Careers at
NATURAL STATE
A career at NATURAL STATE means working with dedicated teammates to catalyse large-scale restoration globally—preparing the next generation of restoration leaders, developing and scaling innovative finance mechanisms for nature, and building the proprietary technology and methods needed to measure impact. Our work spans field and lab research, data science and product development, training and partnership building, and the design of investable restoration mechanisms.
Who We Are
Our goal at the NATURAL STATE research centre is to develop technology and financial systems that will catalyse large-scale restoration globally as well as help train future leaders for this sector. In the short term we are revolutionising impact monitoring for carbon, biodiversity and human-wellbeing, so that the success or failure of restoration efforts can be clearly defined. We are using this technology to help test a broad range of innovative financing mechanisms that aim to support large-scale restoration, sequester carbon, and provide benefits to local communities.
About Our Team
NATURAL STATE's mission is brought to life every day by our talented team of individuals with unique perspectives and a deep passion for the natural world.
A career with us means working hard together to achieve our goals. From species diversity studies at the NATURAL STATE research centre, located at the base of Mt. Kenya, to analysing data to help trigger investment in the nature economy.
NATURAL STATES staff are lifelong learners, continually developing new approaches and new skills. We fail fast and learn fast with a “lean impact” approach. NATURAL STATE provides skill development opportunities through all career stages, and we do this in an inclusive and respectful environment. We pride ourselves at NATURAL STATE for our passion, dedication, and diverse backgrounds.
OPEN OPPORTUNITIES
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HEAD OF FUNDRAISING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Type: Full-time
Reports To: Vice President
Location: Remote (Global)
Key Travel: Flexible / Remote (with significant international travel estimated at 30-40%)
About Natural State
Natural State aims to catalyse large-scale restoration globally. We are achieving this by accelerating the transition to a nature economy - one that values and restores the natural world through training the people who carry out restoration work, producing the science and field data that prove whether it's actually working, and putting together the capital, grants and investment, that funds it. We're anchored at the Centre for Nature Economy in Laikipia and a Research Centre at Lewa, in Kenya, with operations in Kenya and the US.
Position Summary
Natural State has an active network of funder relationships and a strong fundraising pipeline already in motion. This role is responsible for securing that funding, and for building new, sustainable revenue from Natural State's own work in training, monitoring and other services.
This role’s mandate is philanthropic fundraising and commercial revenue.
Key Responsibilities:
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Own and execute Natural State’s global fundraising strategy across our departments.
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Lead the end-to-end grant lifecycle, including concept notes, proposals, budgets, and compliance reporting, in close collaboration with internal teams.
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Identify and close commercial opportunities to sell Natural State’s training, monitoring, and other services to corporate, government, and institutional buyers, generating earned income beyond grants.
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Represent Natural State at donor convenings and industry forums to build Natural State’s profile with funders and commercial partners.
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Build and lead a high-performing fundraising and business development team, hiring staff to scale capacity.
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Monitor and report performance against annual fundraising and commercial revenue targets, providing clear analysis and forecasts to leadership.
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Establish robust systems to track the full pipeline of donors and commercial partners, ensuring disciplined follow-through and stewardship.
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Ensure all donors and supporters receive high-quality, timely reporting on the use and impact of their funds, in close coordination with program and finance teams.
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Collaborate closely with the Director of Finance and Capital on all proposal budgets, grant financial reporting, and donor compliance to ensure alignment and accuracy.
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Collaborate with the Head of Communications & Partnerships to ensure powerful fundraising narratives and align on partnership-driven revenue.
Qualifications and Experience
Qualifications (Education & Experience):
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Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, international development, or a related field required; Master’s degree preferred.
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Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in fundraising, resource mobilization, or business development required, including at least 3 years in a senior leadership role.
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Demonstrated personal track record of securing six- and seven-figure grants (USD 100,000 or more) from foundations, bilateral/multilateral agencies, or international NGOs required.
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Minimum 2 years of experience in commercial business development or earned-income generation, such as fee-for-service models or corporate partnerships, required.
Technical Skills:
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Proficiency in using a CRM or similar pipeline-tracking system required.
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Proficiency in financial modelling and budget development for grant and commercial proposals required.
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Working knowledge of proposal and grant management platforms required.
Core Skills & Competencies:
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Exceptional strategic thinking, prioritization, and commercial negotiation abilities.
