Regional Director - Asia

Our program has three major components, aimed at overcoming the vicious cycle of poor supply and inadequate demand for recycled material that plagues most cities today:

1. We improve supply of recyclable waste at the source through better design of collection systems and behavioral nudges.
2. We build community recycling systems that drive cost efficiency and ethical operations in sorting, logistics, and processing of recyclable waste.
3. We work to stabilize recycling demand and unlock better pricing by streamlining and bringing transparency to the full recycling value chain.

Our goal is to create a replicable model for managing waste that cities around the world will adopt.

We currently have programs in Argentina and Indonesia. We have full-time teams in both locations, as well as community, government, expert NGO and corporate partners who amplify our impact.

In Indonesia, on the supply and community side, we have launched the Rethinking Recycling Academy, our scaling model for transforming communities’ waste management systems. The Academy is an end-to-end capability and transformation program which supports communities on their recycling journey. The Academy launched in late 2020 with six communities across the capital city of Denpasar, Bali, and is currently planning their next cohort. On the demand side, we are partnering with PRAISE, a consortium of six consumer goods companies – Coca-Cola, Danone, Indofood, Nestlé, Tetra Pak, and Unilever – to develop mechanisms for channeling purchasing commitments into stabilizing markets for recycled material.

In Argentina, we have programs in the municipalities of Olavarría and Buenos Aires, including the iconic informal settlement of Barrio 31, where we have achieved recycling and community participation rates higher than any other similar neighborhood and most cities in Latin America. Building on our work to date, we are now expanding our program to explore scaling to multiple cities at once and are launching a program to work with five cities in Argentina in 2022. To read more about our work or watch videos of our work please visit: https://delterra.org/.

Delterra’s founding partner is McKinsey & Company which incubated the Rethinking Recycling program within its Foundation, McKinsey.org. In October of 2021, Delterra was formed to house Rethinking Recycling in Indonesia. We are in the process of completing the name change of our Indonesian affiliate non-profit from McKinsey.Org to Delterra so this role will initially oversee Yayasan McKinsey.org until the name transition is complete. 

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Specific responsibilities for the Regional Director role are outlined below:

• Provide program leadership for our ASIA portfolio, specifically Indonesia, including:
• Set vision and strategic priorities for Indonesia in close consultation with the CEO and Indonesia Program Leadership, and cascade and reinforce throughout the organization
• Support program delivery for existing Rethinking Recycling Academy program, and ensure learnings and impact on the ground support broader scaling efforts – by improving how we work across a fast paced, diverse 30+ person team, and by informing our external communications and brand-building efforts
• Oversee design and execution of scaling efforts across Indonesia, including radiating our delivery model and solutions, and building engagement with municipalities across the country
• Build, deepen and manage relationships with critical stakeholders, funders and program partners in ASIA to support mission delivery for both current (Rethinking Recycling and Plastic IQ) and future programming
• Provide regular coaching and mentorship to regional program leadership, while remaining accessible to all members of the team as a thought partner and mentor
• Oversee the management of our Indonesian Yayasan including extensive finance, HR, procurement and legal responsibilities:
  • Oversee recruiting, hiring, and performance management for ASIA region to support program goals on the ground
  • Own budget forecasting and resource allocation decisions for ASIA region
  • Proactively manage and mitigate program risk in region inclusive of the Covid-19 crisis through deliberate establishment and reinforcement of internal protocols, transparency mechanisms, and contingency planning
• Communicate and coordinate regularly with the CEO, Regional Director for Latin America, Director of Plastic IQ, and the rest of the Global Leadership team to share learnings, raise and address issues, and ensure consistent messaging across the organization
• As a member of the Global Executive Leadership team, this role will also have organization-wide responsibilities that may include:
• Strategic and operational planning: collaboratively set program goals, KPIs, timelines, and associated resourcing & budgeting; develop and implement resourcing plans, ways of working and support the CEO in preparing reports on program progress to Delterra’s board
• Program scaling and expansion, including Playbook: work closely with the CEO and other Program Leaders to incorporate learnings from each geography and define program priorities, strategy, and workplan, including future pilot locations, solutions and partnerships (e.g., travel to identify future locations and due diligences on potential Delterra partners)
• Partnerships and fundraising strategy: support Global Leadership team in defining robust strategy and approach for identifying and pursuing new opportunities to secure funding and strategic/implementation partnerships to advance program objectives
• Communications and senior stakeholder engagement: represent our program in regional and international fora on circular economy, ocean health, and waste & recycling issues. Prepare high level communication materials for both internal and external stakeholders
• Build our young but fast-growing organization: support our operations and program teams in identifying, designing and implementing new systems and processes, as well as role modelling our organizational culture and values. The Regional Director of Asia will report directly to the CEO.

As we are a young and rapidly growing non-profit, there will be opportunities to grow as a leader within the organization as we expand our scope beyond Rethinking Recycling and Plastic IQ.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Native or professional fluency in Bahasa preferred
• 7+ years’ experience in strategy, special initiatives, or program delivery, with a proven track record in building and managing large, diverse, high-performing teams and delivering successful programs
• Strong track record as an inspirational team leader, who fosters a non-hierarchical, high-performing and supportive culture, with extensive experience coaching others to become effective leaders themselves and a passion for improving ways of working
• Strong track record building respect and credibility with senior decision makers, such as government officials, corporate executives, major donors, and community leaders
• Minimum a Bachelor Education in Environmental, Public Policy, Development, Economics, Business, and/or relevant fields. Master’s Degree preferred. 
• Ability to thrive in “build the plane as you fly it” environments: comfortable managing the ambiguity and risks inherent to innovation; adapting to the situation at hand, helping teams prioritize dynamically based on new information; staying positive and creative in the face of setbacks and driving rapid progress
• Ability to structure and communicate complex information effectively to a highly diverse set of audiences – particularly context, main points to understand, implications for strategy/project delivery, asks and next steps
• Pluses include:
  • Experience managing large teams both in-person and remotely (30+)
  • Existing relationships in Indonesia (and/or ASIA) in the public sector or circularity space that can be drawn upon to accelerate our growth and impact
  • Experience working in social impact and emerging economy contexts, especially building inclusive solutions in partnership with local stakeholders
  • Experience ideally in waste management, or broader related sustainability topics (e.g., circular economy, corporate social responsibility, economic development) and/or related industries (e.g., fast-moving consumer goods, manufacturing, municipal services/utilities),
  • Experience in a start-up environment (i.e., resource constrained, fast evolving, flexible)

Further details:

• All nationalities are welcome to apply. We strongly prefer that this role be Asia based. If the candidate chooses not to live in Indonesia, they must live in the Asian or European time zone and be willing to make frequent longer trips to be on the ground with the team. Applicants must have the independent right to work in the country in which they choose to reside. We cannot sponsor work visas outside of Indonesia.