Oceania Lead

The Nature Conservancy; New South Wales; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

The Nature Conservancy seeks an Oceania Lead to provide senior leadership and conservation strategy across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Based in one of these locations, you will guide country programs, fundraising and global collaboration, driving measurable conservation outcomes.

You will build partnerships with donors, governments and partners, while leading cross‑country teams to translate strategy into action and ensure sustainable impact across the

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and at least 7 years of leadership experience in conservation or nonprofit.
• Proven ability to motivate, lead and manage a large multi-disciplinary team.
• Excellent written and verbal English; multilingualism desirable.
• Strong fundraising, donor stewardship and philanthropic relationship management.
• Ability to communicate with diverse audiences including donors and boards.
• Experience in major gift fundraising and strategic partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Provide regional leadership across Oceania and align country programs with Asia Pacific priorities.
• Lead Country Directors to deliver performance, accountability and collaboration in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
• Foster a One Conservancy approach, enabling cross-country integration and scaling of successful models.
• Engage with donors, governments, Indigenous communities, NGOs and media to raise profile and resources.
• Oversee governance, risk management and financial sustainability while strengthening systems.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Fundraising

Stakeholder engagement

Communication

Policy influence

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Job Description

What We Can Achieve Together:

The Oceania Lead provides senior leadership and acts as a conservation strategist across a portfolio of country programs in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands and will be based in one of these locations. The role is accountable for the collective performance and impact of the Oceania grouping, ensuring delivery of measurable conservation outcomes at scale, alignment with the organisation's priorities, and adherence to TNC's values building on existing strengths to maintain momentum and continuity.

The Oceania Lead aligns and integrates conservation, policy, finance and partnerships across countries to address priority threats and opportunities, ensuring resources, capabilities and programs are effectively coordinated for maximum impact. They lead Country Directors and provide matrix leadership across partnership services enabling rather than replacing local leadership, and strengthening collective performance through influence and alignment.

Working collaboratively across TNC, the role mobilises and contributes intellectual, financial and human resources to cross-cutting and regional initiatives, ensuring Oceania meaningfully contributes to Asia Pacific and global priorities. They support the translation of strategy into execution, including scaling successful approaches and strengthening policy and finance mechanisms that enable lasting conservation outcomes.

The Oceania Lead serves as TNC's senior external representative across Oceania and is accountable for building strategic relationships with donors, philanthropic families, corporate leaders, governments and conservation partners. Working in close partnership with the Chair of the Oceania Advisory Board, the Oceania Lead will help establish, develop and support a high-performing Oceania Advisory Board that advances conservation impact, influence and philanthropy across the region. The role is expected to be a visible and compelling fundraiser, mobilising support and investment for TNC's priorities throughout Oceania.

The role brings strong external presence, including media and stakeholder engagement, and translates science and program impact into compelling narratives that build support and investment.

The role provides oversight working through Country Directors and shared services to ensure strong financial sustainability, organisational effectiveness and governance while taking a pragmatic, hands on approach to strengthening systems, resolving challenges and enabling effective delivery where needed.

Reporting to the Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific, the Oceania Lead ensures alignment, performance and delivery across the region, while contributing to broader organisational success.

RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE

Regional Leadership and Alignment

• Provide leadership across Oceania to ensure alignment of country programs with Asia Pacific and global priorities.
• Lead and support Country Directors to deliver strong performance, accountability and collaboration across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
• Foster a "One Conservancy" approach, enabling cross country integration, shared learning and scaling of successful models.
• Foster a leadership environment that builds trust, creates safe and inclusive spaces, and supports leaders to succeed in their roles.
• Balance regional priorities with country needs, ensuring alignment without losing local relevance or ownership.

Conservation Impact and Strategy Delivery

• Build on existing programs and momentum, identifying opportunities to strengthen and scale impact without unnecessary disruption or re-framing.
• Ensure coordinated delivery of high impact conservation outcomes at scale across climate, lands, oceans, freshwater and people.
• Translate regional and global strategies into aligned, country level execution.
• Identify and prioritise opportunities to scale conservation impact beyond individual projects, leveraging systems approaches.
• Strengthen integration of science with Indigenous led conservation.

Advisory Board Leadership

• Partner closely with the Chair of the Oceania Advisory Board to build, recruit, engage and steward a highly effective advisory board.
• Support board succession planning, member recruitment, meeting design and strategic engagement.
• Enable board members to serve as ambassadors, advocates, connectors and philanthropic champions for TNC.
• Ensure effective governance support, reporting and communication with the Oceania Advisory Board.

Policy, Partnerships and External Influence

• Coordinate and elevate policy engagement across Oceania countries to influence enabling environments for conservation.
• Build and sustain strategic partnerships with governments, Indigenous communities, NGOs, multilaterals and the private sector.
• Serve as a visible and credible regional representative, including engagement with media and external forums, strengthening TNC's reputation and influence.
• Engage effectively with boards and senior stakeholders across Oceania, building confidence, alignment and advocacy.
• Strengthen policy influence through relationships, insight and credibility, including in complex or challenging operating environments.

Resource Mobilisation and Financial Sustainability

• Lead fundraising performance across Oceania and be accountable for achieving agreed philanthropic revenue goals.
• Personally cultivate, solicit and steward major donors, foundations and strategic partners.
• Work closely with the Chair and members of the Oceania Advisory Board to identify, develop and secure transformational philanthropic investments.
• Champion a culture of philanthropy across the Oceania organisation.

