Super Pollutant Program Director

About Cascade

Join Cascade Climate, a global nonprofit propelling high-potential climate solutions from the margins to the mainstream. 

The climate crisis has outpaced our response. We need dramatically expanded efforts on near-term warming mitigation, large-scale durable carbon removal for climate restoration, and potential interventions to avoid triggering irreversible tipping points. Many promising solutions remain sidelined not because they lack potential, but because they haven't gotten the push needed to overcome adoption bottlenecks. 

We founded Cascade to provide that push. We do this by leading ambitious initiatives spanning markets, policy and science to overcome the biggest bottlenecks to progress. Cascade is philanthropically backed and since its launch in 2023 has built a strong funding base with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Grantham Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, and others.

Our initial focus has been advancing the development of Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) as a promising climate-smart agriculture and carbon removal solution. In 2025, we expanded our work beyond carbon removal to tackle the problem of near-term warming by pursuing drastic cuts to super pollutants.

About the Role

We are hiring a Program Director to lead Cascade’s emerging work on life cycle refrigerant management—a cornerstone of our super pollutant mitigation strategy. In this role you will shape and drive a multi-faceted program that advances the destruction and life cycle management of high-GWP refrigerants. We believe there is an opportunity to dramatically curb refrigerant emissions in some of the highest-priority regions of the world through a combination of stepped-up catalytic finance, policy engagement, infrastructure deployment, and field-building. To learn more about our entry into the field, read our recent blog post here. 

This is a leadership role for someone who is equally comfortable engaging with policymakers, technical partners, NGOs, and market actors. You will architect and deliver this new program—building the team, identifying the most catalytic interventions, establishing strong partnerships, and executing our work with speed and excellence.

About You

You’ve spent the last 10–15 years working on climate, environmental systems, or regulatory implementation, and know what it takes to move complex, cross-sector problems forward in the real world. You bring a track record of quickly turning strategic ideas into action, and of working with partners to build shared infrastructure or unlock system-level change. Maybe you’ve worked on refrigerants, cooling solutions, environmental policy and markets, multilateral treaties and implementation frameworks, or climate philanthropy. We’re especially excited to find someone who brings experience from both the commercial and government-facing sides of these challenges.

• Strategy & Program Design: Develop and refine Cascade’s strategic roadmap to support rapid refrigerant emission reductions through destruction and end of life management, identifying bottlenecks and opportunities across technical, financial, and regulatory dimensions
• Regulatory Engagement & Field Enablement: Work with governments, NGOs and other policy stakeholders to enable and scale safe, high-integrity refrigerant destruction. In particular, you will aim to move the needle on policy design and implementation in Global South countries with rapidly growing cooling demand
• Market Integration & Standards: Support efforts to incorporate refrigerant emission-reducing activities into environmental markets where there is a fit (e.g. via methodology development, registry engagement, buyer education, and compliance market program engagement)
• Project & Partnership Development: Cultivate and support partners across the lifecycle refrigerant management ecosystem—technicians, distributors, recollection centers, disposal facilities, MRV providers, and local NGOs—to unlock powerful early proof-point projects and set the stage for scale
• Storytelling & Thought Leadership: Represent Cascade externally as a thoughtful, trustworthy, and curious leader in this emerging space—bringing clarity to complexity and connecting dots between policy, science, and markets
• Program Management: Manage internal workstreams and external grants related to life cycle refrigerant management, with accountability for planning, budget, milestone achievement, and internal learning/feedback cycles

• 10–15 years of relevant experience in climate solutions, climate policy, or climate-related program implementation—especially at the intersection of commercial and policy efforts
• Familiarity with and experience in refrigerant emission reductions, cooling sector emission reductions, hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs), or other short-lived climate pollutants
• Strong project management skills with a proven ability to drive fast-paced execution of complex initiatives—especially in dynamic or uncertain contexts
• Excellent stakeholder management and interpersonal skills, including aligning diverse partners and navigating complex relationships
• Track record of effective strategic thinking, writing, and external thought leadership
• Experience leading teams and managing people within and across disciplines and career stages

• Comfort working across time zones, cultures, and sectors. International experience (ideally in Global South) strongly preferred
• Experience with multilateral environmental frameworks (e.g. Montreal Protocol, Basel Convention, Kigali Amendment)
• Exposure to carbon markets, environmental markets, or MRV systems

• Palpably demonstrates the empathy, humility, and contagious curiosity that are at the heart of Cascade’s culture
• Ability to embrace tension and ‘inhabit’ both sides or perspectives on an issue
• Uncommonly strong self-driven learning habits with clear evidence of this hungry autodidacticism in your past education and work experience
• Comfort working under uncertainty and ambiguity without any clear right answer
• Naturally high standards and expectations of yourself while avoiding letting “perfect get in the way of really good” so that you can deliver strong work quickly
• You are excited to dig deep into a range of solutions to the climate crisis. This may include research on climate-relevant financing, policy, and market mechanisms or parsing through hairy-looking scientific papers

Location   

Candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to one of Cascade’s hubs. Cascade is headquartered in Boston and has hubs in Washington D.C., New York City, and the Bay Area. We are a hybrid workplace, in-office a couple days a week out of a shared co-working space or our Boston headquarters.

Given this role's unique needs and geographic focus, our location preferences are:

a) A preference for candidates who are based in or willing to relocate to one of our East-Coast hubs.

b) Given a likely programmatic focus on South and Southeast Asia, we also welcome applicants based in those regions.

We love seeing each other in person and gather regularly for team time like retreats, learning experiences, and whiteboarding sessions. For this role in particular, international travel will be a significant component, especially as we engage in regions like Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East. Be ready to travel at least once per month—and occasionally a bit more as needed—for conferences, team gatherings, and partner meetings. 

Diversity

At Cascade, we believe that a diverse, inclusive team is essential to advancing our mission. We’re committed to recruiting, hiring, and supporting a team that reflects the communities we serve and brings a wide range of perspectives to the table.

Cascade is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Work Authorization

Please note that Cascade Climate is unable to sponsor H-1B work visas for this role. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for H-1B visa sponsorship at the time of application.