand and mitigate climate change.
ILLUME considers our investment in our team as a long-term and mutual investment. At ILLUME, we’re committed to building a valued business while ensuring rewarding careers to our employees. ILLUME does not discriminate in its employment practices with regard to age, ancestry, religion, arrest record, color, conviction record, creed, cultural background, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, military obligations, national origin, race, sex, or sexual orientation.
JOB SUMMARY
The Director is responsible for leading large and complex projects on behalf of ILLUME Advising. The Director will draw upon the work and expertise of colleagues including ILLUME’s analytical teams to successfully deliver thoughtful work and expert consulting services to our clients. Projects will be in ILLUME’s core areas of expertise including evaluation and evaluability, ethnographic and social-science research, data science and analytics, emerging program design and technology consulting, market-focused research and analysis, and integrated demand side management. The Director will also be responsible for fostering ILLUME’s knowledge in key areas of strategic growth and exhibit subject matter expertise.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES & KEY RESULTS AREAS (KRAs)
Below we show the key result areas (KRAs) for this position.
Project & Key Account Oversight
- Provide oversight and direction to a project team.
- Ensure project teams are employing approaches that are methodologically sound and creative.
- Maintain the big picture of the client’s needs in the context of their policy and/or organizational environment when specifying and directing project work.
- Work with the client to ensure activities are right sized to their research, budget, and timeline needs, adjusting plans and client expectations as those needs change. Work with the project team to ensure project implementation aligns with that plan.
- Critically review all project deliverables to ensure they meet ILLUME’s high quality standards and exceed clients’ expectations.
- Ensure detailed project implementation plans account for all methodological needs and contingencies and include reasonable and detailed timeline with key deliverables identified, reviewers identified, and dependencies identifying any scope issues, financial risks, or timeline risks.
- Continually hold budget and timeline parameters in mind when directing work.
- Deploy ILLUME’s wide range of consulting services to key accounts and clients including one-on-one client interaction, group meetings and conversations, and/or facilitation of larger often complex or politically sensitive stakeholder meetings based on subject matter expertise (SME).
Staff Development, Training, and Mentorship
- Foster the development of our team in SME areas as well as project delivery.
- Provide direct mentoring and/or management of the ILLUME consultant and analytical team.
- Identify team trainings needs and work with the executive team to develop and deliver trainings in area of SME.
Subject Matter Expertise, Ensuring Projects Apply Sound & Rigorous Methodologies
- Stay abreast of industry trends and identify strategic opportunities for ILLUME in these areas.
- Work across ILLUME project teams to support the advancement of methodologies and projects designs related to personal areas of SME.
- Serve as an SME in support of a project.
- Ensure teams are effectively interpreting and conveying the key takeaways of research activities in a way that is actionable and relatable to a general, less technical audience.
Business Development, Upselling & Proposal Development
- Identify project expansion opportunities with current clients and key accounts.
- Proactively develop materials and content for marketing and business development.
- Support ILLUME team members in promoting work that contributes to market awareness.
- Cultivate relationships with new or potential clients to expand ILLUME’s client base.
- Support in the development of all aspects of proposals.
- Represent ILLUME at key industry events and in key organizations.
OTHER DUTIES
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
COLLABORATION
Collaboration is the minimum standard at ILLUME. Team members build trust through regular, open, and honest communication and by working together across the company to ensure the success of every project. By working together, we create the momentum to accomplish our company objectives and together attain exceptional results.
REQUIRED EDUCATION
Master’s degree in a relevant area of study and/or a commensurate number of years of experience.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Industry Experience
- At least six to ten years of experience in applied research consulting (note: data analytics and/or social science research experience is imperative), preferably in energy research
- Direct experience providing consulting services to clients in the energy space or adjacent categories
Management Skills
- Demonstrated ability to prioritize effectively in the face of multiple and shifting priorities, with the ability to switch between complex analytical thinking and attending to mundane tasks without
- Proven experience mentoring and managing staff
- Ability to develop research methods and study designs and lead staff in executing against those designs
- Demonstrated ability to deliver exceptional research services on time and on budget compromising quality or losing one’s focus
- Exceptional client and stakeholder management
- Demonstrated independent decision-making experience with solid judgment
- A history of successful, creative problem-solving
Reporting & Communication Skills
- Superior verbal and written communication skills, demonstrating clarity and conciseness
- Tireless attention to detail in all prior experience (professional)
- Experience applying critical thinking and attention to detail resulting in accurate and high-quality end-products
- Experience effectively identifying and conveying relevant messages, findings, and recommendations through various reporting mechanisms
- Superior verbal and written communication skills, demonstrating clarity and conciseness
- Presentation skills
- Intermediate experience with Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Comfort in public speaking and public training
- Experience with business development, sales, developing competitive bids, and/or participating in best and final presentations
- A proclivity for research ingenuity and innovative method design
- A desire to help improve standards and systems to foster a highly cooperative and collaborative working environment across multiple U.S. based offices
- Experience with stakeholder facilitation
WORKING CONDITIONS
The Director will work in an office setting the majority of the time under normal conditions. Due to COVID-19, ILLUME employees will work remotely at their homes (or other, socially distant locations), until it is deemed safe to resume work in office. This position requires sitting (or standing) for long periods of time at a computer; and communicating by telephone and email. Dress code at ILLUME is business casual (“pulled together”). This position requires travel roughly twice per month.
TO APPLY
Please submit a cover letter, resume, and writing samples/report samples from past work to hiring@illumeadvising.com.
In the subject line of your email, indicate the following:
Last name_First name_ Director
In your cover letter, provide us with:
- A sense of who you are by being honest, creative, and “yourself”.
- Any experience with DEI in the workplace, and your own professional growth.
- Please indicate your desired location (Madison, WI, Portland, OR, or Tucson, AZ), or indicate if you wish to work elsewhere and how you will ensure collaboration and availability to your colleagues in a remote environment.
Expect that we will carefully review all of your materials, including your cover letter. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
ILLUME will accept applications until the position is filled.
