Senior Director, Decarbonization

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is a global nonprofit with a mission to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. With more than 48,000 members across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific, ULI is the world's leading network of real estate and land use professionals. We bring together developers, investors, planners, architects, and public-sector leaders to share knowledge, build best practices, and advance solutions to the most pressing challenges in the built environment.

The ULI Impact Lab is ULI's philanthropy-supported do-tank: an outcomes-driven platform that combines ULI's research capacity, convening power, practitioner network, and philanthropic capital to accelerate practical, scalable solutions in the built environment. Working through its flagship Centers, Advisory Services, and Technical Assistance programs, the Impact Lab drives market transformation across decarbonization, resilience, housing affordability, health, and community stability. This is where ULI moves from insight to implementation.

The real estate industry is at an inflection point on decarbonization. The policy environment is shifting, capital is moving, and practitioners are looking for credible, practical guidance on what to actually do. ULI is positioned to lead this conversation, and this role is how we do it.

As Senior Director, Decarbonization, you will translate strategy into campaigns, field engagement, demonstration projects, practical tools, and funder-ready narratives that help move the real estate industry from insight to action. You are not a narrow technical expert. You are a strategic operator who understands the systems, can engage the practitioners, and knows how to design initiatives that are credible to members and useful to the field.

You will work at the center of the Impact Lab's market intelligence and engagement teams, alongside ULI's Greenprint Community of Practice, District and National Councils, Product Councils, and Advisory Services Panels. You will also build and manage partnerships with issue-based organizations, finance-sector partners, public agencies, utilities, and philanthropic supporters.

This is a rare opportunity: a mission-driven organization with a genuine practitioner network, serious philanthropic backing, and a mandate to make real things happen in the market. If you have been doing this work in a consultancy or advocacy organization and you are ready to operate from inside the tent of the real estate industry, this role is worth a conversation.

Decarbonization Strategy and Market Intelligence

• Contribute to the ongoing evolution of the Impact Lab's decarbonization strategy, with a focus on market transformation, systems change, and adoption across the real estate industry
• Identify emergent opportunities and evaluate priorities based on impact potential, member interest, implementation feasibility, timing, and funder alignment
• Work with market intelligence colleagues to diagnose barriers and opportunities in building decarbonization, including policy design, capital flows, insurance, energy systems, and operational practice
• Synthesize member insights, field intelligence, market analysis, and policy trends into clear recommendations that help the Lab decide where to move and where ULI can have the greatest practical influence

Member, Council, and Field Engagement

• Engage ULI members and staff through the Greenprint Community of Practice, District and National Councils, Product Councils, convenings, and other forums to surface the most salient barriers to decarbonization
• Work with District Councils and Technical Assistance Panel teams to identify and support state and market-level engagement, demonstration, and technical assistance opportunities
• Develop and manage collaborations with external partners whose capabilities align with ULI's market-facing role
• Represent the Impact Lab in meetings, workshops, member convenings, and external discussions related to decarbonization and market transformation

Initiative and Campaign Design

• Design and help launch multi-stakeholder initiatives and campaigns that advance Impact Lab priorities, with a principal focus on decarbonization
• Create project plans, partner maps, stakeholder engagement strategies, and implementation pathways for decarbonization-focused campaigns and demonstrations
• Codify what works into practical, user-friendly tools, playbooks, case studies, and implementation guides designed for real-world adoption by ULI members and partners
• Build pathways for replication across regions and markets so that promising approaches can be adapted and scaled across ULI's broader network

Research, Writing, and Knowledge Products

• Develop market-facing products including briefs, case studies, reports, implementation tools, and executive summaries that translate complex issues into practical framing
• Contribute to monitoring and evaluation frameworks that help the Lab understand whether campaigns, demonstrations, and partnerships are influencing practice, policy, or capital allocation
• Use interviews, surveys, convenings, and secondary research to capture insights and translate them into actionable resources

Communications and Fundraising Support

• Develop presentations, talking points, concept notes, and funder-facing narratives that articulate the Lab's value proposition in decarbonization and market transformation
• Support the translation of programmatic ideas into fundable concepts for foundations, corporate partners, and institutional funders
• Ensure communications and fundraising materials are clear, credible, action-oriented, and grounded in member needs and measurable impact

What We Are Looking For

Required

• 8 to 12 years of experience in building decarbonization, clean energy, climate policy, real estate, urban planning, public affairs, coalition building, or a related field
• Demonstrated experience designing, managing, or supporting initiatives that move beyond research into adoption, implementation, or market change
• Exceptional writing and analytical skills, with the ability to turn complex policy, financial, and technical issues into clear arguments and practical tools for senior practitioners, funders, and public-sector audiences
• Experience working with practitioners, members, public-sector partners, or geographically distributed teams to move work from concept to execution
• Working knowledge of building decarbonization issues, including energy efficiency, electrification, embodied carbon, grid constraints, financing, and implementation barriers
• Ability to connect decarbonization to market realities: asset performance, development feasibility, investment risk, capital markets, and community outcomes
• Bachelor's degree required

Preferred

• Advanced degree in urban planning, public policy, environmental studies, climate or energy policy, real estate, business, or a related field
• Familiarity with federal, state, and local policy dynamics affecting the built environment
• Experience with nonprofit, philanthropic, member-based, or civic organizations
• Understanding of 501(c)(3) nonpartisan public education principles and policy-adjacent communications
• Familiarity with project management, collaboration, survey, webinar, or member relationship platforms

What Success Looks Like

In your first 90 days, you will have developed a working understanding of the Impact Lab's current decarbonization portfolio, built key relationships across ULI's member network and staff, and identified two or three high-priority opportunities to take from concept to design.

Within your first year, you will have launched at least one multi-stakeholder initiative or campaign, produced practical market-facing tools or content that real estate practitioners are using, and contributed substantively to the Impact Lab's fundraising pipeline for decarbonization work.

Over time, success in this role means the Impact Lab is known as a go-to resource in the real estate industry on building decarbonization, ULI members have practical tools and peer connections that are changing how they operate, and the work is generating the evidence needed to sustain and grow philanthropic investment.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $120,299 to $144,347. Actual compensation will be based on experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors.

ULI offers a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and life insurance; generous vacation leave; and a retirement plan with employer match.

Working Conditions

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is committed to shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide, and we embrace our core values of integrity, collaboration, inclusion, and excellence in service to our members. In alignment with the Board of Directors' strong commitment to in-person collaboration, our roles require regular on-site presence to foster teamwork, innovation, and organizational effectiveness. ULI'