Shared Services and Operational Effectiveness

• Provide matrix leadership to shared services functions (HR, Finance & Operations and others) to ensure effective support across countries.
• Drive consistency, efficiency and scalability in operating models and service delivery.
• Ensure appropriate governance, risk management and compliance frameworks are maintained.

People Leadership and Culture

• Support a high-performing, inclusive and collaborative leadership cohort across Oceania, recognising individual and team contributions while addressing challenges directly and constructively.
• Strengthen organisational capability through talent development, succession planning and workforce alignment, with a focus on talent mobility and growing future leaders across the region.
• Champion a values driven culture, including diversity, equity and inclusion, underpinned by cultural intelligence and respect for local context.
• Strengthen organisational capability through talent development, succession planning and workforce alignment.
• Champion a values driven culture, including diversity, equity and inclusion.

Cross Cutting Contributions

• Contribute Oceania capabilities, insights and resources to Asia Pacific and global initiatives.
• Ensure Oceania both contributes to and benefits from enterprise‑wide expertise and investments.

We're Looking for You:

Are you looking for work you can believe in? At TNC we strive to embody a philosophy of Work that You Can Believe in where you can feel like you are making a difference every day. We're looking for someone with strong experience in leading a diverse, multi‑disciplinary team.

The ideal candidate is a visionary and influential conservation leader who can unite diverse teams, build strategic partnerships, inspire philanthropy, and drive large‑scale conservation impact across Oceania through collaboration, execution, and regional leadership. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the ongoing mission of conservation by directing and shaping the work of our team!

What You'll Bring:

• Bachelor's degree and minimum of 7 years of experience as a leader in the conservation arena, non‑profit sector, advocacy, or related for‑profit area.
• Extensive and proven management experience including ability to motivate, lead, set objectives, and manage performance of a large multi‑disciplinary team.
• Written and verbal fluency in English is required as well as proficiency in one or more languages from the Oceania region is desirable.
• Super communication and presentation skills required.
• Experience communicating with and presenting to diverse audiences including donors, board members, employees, outside partners, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated success in major gift fundraising, donor stewardship and philanthropic relationship management, including working with boards, senior volunteers and high capacity donors.

ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Strategic Leadership and Collaborative Management

• Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale, complex systems initiatives.
• Experience aligning multi‑country teams to shared vision, goals and priorities.
• Strong capability in matrix leadership and influencing without authority.
• Proven ability to translate strategy into tangible outcomes and measurable results.

Financial, Operational and Shared Services Leadership

• Experience overseeing shared services or enterprise‑wide functions.
• Strong financial stewardship, including budget management, forecasting and sustainability.
• Ability to optimise operations for efficiency, scalability and impact.

Fundraising and External Influence

• Proven success securing funding from diverse sources (public and private).
• Experience influencing policy, investment and sector agendas.
• Strong external engagement skills across senior stakeholders and partners.
• Ability to tell compelling stories that connect programs to impact and investment.

Managing for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• Demonstrated commitment to inclusive leadership and culturally responsive practices.
• Deep cultural competence and ability to work respectfully and effectively across diverse communities, particularly within Oceania contexts.
• Experience working across diverse cultural, socio economic and geographic contexts.
• Ability to build an equitable, safe and inclusive organisational culture.

Interpersonal Communication and Influence

• Ability to communicate authentically, clearly and persuasively.
• Demonstrated ability to amplify the voices of others and build trust‑based relationships across stakeholders.
• Strong executive presence and ability to represent the organisation at senior levels.
• Skilled in building trust, relationships and collaboration across stakeholders.

Who We Are

The Nature Conservancy's mission is to protect the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science‑based organization, we create innovative, on‑the‑ground solutions to our world's toughest challenges so that we can create a world in which people and nature thrive. We're rooted in our mission and guided by our values, which include respect for all people, communities, and cultures. Whether it's career development, flexible schedules, or a rewarding mission, there's many reasons to love life inside TNC. Want a better insight to TNC? Check out our TNC Talent playlist on YouTube or visit Glassdoor.

One goal is to cultivate an inclusive work environment so that all our colleagues around the globe feel a sense of belonging and that their unique contributions to our mission are valued. In addition to the requirements in our job postings, we recognize that people come with talent and experiences outside of a job and consider each applicant's unique experience. To quote a popular saying at TNC, "you'll join for the mission, and stay for the people."

What We Bring

Since 1951, TNC has been doing work you can believe in. Through grassroots action, we have grown from a small non‑profit into one of the most effective and wide‑ranging environmental organizations in the world. Thanks to more than 1 million members, over 400 scientists, and the dedicated efforts of our diverse staff and partners, we impact conservation around the world!
TNC offers competitive and comprehensive benefits packages tailored to the individual countries where we work. These may include health care benefits, retirement benefits, parental leave, paid time off, life insurance, and disability coverage as well as an employee assistance program and other life and well‑being benefits. Learn more about our Benefits and Perks here.
We're proud to offer a flexible work environment that supports the health and well‑being of the people we employ.

Our recruiting process includes a rolling interview process to ensure we engage applicants in a timely manner. This means we may review applications in the order in which they are received. Once a strong candidate pool is identified, the role will be unposted. The timeline may vary depending on the expressed interest in the role.

The Nature Conservancy is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our commitment to equal employment opportunity includes the recognition that our conservation mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and culture. Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization is a priority, and we encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military, protected veteran status or other status protected by law.

The successful applicant must meet the requirements of The Nature Conservancy's background screening process.

TNC is committed to offering accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application process.