Fungi and Climate Project Lead

The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) is seeking a Fungi and Climate Project Lead for a three-year project focused on integrating fungal biodiversity into climate change strategies. The role involves developing project strategies, managing execution, building partnerships, and ensuring effective communication. Candidates should have 3-5 years of experience in climate or biodiversity, strong leadership skills, and the ability to work independently. This position is remote.
About the project

Fungal biodiversity is key to mitigating climate change and adapting to the consequences of climate breakdown. Fungi are largely invisible ecosystem engineers that underwrite the regenerative capacity of the living world. However, despite their key role in regulating the climate and sustaining global biodiversity, fungi have been overlooked in climate change strategies, conservation agendas and restoration efforts.

This is a three-year collaborative project led by Toby Kiers, Giuliana Furci, and Merlin Sheldrake, and funded by a Climate Breakthrough Award. We aim to lay the legal, regulatory, and scientific groundwork required to write fungi into global climate and conservation agendas. If successful, our work will protect fungal communities and make it possible to harness the power of fungi to mitigate climate change and support global biodiversity.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Project Lead to help develop our interdisciplinary strategy and organise the execution and delivery of the project. This is a senior role requiring someone who can work independently across our organisations, sectors and disciplines and who has a proven track record in project leadership and delivery in the climate and/or biodiversity space.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy development and execution:
• Work across our organisations to build a project identity and strategy
• Have a vision for how the project is implemented and communicated

Project management and execution
• Organise and track project activities, milestones, and delivery
• Report grant progress to funders
• Work with Fungi Foundation and SPUN teams to execute key activities related to this project
• Manage the project’s strategic communications together with our organisation teams
• Identify and manage emerging opportunities across scientific and political arenas
• Manage high-level administrative duties, including the preparation of detailed minutes and executive summaries for strategic meetings.

Partnership and relationship building and management
• Cultivate, seek, and maintain strategic relationships with key allies, whether government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or scientific partners to foster collaboration.
• Lead initial conversations to determine alignment and suitability
• Design and implement partnership frameworks and agreements
• Track and maintain strategic relationships
• Ensure partnership deliverables are feasible and well-executed

Integration across teams
• Work closely with the core team of Toby Kiers, Giuliana Furci, and Merlin Sheldrake
• Work closely with the teams at the Fungi Foundation and SPUN
• Manage budget and liase with finance lead

Requirements
• 3-5 years’ experience in climate and/or biodiversity space
• Proven track record of project leadership and delivery
• Exceptional communication and networking skills
• Ability to tailor messaging for diverse audiences
• Senior-level presence: can credibly represent organizational strategy in high-level conversations without supervision
• Self-directed, autonomous, ambitious
• Ability to understand and successfully communicate complex policy and science concepts
• First language English, proficiency in Spanish
• Fungal expertise is welcome but not required

Preferred Qualifications
• Experience working at the intersection of scientific research and policy
• Familiarity with biodiversity conservation frameworks and climate commitments (e.g., UN CBD, UNFCCC, Paris Agreement)
• Understanding of Indigenous rights and community-based conservation approaches
• Existing network in conservation and climate change work ecosystems
• Experience with international partnerships and strategic relationships between organisations
• Experience evaluating or implementing environmental data platforms or technologies

Working environment
• The job is remote, but the candidate must be able to travel easily, whether for meetings, research, or collaboration.

Further details
• 3-year consultancy role as a contractor with initial 3-month trial period
• Start date: June 1st, 2026 (or earlier)

Location & Compensation
• We welcome applicants from around the world. You should be comfortable collaborating across multiple time zones.
• The compensation range for the role depends on location and experience. We will apply a global compensation multiplier to ensure equity across regions, adjusting pay according to local market and cost-of-living benchmarks.

To Apply

Please submit the following materials via BambooHR:
• A resume
• A cover letter describing how your background aligns with this role. In your cover letter, please describe a project you’ve led and highlight key inflection points and how you navigated them.
• Contact information (including phone numbers) for three professional references
• Applications on rolling basis.

Please note: we will notify you before contacting any references.

This is a joint project housed between the Fungi Foundation and the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN)

Fungi Foundation is an international environmental non-profit dedicated to conserving the world’s fungi. Since 2012, we have worked toward the full recognition of fungi at all levels within education frameworks, national and international public policies, and public communication. We also work to preserve ancestral relationships between humanity and fungi, to document and describe fungal species around the world, and actively engage in artistic collaborations.

SPUN’s mission is to map and protect the mycorrhizal fungal networks that regulate Earth's climate and ecosystems. Since our founding in 2021, we've built a global data platform to make these invisible networks measurable. Through our Underground Explorers program and network of over 400 Science Associates across more than 80 countries, we generate high-resolution biodiversity maps and machine learning tools that integrate mycorrhizal data into climate, conservation, restoration, and land management decisions.