Climate & Sustainability Project Manager (Project Administrator)

Climate & Sustainability Project Manager

USC Dornsife Public Exchange

USC Dornsife Public Exchange is reimagining how research serves the public. Founded in 2020 at USC, Public Exchange fast-tracks collaborations between academic researchers and partners across the public and private sectors to define, analyze and solve complex problems together. In 2025, Public Exchange became a national network with its second location at Washington University in St. Louis—working collaboratively to accelerate the use of evidence in decision-making across the country.

In 2023, USC Dornsife Public Exchange established a Climate and Sustainability Practice that drives flagship, high-impact initiatives such as ShadeLA and the California Solar Canal Initiative. Other projects have addressed electrified mobility, water conservation, and climate communications, in partnership with the City and County of Los Angeles, the United Nations Foundation, the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance, and leading non-profits.
 

Public Exchange is looking for a Project Manager (PM) to support the growing Climate & Sustainability Practice. PMs are essential to the PX model — helping to identify new partners, scope research questions, draft proposals, set-up and manage projects, and deliver rigorous, actionable, and high-impact findings. Ideal candidates will have a strong commitment to social impact, familiarity with climate & sustainability issues, a high degree of intellectual curiosity, and the flexibility and willingness to take on emerging challenges in new topic areas. 

The PM will work closely with the Climate & Sustainability Practice Director and fellow team members, the Strategy & Operations Team, and university partners to deliver projects. The PM is responsible for the success of their projects, contributing to the full project lifecycle: identifying partner and funder opportunities, drafting proposals, managing day-to-day execution, developing stakeholder relationships, monitoring project-level budgets, addressing operational challenges, and ensuring maximal impact. 

The ideal candidate is:

Committed to working on climate & sustainability issues
Candidates should have experience working on climate & sustainability issues (clean energy, transportation, adaptation, community resilience, environmental justice, or similar fields). A degree focused in public policy, planning, social science, environmental studies, or cognate fields is preferred.

Collaborative with an entrepreneurial spirit
PMs at PX have a bias for action — they are extremely organized, detail-oriented, strong communicators, diplomatic, and comfortable coordinating across large and diverse teams. PX is a fast-paced, growing organization. In many ways, we are still at an early stage of our growth. An entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to pitch in and work with a small, but mighty team to build from the ground up is essential.

Experienced in managing projects
Project management is the beating heart that drives PX, requiring careful organization, tracking, and delivery of tasks by deadlines. Candidates should excel in juggling multiple responsibilities, problem solving, and have experience managing grants or contracts. Project managers should understand the soft skills required to keep a team cohesive & aligned, and resolve conflicts when they arise.

Research-oriented
Candidates should understand the role and opportunity that data, research, and evaluation can play in tackling complex social issues, particularly in climate & sustainability.

Job Responsibilities:

• Project Development: Develop project strategies and scopes of work in consultation with faculty, research partners, partner organizations, and the PX strategy & operations team to execute projects for maximum social impact;
• Project Management: Develop long- and short-term project plans, including timelines, milestones, and deliverables;
• Daily Workflow: Manage day-to-day workflow of project portfolio and support research teams to execute against the project plans;
• Project Delivery: Lead all project kick-off, routine partner and research team meetings, as well as final presentation meetings;
• Relationship Management: Maintain strong relationships with all project partners, research team members, and k