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Managing Director

The Resilience Institute

The Resilience Institute (TRI) is a national not-for-profit organization with charitable status in Canada. Our mission is to minimize suffering caused by climate change. We work to achieve this through educational and applied research programming that strengthens the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities to build climate resilience to our changing environment. Currently, the majority of our work benefits small, rural, and Indigenous communities across Canada and on occasion, internationally. As a hybrid organization with home offices, we offer flexibility and remote work opportunities.

The Managing Director

Working closely with the President / CEO, the Managing Director will be responsible for implementing The Resilience Institute’s mission, strategic direction and priorities. The Managing Director will develop and collaborate with transdisciplinary program and funding partners from academia, the not-for-profit sector, industry, and communities. This role is integral to The Resilience Institute’s growth and in ensuring organizational sustainability and robust program operations and program delivery. It is a new role for The Resilience Institute and as such, there is flexibility in how we imagine the workplan, together. We estimate this role will be a salaried position commensurate with experience and our budget, for an average of 30 hours / week plus holidays.

Key responsibilities will involve:

Institutional Strategy

  • Operationalizing TRI’s mission and strategic plans inclusive of robust measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL) that will guide strategic decisions and enhance institutional and project goals.
  • Seek opportunities to innovate operational processes and practices including identify issues and barriers affecting team progress and taking appropriate steps to resolve them.
  • Represent TRI by developing and leading partnerships with stakeholders and rightsholders that advance education, applied research, and knowledge mobilization, including identifying and supporting funding collaborations.


Operations & Programmatic Oversight

  • Strengthen TRI’s financial practices and help to establish a robust operational foundation.
  • Oversight of key financial operations functions such as:
    • strategic budgeting processes – oversee program budgets, grants and contributions agreements, forecasts, and expenditures, ensuring alignment with organizational financial policies.
    • Monitor program financial performance, analyze/communicate variances, and propose corrective measures to Finance team when necessary.
    • Work closely with the Finance team to prepare, review and manage multi-year budgets and funding proposals.
  • Help build and manage TRI’s Adaptation Action Fund – a dedicated pool of funding that supports project communities in implementing early resilience-strengthening actions.
  • Support the Finance team in preparing for Board Meetings and the Annual General Meeting.
  • Lead the development of TRI’s suite of relevant and current policy and procedure documents.
  • Facilitate the establishment of a CRM (and/or socializing the use of Salesforce).
  • Support program delivery when relevant, which includes leading some projects.


Knowledge Mobilization and Partnership Development

  • Working with the creative team, ensure programming outcomes are communicated effectively and efficiently to strengthen communities of practice and in achieving our mission.
  • In collaboration with the President / CEO and other team members, enhance The Resilience Institute’s public profile and funding potential by strategically identifying opportunities, and attending agreed upon events and in engaging with rightsholders, stakeholders, prospective funders, and on occasion, media.
  • Support the advancement of programming goals by helping to develop cases for support and applications for funding.


Team Relations & People Operations

  • Leading across programming and operations, foster a positive workplace culture by collaborating with the direct reports to strategize and address employee concerns, mediating disputes, and providing guidance on workplace challenges.
  • Develop and implement performance review processes, setting objectives, tracking employee progress, and ensuring there is constructive feedback.
  • Lead recruitment and retention efforts that exemplifies diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B).
  • Point person for general questions from the team related to program operations, and overseeing onboarding and offboarding processes.
  • Ensure continuity for the team from meetings to ensuring the Team Handbook and Style Guide and relevant policies are up-to-date and easily accessible to team members.


About You

  • Highly organized, compassionate, and innovative professional who will thrive in supporting a growing charity dedicated to minimizing suffering caused by the impacts of climate change.
  • 5+ years’ leadership experience operationalizing programming that advances climate goals; experience in adaptation and/or disaster risk reduction a strong asset.
  • Strong project management skills, including developing and overseeing project teams, preparing and managing project budgets, developing funding proposals to advance program goals in  Canadian not-for-profit / charitable context.
  • The ideal candidate will possess strong financial acumen, meaning:
    • Ability to interpret and apply financial data to guide program decisions and propose adjustments to Finance team.
    • Skilled in developing, managing, and monitoring multi-source budgets (grants, donations, earned income, etc.) while ensuring compliance and accountability.
    • Capable of analyzing financial statements, forecasting trends, and identifying risks or opportunities to enhance sustainability or able to work with the Finance team to contribute to these types of discussions.
  • You have great people skills and enjoy mentoring and empowering team members to elevate their levels of responsibility and performance.
  • Ability to collaborate with empathy, sensitivity, and a high degree of emotional intelligence with a wide range of groups and individuals, including community groups, researchers, the private sector, and multiple levels of government, taking into consideration multiple ways of knowing and diverging viewpoints.
  • Experience with organizational communication strategies, report writing, public relations, and media management.
  • A developed network of climate resilience experts that can be drawn upon to advance TRI’s goals will be an asset.
  • Eligible to work in Canada and able to work remotely, understanding that working hours are flexible but that weekday, evenings, and weekends are sometimes required to accommodate attendance at scheduled events or meetings.
  • Experience with tools such as MS Office Professional Suite, Teams, and Zoho Project Management and Expenses or equivalent will be an asset.
  • Graduate Degree or equivalent


Interested candidates are invited to send a short letter of interest and curriculum vitae (CV) to operations_team@resilienceinstitute.ca by December 15, 2025. The start date for this position is flexible. We thank all applicants, those who will be interviewed will be notified in late December and interviews will begin in January, 2026.

Laura Stewart

Board Member

Laura Stewart is the Community Wildfire Resilience Coordinator with Forsite Fire, supporting communities across Canada with wildfire risk assessments, mitigation planning, and program delivery. She has more than a decade of experience advancing wildfire resilience at Indigenous, municipal, provincial/territorial, and national levels. Previously, Laura served nearly eleven years as Alberta’s Provincial FireSmart Specialist, leading community, WUI, neighbourhood, and Home Ignition Zone programs, coordinating funding, and partnering with communities and fire services across the province. She has also served as Board Chair with both the Partners in Protection Association (FireSmart Canada) and the Community Wildfire Resilience Association of Alberta.

 

Sara Walsh, PhD

Board Member

Sara Walsh, PhD, is a disaster risk reduction and climate resilience specialist with more than 15 years of experience spanning Canada, Nepal, the Middle East, and North Africa. Until November 2025, she served as Thematic Lead for Climate and Resilience with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she supported Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to strengthen their climate and risk reduction work across the region. Sara currently works as a freelance consultant with the United Nations, governments, and humanitarian organizations on recovery, risk governance, and community-based resilience. She teaches at a Canadian university and holds a PhD in Disaster Risk Reduction. Her work emphasizes anticipatory action, equity, and bridging research with practice to shape more resilient and sustainable futures.

Alison Criscitiello

Board Member

Alison Criscitiello, PhD, is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. Alison’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Alison has earned three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, as well as the first Ph.D. in Glaciology ever conferred by MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.