STATUS: Exempt, full-time

LOCATION: Northampton, Massachusetts, or within a 60-mile radius.

The Value Stream Manager II leads a portfolio of waste diversion programs while managing and developing a team. The role is accountable for high-quality program delivery, client satisfaction, financial performance, and measurable diversion outcomes across managed programs. This is a hybrid position that includes business-development responsibilities up to 35%: the manager maintains and grows client relationships and develops new service opportunities.

Applicants for this position must be located in the area of Northampton, Massachusetts, or within an approximately 60-mile radius. Work will be a combination of remote and on-site field work. If you are in or near Northampton, Massachusetts, you can also work from our co-working space at the Old School Commons. Applicants must be able to attend in-person meetings and events in the Northeast region throughout the year and have access to reliable transportation and an acceptable driving record.

Essential Job Functions:

Primary Function

Waste Diversion Program Management

• Lead a portfolio of CET waste programs and translate contracts into clear workplans, delivery schedules, staff assignments, quality standards, and measurable targets.
• Oversee delivery of hotline assistance; generator and compost-site technical assistance; partner and service-provider support; outreach and lead-generation campaigns; and trainings, webinars, roundtables, forums, and presentations.
• Ensure delivery of technical assistance and implementation support, including tailored recommendations, cost analysis, source-separation and contamination-reduction strategies, staff training, customized signage and templates, troubleshooting, and recognition-program support.
• Manage development of program resources and market-building deliverables, including guidance documents, best management practices, standard operating procedures, SWOT analyses, fact sheets, case studies, website and social-media content, service-provider research, and market-development recommendations.
• Track and report contracted outputs and outcomes, including assistance volume, participation, implementation progress, material tonnage, diversion rates, contamination, cost savings, avoided disposal costs, and greenhouse-gas reductions.

People Leadership

• Own team outcomes and translate program goals into clear individual expectations, measurable priorities, and consistent accountability.
• Directly supervise staff through regular one-on-ones, timely feedback, coaching, delegation, professional-development planning, and fair performance management, including corrective action when needed.
• Plan workloads, schedules, capacity, and utilization; balance near-term delivery needs with staff development and sustainable workloads.
• Support hiring and onboarding, identify training needs, approve time and expenses, and build a collaborative culture in which staff can raise risks, solve problems, and continuously improve.

Business Development & Account Management

• Build and maintain trusted client relationships, understand client priorities, manage expectations, and identify opportunities to expand services.
• Generate and qualify leads through outreach, referrals, networking, partnerships, and existing accounts; review pipeline health, next steps, and conversion progress weekly and maintain accurate CRM data.
• Contribute to discovery, scopes of work, proposals, pricing, presentations, contract renewals, and handoffs from sale to delivery.
• Work toward revenue and pipeline goals while ensuring that proposed services are operationally feasible and aligned with CET's mission.
• Financial & Operational Performance
• Manage program budgets, revenue forecasts, staffing plans, burn rates, margins, and delivery commitments; determine whether spending should be level or paced around deliverables and available capacity.
• Review forecasts, pipeline, staffing, utilization, and delivery pacing on a regular cadence; identify material variances, document root causes, and take corrective action when scope, timing, or staffing changes.
• Use operational data to prioritize backlogs, manage dependencies, remove barriers, and improve throughput, lead time, quality, and customer outcomes using Lean, Kanban, Agile, or similar methods.
• Provide concise reporting to clients and leadership and coordinate across departments on resource planning, roles, decisions, risks, and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

• 7-10 years of progressively responsible experience in program or project management, operations, sustainability services, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience managing waste diversion, recycling, organics, or related materials-management programs, including implementation and performance reporting.
• Demonstrated people-management experience with direct reports, including performance management, coaching, workload planning, and staff development.
• Prior sales, business-development, or account-management experience is required, including experience developing opportunities, managing a pipeline, preparing proposals or scopes, and supporting revenue goals.
• Experience managing client relationships and leading technical and cross-functional teams, vendors, and external partners in a deadline-driven environment.
• Strong financial and analytical skills, including budgeting, revenue forecasting, resource and capacity planning, margin awareness, and interpretation of program and pipeline data.
• Proficiency with project management, time-tracking, reporting, and CRM systems.

Essential Skills & Behaviors

• Outcome ownership and prioritization: follows commitments through to completion, manages competing deadlines, diagnoses root causes, and intervenes early when performance is off track.
• People leadership: sets clear expectations, delegates effectively, gives direct and constructive feedback, develops staff, and addresses performance concerns promptly.
• Forecasting and operational discipline: connects projected work to deliverables, available capacity, utilization, and financial targets and adjusts plans as conditions change.
• Sales and pipeline discipline: maintains reliable CRM data, advances clear next steps, and balances relationship-building with accountability for activity, conversion, and revenue goals.
• Communication and collaboration: presents clearly, manages conflict and escalations, clarifies roles and dependencies, and builds alignment across technical, operations, sales, and client teams while improving repeatable practices.

Physical Requirements and Working Conditions: Frequent computer use and extended sitting; site visits may require walking, standing, and the use of appropriate personal protective equipment.

Compensation and Benefits

Your benefits start on day one!

Health, wellness, and paid time off benefits begin on your very first day with us, so you're supported from the start.

At CET, we are committed to transparency and equity in our compensation practices. The compensation range in the job posting reflects the available pay for this role at the time of posting. Individual compensation will be determined based on various factors, including but not limited to the candidate's qualifications, skills, and experience.

CET provides you with outstanding benefits which includes generous paid time off including vacation and personal/sick time; 8 paid holidays and 5 floating holidays; comprehensive medical and dental insurance with generous employer contributions; flexible spending health and dependent care accounts, vision insurance, life insurance which includes an employer paid group plan; disability insurance; supplemental accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity insurance, pet insurance, an employer paid Employee Assistance Program, and a retirement plan with a 3% company match. Additionally, CET provides you with a laptop, other office technology, work-related mileage reimbursement, and a monthly $85 stipend for your home internet and/or phone expenses.

Equally as important as our benefits package, the CET team is a mission-driven, kind, supportive, and collaborative group of employees. We care about the planet and others!