Program Director, Environment

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; Flint (MI); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint, Michigan, is seeking a Program Director to lead its Environment program at a pivotal moment in its evolution. You will shape strategy, steward a growing portfolio, and partner with program officers to translate the plan into durable results.

The role requires deep program knowledge, strong communication with Foundation leadership and trustees, and the ability to coach teams while ensuring disciplined grantmaking and internal processes across three

Job description

About Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Automotive pioneer Charles Stewart Mott established the private charitable foundation that bears his name in 1926 in Flint, Michigan. The Mott Foundation supports and works with organizations in its hometown of Flint and communities around the world to promote a just, equitable and sustainable society. It makes grants to nonprofit organizations working in its four areas of interest: the Flint area, youth engagement, environment and civil society. In 2025, the Foundation made 396 grants totaling more than $161million. For more information, visit mott.org.

About the Environment Program

Launched 40 years ago, the Mott Foundation’s Environment program has long supported programs around the world that protect communities and the ecosystems upon which they depend. This work has demonstrated that such grantmaking must seek practical ways to build strong economic, social and environmental conditions for all people — in a word, sustainability. In 2025, the Environment program awarded 93 grants totaling more than $20 million.

This is an exciting time to join the Environment team as they begin to implement in 2026 a new 10-year program plan. Based on the lessons learned from their long-term engagement in the field, the team will pursue three initiatives:

• One Water, which will promote clean, affordable and accessible water for all from source to tap, both in the Great Lakes region and across the United States.
• Finance for Sustainability, which aims to influence international finance to drive the transition to low-carbon energy, protect ecosystems and uphold the rights of local communities.
• Land, Water and People of the Amazon Basin, which will work to advance land rights, ecological stewardship and sustainable livelihoods in the Amazon basin.

The Opportunity

The Mott Foundation is seeking a program director to lead its Environment program at an important moment in its evolution. With a new 10-year plan underway and an anticipated investment of $200 million across its three initiatives, the incoming director will help translate an ambitious strategy into meaningful, durable results.

At its core, the role requires understanding the breadth of the Environment program well enough to provide sound oversight, communicate the work clearly to Foundation leadership and trustees, and create the conditions for talented program officers to deploy resources effectively. The program director will lead primarily through judgment, coaching, inquiry and influence, while also ensuring that the program’s grantmaking and internal processes are executed with consistency and excellence.

One Water