Position Overview

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is an independent, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to improve quality of life through creative approaches to the use, taxation, and stewardship of land. The Institute’s Center for Geospatial Solutions (CGS) generates data insights that help partners to design and implement equitable land, water, and climate solutions. The Internet of Water (IoW) Initiative at CGS seeks to advance the modernization, sharing, management and exchange of Water data held in public agencies, to improve water management outcomes. The Internet of Water thus acts as a Service Center that provides a variety of stakeholder engagement, technology product, and technical advisory services to Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and nongovernmental organizations in the United States

Reporting to the Internet of Water Director, the Associate Director for Internet ofWater Services will develop and shape the overall external engagement strategy for the Internet of Water Initiative, working in close collaboration with Lincoln’s partners through the Internet of Water Coalition. The AD will also reach out to new audiences and stakeholders as appropriate to expand the inclusive reach and impact of the initiative.

The AD will be responsible for comprehensive development and maintenance of federal and state clients of the Internet of Water Initiative in the fields of improving water data and information for natural resource management, clean and safe drinking water, and sustainable hydropower. The AD will assist the Director in proposing stakeholder approaches that involve integrating both technical and non-technical audiences.

The AD will facilitate the continued development of the Internet of Water Coalition, composed of a steering committee, substance-area-specific working groups, and a broader Network of interested individuals which serves as the main stakeholder and community governance forum for advancing the concept of an Internet of Water (IoW). In this role, the AD will facilitate the development of an annual Water Data Summit that advances dialogue among Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and nongovernmental entities concerning pressing concerns in water management that can be addressed by modernizing water data, including via the adoption and application of Internet of Water principles and management. The AD will also explore additional opportunities for external engagement with IoW stakeholders both independently and in support of the Internet of Water Director and Associate Director for Technology. The AD will have access to personnel providing administrative and communications support.

This is a full-time remote position @ 37.5 hours/week reporting to Director, Internet of Water.

What You’ll Do - Develop CGS & IoW Stakeholder Internal and External Outreach Strategies (30%)

• Participate in the management of the Center for Geospatial Solutions such as team meetings, retreats, and other activities.
• Collaborate with CGS/IoW clients to develop effective stakeholder engagement strategies for making water data more open and accessible.
• Conduct direct outreach with stakeholder boundary organizations, such as the National Hydropower Association, American Rivers, and others to engage and persuade them to partner with Lincoln CGS in reaching stakeholders for IoW projects. Work directly with stakeholders, such as reservoir mangers, municipal leaders, state, local and tribal authorities to listen attentively to their needs and requirements; work with the IoW technical leads to update and modify technical approaches, including data models, schemas, APIs, visualizations, and dashboards, in response to stakeholder requirements.
• Support the IoW and CGS teams in the development of IoW workshops and webinars as appropriate.
• Ensure continued high quality content development to support and engage IoW Network stakeholders.
• Work with IoW Coalition partners to develop the IoW Network.
• Work with Lincoln and IoW communications staff to develop presentations and other public facing materials for the Initiative.
• Research workshops, webinars, conferences, and other IoW related networks, and participate in such events and networks in consultation with the IoW Director.

What You’ll Do - Manage and support the IoW Coalition and Water Data Summit (25%)

• In support of the IoW Coalition Steering Committee, develop ideas, concepts, and process for advancing the IoW Coalition and Water Data Summit.
• Collaborate with IoW Coalition Steering Committee and the leadership of the Internet of Water Initiative at CGS to generate ideas and content for an annual IoW Water Data Summit; facilitate Coalition partner organization contributions to meetings and events, including substantive content and meeting support contributions.
• In collaboration with the Director for the Internet of Water and the Associate Director for Technology for the Internet of Water, ensure the successful executions of all meetings and events, including the Water Data Summit and associated planning meetings. This includes ensuring that agendas and materials are prepared in advance of each meeting; recording actions and providing meeting summaries, and maintaining records and manage updates to all Coalition documents and materials including the membership list, and the coalition charter.
• Facilitate virtual meetings of IoW Coalition working groups, and work with IoW Coalition partners and CGS Communications staff in the development of the IoW Network, its webinar series, blog, and other content offerings.
• Communicate regularly with Coalition members on all agreed Coalition actions.
• Participate as a member of the Steering Committee for the Water Data Collaborative.

What You’ll Do - Develop and oversee future IoW Service Center clients (30%)

• Create a strategic vision and plan for the implementation of stakeholder engagement for IoW in the public, private, and non-profit sectors in consultation and partnership with the IoW Coalition, CGS, Lincoln, and other key partners. Key programmatic areas include: (a) Municipal/utility water including access to water, water quality, and one water paradigms. (b) Natural resource and agricultural management and drought resilience in the west, working to establish WaDE (an IoW Coalition Partner) as a preeminent tool for water rights and use data sharing and use. (c) regional and continental-scale water quantity and quality modeling for water science and management.
• Grow programs by nurturing both stakeholders and clients, identifying the services they need, and connecting them with IoW staff and partners.
• Identify stakeholder and client expectations and ensure IoW can meet those expectations.
• Understand competing federal agency priorities and requirements and assist the Director in balancing and managing those requirements.
• Support federal agencies in the creation of new multi-agency forums for improving the coordination of Water data.
• Support and help establish partnerships through new and existing cooperative agreements, MOUs, contracts, and other types of agreements with the federal government, state government entities and other partners to ensure continued adoption of Internet of Water principles and technologies in the water sector. Collaborate with the IoW Director and CGS leadership to develop scopes of work, including the timing and pricing of stakeholder engagement and technical advisory services deliverables.

• Ensure the development and growth of each program through appropriate stakeholder and client engagement activities as well as hiring and managing programmatic staff depending on budget constraints.

What You’ll Do – Provide Water Data Technical Assistance (15%)

• Collaborate with the IoW Director for Technology and IoW Software Developers to help client data provider agencies adopt Internet of Water Principles and technologies.
• Support the alignment of client source data with community water data standards, including in conceptual structure, data format, and semantics
• Support the development of data models and APIs that support data analysis use cases of clients, balancing the goals of performance, alignment with community standards, and ease of implementation and maintenance by clients.

What You’ll Need

• Master’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of managing stakeholder engagement and coalition management in a technical environment in the public sector, the private sector, or the non-profit sector.
• Strong foundations and experience in stakeholder engagement and the management of large stakeholder coalitions.
• Leadership experience in developing effective stakeholder events.
• Excellent writing skills, including a demonstrated capacity to understand and articulate technical content.
• Strong capacity to convey technical concepts to non-technical audiences and social and behavioral ideas to technologists.
• An eagerness to learn and solve challenging problems.
• Experience with natural resource management and environmental science preferred.
• Experience with event planning and management.
• Excellent writing skills, including a demonstrated capacity to understand and articulate technical content.
• Ability to manage people and personalities, and diplomatically juggle divergent viewpoints, and approaches.
• Strong attention to written detail, patience with scheduling, documentation, and administrative detail.
• 30% time required for travel.