Director of Land Conservation

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; Montana; On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation seeks a Director of Land Conservation to lead and manage its land conservation and access programs. You will steer geospatial strategies, maintain partnerships, and oversee budget and project execution within RMEF policy and compliance.

The role requires directing a high-performing team, coordinating across divisions, and ensuring program outcomes align with mission priorities and legal requirements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in natural resources or related field required.
• 5+ years leading a team in land conservation or related field.
• Experience with real estate transactions, legal requirements, and tax considerations.

Responsibilities

• Lead and report to Executive Staff and Board on land conservation and access programs with compliance oversight.
• Maintain a high-performing conservation team and define roles, expectations, and resource needs.
• Develop and maintain program strategy and project pipeline to deliver on strategic visions.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Communication

Supervisory

Tech literacy

Education

Bachelor's degree in natural resources

Tools

ArcGIS

NetSuite

Microsoft Teams

Job description

Director of Land Conservation

Reports to: Managing Director of Mission Operations

Department: Mission

Classification: Exempt

Location: Headquarters, Missoula, MT

Date: November 2026

Job Summary:

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is a leader in land conservation of big game habitat. The Director of Land Conservation is a vital and key leadership role within RMEF. The position is responsible for providing leadership for, and management of, RMEF’s land conservation and access program. Responsibilities encompass setting geospatial strategies and maintaining strategic partnerships. Leading a team, success will result in organizational impact through completion of priority projects, such as gifts of real estate, acquisitions and conveyance of lands, public access transactions, and voluntary conservation easements. The Director will lead management, program direction, budget and regional landscape plans in accordance with RMEF policy, legal, compliance and contract management requirements. The position delivers operational standards, practices and regulations as needed.

The Land Conservation Director is a part of the Mission Division setting clear goals for mission field staff and maintaining partnerships with external partners regularly and proactively. Internal operations are essential to effectively administer plans and strategies that ensure quality and program support effectiveness.

Essential Functions:

1. Effectively lead and report to Executive Staff and Board of Directors on RMEF’s land conservation and access program, ensuring technical expertise and compliance, for communication of impactful mission delivery and strategy.
2. Maintain and lead a high-performing conservation team with attention to cross-layer mission program success. Maintaining a solution-focus approach to challenges, lead team with clearly defined roles and expectations while developing expertise and identifying resource needs to accomplish objectives.
3. Develop and maintain Program strategy and project pipeline of land conservation and access projects sufficient to deliver on RMEF’s strategic and operating visions.
4. Collaborate with RMEF divisions on a consistent and initiative-taking basis to deliver the critical connections between mission impact, science, support operations, legal, accounting and compliance, and revenue.
5. Manage relationships
6. Oversee the management of program activities, data and procedures within RMEF policies, industry standards, and regulations.
7. Lead the Program team’s incoming grant strategy and collaborate with Revenue Division fundraising strategies. Provide budget projections and monitor program financial impacts for quality and accuracy.
8. Maintain productive relationships with conservation partners, landowners, agencies, and technical experts. Represent RMEF mission programs, and specifically the land conservation and access program, in conservation priority planning and at stakeholder meetings and events.

Additional Responsibilities:

Represent the RMEF as a speaker, participant, representative or partner at various local, state, regional, national public and private functions as requested. Perform additional duties as assigned.

Supervision Responsibilities:

Supervise Land Conservation and Access staff. Occasionally supervision of a contractor may be necessary.

Education and Experience:

Must have more than 5 years of professional experience in managing a team within areas of real estate, wildlife conservation, land/resource management, legal services, operations leadership or equivalent field. A bachelor’s degree in natural resources related fields or related degree is required.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

1. Thorough knowledge and support of RMEF’s mission, goals, organization and activities, and the ability to promote them.
2. Thorough knowledge and demonstrated experience of lands realty transaction processes, legal requirements, required documentation, tax ramifications and the relationships between the parties involved.
3. Demonstrated critical thinking skills to find innovative solutions to complex challenges and experience in partnership development with landowners and stakeholders.
4. Strong experience with local, state, and federal agencies, non-profit land trusts, land management contractors and private landowners.
5. Demonstrate a professional appearance and attitude.
6. Ability to work independently without frequent, direct supervision and to remain focused on goals and objectives while adapting to changing priorities.
7. Demonstrate fiscal responsibility.
8. Ability to perceive and establish long-term goals to develop and implement projects that are cohesive, progressive and mission priority oriented.
9. Ability to train, motivate, and educate department staff. Must have strong supervisory, leadership, management, and teambuilding skills.
10. Must have strong written and verbal communication skills including the ability to create documents and presentations, and the ability to communicate to a variety of audiences.
11. Must have strong computer skills including Microsoft Teams, ArcGIS, and NetSuite programs and apps. Must have a fundamental understanding of working with relational databases and cloud file storage.
12. Must have the ability to manage and resolve conflict. Must have the ability to manage stressful situations in a manner that demonstrates leadership, supervision, and organizational management.

Physical Demands:

Office work will require sitting or standing for extended periods of time, frequent use of office equipment and light lifting, bending and physical exertion. Travel by automobile, airplane, horse, foot or mechanized ORV’s may be required. Evening work and weekend work may be required.

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of the job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of essential functions, responsibilities, or requirements.