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Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to craft compelling funding and commercial cases.
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High-level interpersonal and diplomatic skills, comfortable engaging with CEOs, board members, major donors, and corporate partners.
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Collaborative mindset, able to work effectively with program, communications, and finance colleagues.
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Experience managing or mentoring teams.
Strongly Preferred:
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CFRE (Certified Fund-Raising Executive) or equivalent professional certification preferred.
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Experience living or working in multiple geographic regions, with direct fundraising or business development experience in at least two major donor markets (e.g., US foundations and European multilateral agencies)
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Existing network within conservation/climate philanthropy and corporate partnerships.
How to Apply
Interested candidates are invited to submit their resume and cover letter (PDF format only) describing their aptitude and interest in the position. Applications will be accepted until 9th October 2026 at midnight EAT. We look forward to reviewing your application and learning about how you can contribute to our mission.
Equal Opportunity
Natural State is an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or age.
Tech Hub Manager
Location: On-site, Center for the Nature Economy, Laikipia, Kenya (commuting from Nanyuki or surrounding area).
Department: Research and Monitoring, Technical Delivery Division
Reports to: Head of Technical Delivery/Senior Data Engineer
Terms: Full time (40 hrs per week)
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About Natural State
Natural State is an international NGO based in northern Kenya, dedicated to laying the groundwork for a resilient restoration economy. We design and develop the technologies and scientific methods required to support credible, nature-based financial mechanisms. By reducing technical barriers and improving access to high-quality ecological information, we are building monitoring tools and systems that offer cost-effective, reliable measurement of biodiversity, carbon, water, and social indicators.
About the role
The Tech Hub is Natural State’s centre for applied technology and innovation for the nature economy, combining on-site data and technology infrastructure, field capability, the Makers Lab and practical learning. The Tech Hub is is built to operate off-grid, with two owned data servers connected via fibre and solar power capacity currently being commissioned — making it one of the few nature monitoring infrastructure facilities designed to run independently of grid power at this scale.
The Makers Lab is the Tech Hub’s collaborative space for developing, adapting and testing solutions to real-world nature economy challenges, including hardware and software prototyping. Challenges can come from across Natural State, as well as from practitioners, communities, partners, researchers and other collaborators. The Lab brings together technical and scientific expertise from the Applied Science Division with participants coming through Leadership and Learning courses, residencies and other programmes to develop and test practical solutions.
As Tech Hub Manager, you will be the on-site steward of this facility. You will keep its physical and technical infrastructure running reliably, support the migration of NS Analytics’ data storage onto the Hub’s own servers, and make the space work well for the people who use it day to day: the Makers Lab’s hardware and software prototyping, and the training and demonstration programme run with the Leadership and Learning department. You will work closely with the Technical Delivery team on infrastructure and storage decisions, with the Applied Science Division on Makers Lab needs, and with Leadership and Learning on scheduling and running the Hub’s training and demonstration activity.
Beyond the Hub itself, you will provide on-the-ground support for the NS Analytics IoT service platform. You will deploy, configure and maintain the sensors and field networks that feed data into the platform across client project sites, and be the person who keeps that data flowing reliably from the field to the Hub.
This role is for you if...
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You’re hands-on and just as comfortable being responsible for physical infrastructure — servers, solar power, fibre connectivity — as for digital systems, in a working field environment.
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You like being the person who keeps things running: you notice problems before they become outages and you fix them methodically.
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You enjoy fieldwork and get real satisfaction from getting a sensor network working reliably in difficult conditions.
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You’re comfortable being the go-to contact both for people using a shared space (Makers Lab, training) and for the Technical Delivery team relying on the servers you manage.
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You’re energised by an off-grid, resource-constrained setting rather than deterred by it.
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You enjoy working in a small, high-performance team and pitching in where you’re needed.
What you’ll work on
Hub infrastructure and on-premise services
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Day-to-day operation of the Hub’s infrastructure: the two data servers, fibre connectivity, UPS and (once commissioned) solar power, including uptime monitoring and troubleshooting.
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Running the on-premise service stack with Technical Delivery: host and container platform, storage volumes, user and access management, patching and basic hardening.
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Backup and recovery: maintaining backups on the 3-2-1 principle with an off-site copy, and testing restores on a fixed schedule so that we know recovery works before we need it.
