Habitat and Stewardship Program Manager

Artist Boat is a 501(c)(3) organization in Galveston, TX dedicated to promoting awareness and preservation of coastal margins and marine ecosystems through science and art.

Reports To: Executive Director

Classification: Full-time, exempt

Pay Rate: Commensurate with experience. Health insurance, long‑term and short‑term disability insurance, retirement savings, and paid‑time off accrual.

Job Purpose: The Habitat and Stewardship Program Manager is a senior level position and is primarily responsible for fostering, designing, managing, maintaining, and growing Artist Boat’s Coastal Heritage Preserve (600 acre preserve with a potential growth to 1,400 acres), Habitat Restoration Adventure Program, on‑campus Native‑Scaping Program, and newly forming volunteer stewardship and volunteer program at the Coastal Heritage Preserve. A large focus of this program is on land management and restoration of the Coastal Heritage Preserve, maintaining and fostering partnerships with a variety of entities to develop and implement habitat management and public access plans at the Coastal Heritage Preserve, restoring habitats on barrier islands and Galveston Bay, and bringing K‑Grey learners to the coastal environment for stewardship experiences.

The goal of the Habitat and Stewardship Program is to deliver place‑based and experiential learning to K‑Grey learners and partners in order to build a stewardship ethic that results in restored, enhanced, and conserved lands that benefit the public and the wildlife in the coastal zone.

Personality: The Program Manager must be a highly motivated individual who is a natural and highly organized leader that fosters collaboration and partnership; is able to utilize and adopt technology readily for communication of spatial knowledge; is competent at land management and application of science for monitoring and restoration of coastal prairies and wetlands; is deadline driven seeking to gain a high level of performance in the field of conservation;

is competent with grant management, grant writing , and grant reporting; and must be able to enjoy working with people and being in the field as much as documenting and reporting on program achievements and/or data. This person must prioritize working with partners face to face or on the telephone.

Essential Function: It will be essential for the Program Manager to assure all components of grant contracts, habitat management and public access plans, partnership agreements and contracts, and teacher agreements for adventures programs are met to the standard agreed on and delivered on time. A vital role will be modeling for Eco‑Art Educators and Habitat Specialists professional standards of program delivery, delegating to Eco‑Art Educators and Habitat Specialists clearly and concisely so they are accountable and responsible for various program goals, and assuring a high level of standard is met for all components of the program that maintains and fosters Artist Boat’s reputation.

Program Visioning, Planning, and Development

• Identify monthly, quarterly, and annual program goals and strategies to achieve them.
• Develop and track clear plans, budgets, timelines, and task lists aligned with grant deliverables to achieve annual management goals for the Coastal Heritage Preserve and programs.
• Communicate through a wide variety of tools to recruit volunteers, foster partnerships, and convey success stories.
• Evaluate effectiveness of programs and grants to adaptively manage the Coastal Heritage Preserve and ensure goals are met.

Program and Plan Implementation

• Work with Technical Advisory Committee, Grant Officers, Artist Boat program managers and crew members, and Sea Citizen Volunteer Leaders to manage and restore the Coastal Heritage Preserve, deliver off‑site restoration programs, and develop further engagement in service learning.

Budgeting, Fundraising, and Grant Management

• Develop and Apply for grants with state, federal, and local agencies or foundations to directly support the habitat management and restoration of the Coastal Heritage Preserve and Habitat Restoration Programs.
• Assure grant reports and…