Breathe Cities Lead Mexico

Job Title: Breathe Cities Lead
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Contract duration: Until June 2026, with the possibility of an extension
Reporting to: Breathe Cities Project Director
Working conditions: The organization facilitates working from home up to 50% for most of the roles. The candidate must be willing to initially work from home until a local office is available for use.
Travel: Some national and international travel may be required
Open to: Residents of Mexico

DRS is looking for a Breathe Cities Lead for a global philanthropic organization that brings together governments, campaigners, researchers, funders, and businesses to create a world where everyone breathes clean air.

The Breathe Cities Lead will provide the overall strategic and programmatic direction to ensure the successful delivery of the Breathe Cities in Mexico. This role is an exciting opportunity to lead the development and implementation of the Breathe Cities strategy for Mexico City in collaboration with partners at C40 Cities. This involves identifying local needs and developing, contracting, and managing a diverse portfolio of grants with local and international stakeholders that deliver across the strategic pillars of the Breathe Cities theory of change.

For example, grants you will be expected to scope and fund include the expansion of local air quality monitoring networks, campaigns to raise awareness about air quality, and technical capacity-building initiatives. The post holder will be responsible for ensuring an adequate level of management and oversight for the delivery, monitoring, and reporting of the cities’ grants. The role will work closely with staff from C40 Cities and USAID to ensure coordination with the participating city, as well as ensure lessons learned are identified and shared across the wider programme.

This position is the organization’s first hire in Mexico, and as such, the role will need to work with independence. The role will be supported by a junior position based in Rio, Brazil, which is based on a matrix management system.

Key working relationships:

The Breathe Cities Lead: Mexico City will be accountable for the success of Breathe Cities in Mexico by identifying and working with local partners, civil society organisations, and city government authorities to develop and deliver a strategy and projects that ultimately deliver improved air quality and health. He or She will be managed and supported by the Breathe Cities Project Director, who leads Breathe Cities’ overall delivery and will also work closely with the Breathe Cities and relevant external partners.

Key Accountabilities

Strategy and Vision (30%)

• Design, deliver, and undertake regular reviews of Breathe Cities strategy for Mexico City, ensuring that it aligns with the external environment with partners’ broader strategies and that it underpins an impactful portfolio of grants to ensure it achieves agreed objectives and uses resources for maximum impact. Work with senior colleagues and external partners to ensure that the strategies are reviewed and approved by the organization’s Grants and Charitable Activities Committee and Board at regular intervals.
• Regularly assess whether Breathe Cities’ strategic ambition in Mexico is achievable, relevant, and innovative, and interrogate whether the hypotheses anchoring grants funded are valid.
• Input into regular strategic planning processes, including annual reviews against portfolio goals.

Relationship Management and Networking (30%)

• Build strong relationships with politicians and policymakers at the city government level, working closely with C40 Cities and USAID.
• Keep abreast of developments within the air quality field in Mexico.
• Map stakeholders, identify potential project partners, and establish partnerships that advance the objectives of Breathe Cities.
• Ensure complementarity to existing initiatives.
• Balance the interests of different stakeholders while ensuring the right decisions are made to realize the Breathe Cities objectives.
• Ensure funders and prospective funders are well briefed on Breathe Cities activities and development in Mexico.
• Identify with grantees opportunities to raise the profile of Breathe Cities locally and in wider communication and support the development of relevant content or materials in close collaboration with Comms colleagues.

Programme development, portfolio Management, and performance (30%)

• Develop a portfolio of grants to deliver the Breathe Cities programme in Mexico, managing the end-to-end grant management process, from idea generation to developing grant concepts through to project approvals, contracting, and management. Grants are expected to align with the Breathe Cities theory of change: improving access to local air quality data, increasing awareness of the issue, and increasing local capacity to act.
• Work closely with grantees and partners to ensure that grants deliver their intended outcomes and meet (and contribute to) Breathe Cities’ evaluation and learning processes.
• Develop an implementation work plan, provide regular updates to colleagues and partners, and escalate decisions where necessary.
• Ensure grant management processes are followed and support continuous improvement of the organization’s grant management systems.
• Contribute to monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting processes for grants under management.
• Collaborate with the Breathe Cities Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) manager to identify and embed appropriate monitoring, evaluation, and learning processes in grants.
• Monitor and report on the performance and results of grants and promote a culture where data, learning, and insights are collected and reported.

Team leadership (10%)

• Set and monitor achievement of performance and personal development objectives for team members (where needed) so that a culture of continuous improvement and learning is embedded.
• Support resource planning and management of people as required – this will include the potential of the ad hoc management of freelancers and consultants.
• Identify opportunities and options for improving processes, procedures and programme management approaches within (and beyond) the team and support increased organisational efficiency and effectiveness.
• Provide support to the global Breathe Cities operations team for in-country operational oversight and manage day-to-day compliance with local regulations and the organization’s internal policies.

Qualifications:

Technical competencies:

• A successful track record of organisational leadership working on air quality or other environmental or public health policies in civil society, academia, or within government institutions in Mexico, ideally in an area relating to the Breathe Cities strategy (across data, campaign and community engagement, and city governance)
• Experience of strategy-to-implementation of a major programme or initiative. Comfortable with making rapid decisions in response to new opportunities or changing circumstances without losing sight of the strategic goal.
• Understands social change in theory and practice and is able to articulate a theory of change and the assumptions behind it.
• Experience in engaging successfully and influencing political leaders, policymakers, regulators, elected officials, funders and others. Confidence and presence as a public speaker.
• Comfort in grant development, management and contracting.
• Experience working in a range of cultural and socio-economic contexts, adapting style and approach appropriately alongside an ability to work collaboratively with partners located in multiple offices and time zones.
• Fluent in English and other relevant local languages, excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to work remotely and independently in a location where immediate workmates may not be present.

Behavioral competencies:

• Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrable success in building effective partnerships and networks across sectors.
• Significant experience in using people skills to build trust and rapport with internal and external stakeholders to achieve outcomes.
• Ability to influence and engage policymakers and the general public through sophisticated communications and campaigning approaches
• Strong written skills – experience in writing from scratch or editing strategy and briefing papers that meet the needs of the audience and have an impact.
• Ability to plan ahead and adjust effectively to create contingency plans.
• Instinctive collaborator and partnership builder.
• A self-starter with resilience and interpersonal flexibility.
• Analytical with the ability to see strategy through to implementation.
• Able to switch seamlessly between hands-on details, management, strategy, and influence.
• Able to work autonomously and with an instinctive pragmatic and problem-solving, can-do approach.
• Comfortable working at a pace
• Fluency in English and Spanish.