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Migrating NS Analytics data storage onto the Hub’s servers with Technical Delivery, and keeping that storage service running as project volume grows.
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Monitoring and alerting: keeping health checks, capacity and alerting in working order, and acting on what they report.
Network across the centre
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Owning the network across the Center for the Nature Economy — offices, Tech Hub, residential and guest areas: LAN and Wi-Fi coverage, switching and VLAN segmentation, firewall rules, VPN access, DNS and DHCP.
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Managing the internet links (fibre and any backup path), including the vendor relationships behind them.
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Keeping network documentation current: topology, addressing, credentials handling and change history.
Field devices and IoT
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Providing on-the-ground support for the NS Analytics IoT service platform, as the field-side counterpart to Technical Delivery so that client deployments run reliably from sensor to platform.
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Deploying, configuring and maintaining IoT sensors and monitoring devices: acoustic sensors, camera traps, soil moisture sensors, weather stations and water monitoring equipment.
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Setting up and maintaining the field networks that connect these devices to the Hub, including LoRaWAN gateways, cellular or satellite backhaul, and the solar and battery systems that keep remote nodes powered.
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Configuring IoT communication protocols such as LoRaWAN, MQTT, CoAP and NB-IoT, including device provisioning, firmware updates and edge processing where connectivity is limited.
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Keeping deployed systems operational: monitoring device health, battery levels and data flow, running scheduled maintenance visits, and troubleshooting faults.
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Working with the Research and Monitoring team so that data arrives complete and on time, and investigating together when it does not — missing deployments, failed uploads, clock or metadata errors.
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Keeping clear records of every deployment (device locations, configurations, maintenance history) and training field teams and partners to carry out routine checks.
Makers Lab, training and the shared facility
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Managing the physical and technical set-up of the Makers Lab, keeping it stocked, functional and safe, and providing hands-on support to Leadership and Learning and the Applied Science Division in developing, adapting and testing monitoring technologies, hardware and other practical solutions in the Lab and in pilot deployments.
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Coordinating the Hub’s training and demonstration programme with Leadership and Learning: scheduling, host logistics, and keeping the technology stack demo-ready for visiting practitioners and partners.
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Maintaining the equipment inventory and managing procurement, servicing and vendor relationships for hardware, power and connectivity.
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Writing and maintaining the Hub’s operating procedures: server maintenance, power management, network changes, and onboarding for Makers Lab and training users.
Requirements
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Must have: Experience managing physical technical infrastructure (servers, networking, power systems) in a hands-on, on-site capacity.
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Must have: Comfortable troubleshooting server and network issues independently, including in a low-connectivity or off-grid environment.
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Must have: Linux server administration: users and permissions, system services, storage and filesystems, logs, scheduled jobs, and backups.
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Must have: Practical network administration — LAN and Wi-Fi, VLANs, routing, firewall rules, VPN, DNS and DHCP — on equipment such as MikroTik, Ubiquiti or similar.
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Must have: Strong organisational skills — able to manage inventory, procurement, and scheduling for a shared facility with multiple user groups.
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Strongly desired: Backup and recovery practice, and monitoring/alerting tools (for example Prometheus, Grafana).
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Strongly desired: Virtualisation or containers (Proxmox, WMware, Docker or similar) and network-attached or object storage.
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Strongly desired: Experience with solar power systems or other off-grid power infrastructure.
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Strongly desired: Working knowledge of IoT communication protocols and networks (LoRaWAN, MQTT, CoAP, NB-IoT) and of managing low-power devices in remote locations.
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Strongly desired: Experience supporting a maker space, lab, or prototyping environment (hardware and/or software).
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Strongly desired: Experience coordinating training, demonstration, or visitor programmes.
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Strongly desired: Familiarity with the field data collection and monitoring technology NS Analytics supports (ODK, camera traps, acoustic sensors), and experience with embedded hardware such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino or ESP32.
Artificial Intelligence Guidance
We are an AI-forward organisation and you will be expected to use AI in this role and for parts of the job interview. However, please do not use AI to write your cover letter or answer the screening questions.
Application Process
Click on this link to answer the screening questions and submit your written application (cover letter + CV). If you are shortlisted, you will be given a take-home assignment. If your take-home assignment is reviewed highly, you will be scheduled for one to two rounds of online video interviews, after which an offer may be made.