Partnership and Ecosystem Manager

Job Title: Partnership and Ecosystem Manager

Reports to: Director of Strategic Development
Works closely with: Brand Strategy, PR/Media Relations, Content, Community Storytellers, Field Teams
Work Capacity: Full-time; fractional options: 36 (90%), 32 (80%)
Term: Full-time, or 3 month contract to hire, with intention to increase commitment if there is a mutual fit.
Compensation: base rate of $100–105/hour with a full time salary equivalent of $130,000 to $150,000 annually
Location: Remote, Los Angeles County-based, frequent travel within LA County expected
Priority review date: January 30, 2026
Ideal start date: February 15, 2026

About Spherical

Spherical is a transdisciplinary research and design studio working to regenerate the health and integrity of Earth's living systems. Our work spans multiple spheres of inquiry, engaging projects at scales from the local to the planetary. We work with people who willingly engage complexity and who bring care and attention to collaboration.

Our anchor project is the Living Infrastructure Field Kit, a philanthropically funded mapping and co-design platform reimagining how infrastructure is conceived in Los Angeles County, starting with communities. We also explore living systems through coding experiments, ecological data visualizations, immersive productions, and site-specific performances.

Learn more about working at Spherical →

About this role

The Partnerships and Ecosystem Manager will cultivate and tend the Living Infrastructure Field Kit as a participatory platform—a shared space where communities, practitioners, and institutions explore, story, and design living infrastructure together.

This role moves beyond traditional platform adoption to steward a participatory ecosystem: nurturing the networks, practices, and relationships that enable diverse participants to discover their unique role in regenerating their places.

The Field Kit is evolving from a project design tool into a platform with multiple pathways—Exploring data and place dynamics, Storying place-based narratives and case studies, and Designing living infrastructure projects.

We are seeking a program-oriented leader with experience in program management, partnerships, and community-driven platform adoption. In this role, you will design and run onboarding programs, manage partnerships and pipelines in databases, coordinate multi-stakeholder initiatives, track outcomes, and continuously improve participation systems that support the growth of a living, place-sourced platform.

We are invested in hiring candidates from diverse backgrounds and understand that not all candidates will meet every qualification listed. If you feel that you meet many of the qualifications, we encourage you to apply.

What you'll do

Ecosystem Cultivation & Network Stewardship (50%)

• Tend the Field Kit ecosystem as an evolving network and support the emergence of practitioner networks and communities of practice

• Design and facilitate spaces for peer learning, knowledge sharing, and collective sense-making among practitioners

• Cultivate relationships with organizations and individuals who can extend living infrastructure practice in their communities

• Deliver compelling demonstrations and presentations that communicate the platform's potential

• Create or support events that bring communities together to share practices and showcase projects

• Create pathways for participants to move from observers, to contributors, to platform stewards

Participation Strategy and Field Building (35%)

• Help diverse communities discover their entry point into and journey through the platform—whether through exploring data, storytelling, or designing projects

• Serve as an ongoing resource for users – providing technical guidance, sharing platform updates, and gathering feedback and needs

• Design participation strategies that honor different ways of knowing and learning: analytical, narrative, experiential

• Facilitate onboarding experiences for varied audiences, including: educators using data for teaching, storytellers documenting living infrastructure, agencies exploring watershed dynamics, community groups designing projects

• Support participants in developing capacity across multiple platform modes—helping explorers interested in data become storytellers, and storytellers become project designers for living infrastructure projects

• Co-create resources, case studies, and exemplars that make the platform's potential visible across different contexts

• Foster collaboration between Spherical's creative studio capabilities and Field Kit platform development

Research, Pipeline Management, and Documentation (15%)

• Using evidence-based research, create consensus across internal teams and external partners

• Translate research and platform analytics into actionable strategies that resonate with both technical and non-technical audiences

• Build, track, and nurture a sophisticated CRM with a pipeline of prospective users through strategic partnership development and demonstrations

• Analyze participation metrics to understand adoption patterns and create data-driven reports that demonstrate platform use and impact

• Track the platform’s ecosystem through quantitative and relational indicators: depth of engagement, quality of collaboration, community-led initiatives

Skills & Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in program management, platform adoption, or network building

• Based in or familiar with LA County context, with fluency in English and Spanish to effectively engage diverse community partners

• 2+ years of experience in projects requiring detailed documentation, such as database or pipeline management

• Deep commitment to living infrastructure principles: honor place, embody justice, foster resilience, grow participation, regenerate life

• Experience in driving participation and adoption of platforms, tools, or programs

• Experience in cultivating communities of practice or building and nurturing practitioner networks through conferences, awards programs, online platforms, or professional communities

• Storytelling and communications experience with power to inspire action

• Self-directed with strong capacity for navigating complexity and ambiguity

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with community building, participatory design, co-creation, or community-based research methodologies

• Experience organizing conferences, summits, or practitioner gatherings in environmental or technology sectors

• Existing relationships within climate resilience, environmental justice, or regenerative development communities, particularly in LA County

Location

Los Angeles County-based with hybrid flexibility. Regular travel within LA County required for meetings and demonstrations. Occasional travel to conferences and partner locations.