CBEY Environmental Innovation Fellow

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Overview

The Environmental Innovation Fellow finds, supports, and accelerates Yale's most promising early-stage environmental founders. Working jointly across the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY), the Fellow scouts emerging talent, coaches founders as they pressure-test and sharpen their ideas, runs the programs and funding cycles that move ventures forward, and connects innovators to the wider Yale Ventures ecosystem, to ClimateHaven, and to investors and operators beyond campus.

Day to day, the Fellow designs and leads programming, advises ventures and evaluates applications, manages a team of student employees, and represents both centers on and off campus. This is a hands-on role for someone energized by early-stage builders, who wants to spend their time in the room with founders and who is eager to develop their own body of work alongside well-established initiatives.

We are looking for an entrepreneurial problem solver who loves working with founders at the earliest and messiest stage of an idea. The Innovation Fellow drives environmental entrepreneurship and innovation at both CBEY and the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale (Tsai CITY), acting as the key liaison between the two centers and reporting to the Executive Director at CBEY and the Managing Director at Tsai CITY.

Tsai CITY is part of Yale Ventures, the university's innovation engine, which places the Fellow at the center of a fast-growing ecosystem. The Fellow partners closely with the Yale Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator (PSIA), also powered by Yale Ventures, which backs Yale faculty translating breakthrough research into scalable environmental technologies, and helps student innovators plug into that lab-to-market pipeline.

The position will last for a two-year term, with the possibility for a one-year extension.

The Fellow will have a range of responsibilities across the following areas.

Finding and Accelerating Founders

Seek out talented early-stage innovators and help them move faster.

• Run CBEY's Environmental Startup Funding cycle, including the Climate Innovation Grants, the Sobotka Seed Prize, and the Planetary Solutions Prize awarded at Startup Yale. Recruit strong applicants, manage review, and coach teams through the process.

• Advise ventures and assess applications alongside the Tsai CITY team across the venture development sequence: Launch Pad, Accelerator, Venture Ready, and the Summer Fellowship.

• Partner with the Yale Planetary Solutions Impact Accelerator (PSIA) to match talented students with faculty teams commercializing hard-tech environmental solutions.

• Hold regular office hours to help innovators devise, refine, test, iterate, build, and launch their ideas, and build new forms of venture support where you see a gap.

Designing and Leading Programs

Build programming that meets students at every level of engagement.

• Lead the Climate Innovation Intensive, a six-week cohort program run with a student team that brings founders, investors, and ecosystem partners together and feeds promising teams into spring venture development programs.

• Grow the Green Innovator Community, convening students, alumni, partners, and friends through events, treks, the newsletter, and the active startup database.

• Help deliver programs like the From Campus to Market (C2M) intensive with Tsai CITY and ClimateHaven and connect Yale founders into the broader climate innovation ecosystem and New Haven's climate and tough-tech startup community.

• Curate speaker events and workshops that put students face to face with founders and investors, and design new programs as opportunities emerge.

Building the Network

Represent both centers and expand the ecosystem around them.

• Champion Yale's environmental innovators through the CBEY and Tsai CITY blogs, social media, and other channels on and off campus.

• Maintain the database of active student, alumni, and faculty ventures and the wider network of supporters, mentors, and funders.

• Represent CBEY and Tsai CITY at events and conferences, and build strategy with partners across Yale Ventures, Yale Planetary Solutions, ClimateHaven, and the schools.

Supporting Students

• Manage a joint CBEY/Tsai CITY team of student employees who support environmental and social entrepreneurship on campus, and meet with students to help them navigate campus resources and build their careers.

Required Skills & Abilities

1. A self-starter who builds their own body of work. Proven ability to organize and prioritize multiple projects, manage time well, and work both independently and as part of a team.

2. Genuine excitement for early-stage founders and environmental innovation, and the curiosity to seek out promising people and ideas before anyone else does.

3. Outstanding writing and communication abilities, with the judgment to give founders direct, useful feedback.

4. Demonstrated ability to work with a diverse constituency, including staff, students, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and other community members.

5. Master's Degree in Environmental Science or Business Administration or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Preferred Education & Experience

1. Experience advising or coaching early-stage founders, and familiarity with climate tech and hard-tech commercialization.

Principal Responsibilities

The Fellow will have a range of responsibilities across the following areas:
1.  Program Design and Management: 
Provide programming and activities for CBEY and CITY focused on environmental entrepreneurship for all levels of student engagement including:
a.  Workshops/Courses
* Develop and manage Professional Skills Workshop series 
* Develop and manage Innovative Mindset Series
* Supervise Sustainable Entrepreneurship Consultancy course 
b.  Intensives
* Coordinate NetZero Action Group 
* Take lead on Data Science Initiative 
c.  Prizes
* Oversee Climate Change Seed Stage Awards
* Manage Sobotka and Sabin Prize processes
d.  Hackathons & Events
* Manage Environmental Solutions Accelerator
* Contribute to Climate Change Hackathon
* Act as CITY/CBEY representatives at other on campus Hackathons
* Re-imagine Bright Lights Green Sights speaker series
e. Mentorship
* Oversee Experts in Residence 
f. Other Programs as appropriate 
2.  Strategy & Cross Campus Collaboration:
a.  Lead strategy development for CBEY’s role in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and expand CBEY’s offerings around environmental entrepreneurship 
b.  Work closely with campus partners and leaders to elevate and improve student engagement in meaningful innovation and entrepreneurship programs
c.  Work closely with campus partners to elevate offerings and resources around environmental entrepreneurship
* i.e. - Work closely with Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media to identify potential areas of collaboration
3.  Student Support:
a.  Manage CBEY student team that supports social/environmental entrepreneurship on campus
b.  Be a liaison to Yale College and graduate student organizations related to environment, business and social entrepreneurship and innovation
c.  Work with students and student teams to devise, refine, test, iterate, build, and launch startup business, nonprofit, civic, community, social mission, faith-based, and other endeavor ideas.
4.  Personal Development/Projects:
a.  Identify and attend education opportunities/areas for growth as part of personal and professional development
b.  Serve as a CBEY/CITY representative at events and conferences on and off campus.
c.  Create one new, bold, innovative student-centric initiative OR have the opportunity to work on own start-up, project, or initiative.

Required Education and Experience

Master’s Degree in Environmental Science or Business Administration.

Job Posting Date

10/26/2026

Job Category

Professional

Bargaining Unit

NON

Compensation Grade

Administration & Operations

Compensation Grade Profile

Associate (00)

Salary Range

$39,300.00 - $292,125.00

Benefits

A general description of the benefits to be offered with this Managerial & Professional position is available at:

Yale Benefits

Time Type

Full time

Duration Type

Staff Fixed Duration (Fixed Term)

Work Model

Hybrid

Background Check Requirements

All candidates for employment will be subject to pre-employment background screening for this position, which may include motor vehicle, DOT certification, drug testing and credit checks based on the position description and job requirements. All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of the background check. For additional information on the background check requirements and process visit "Learn about background checks" under the Applicant Support Resources section of Careers on the It's Your Yale website.

Health Requirements

Certain positions have associated health requirements based on specific job responsibilities. These may include vaccinations, tests, or examinations, as required by law, regulation, or university policy.

Posting Disclaimer

Salary offers are determined by a candidate’s qualifications, experience, skills, and education in relation to the position requirements, along with the role’s grade profile and current internal and external market conditions.

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of the essential functions that will be required of the position and should not be construed as a declaration of specific duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees will be assigned specific job-related duties through  their hiring department.

The University is committed to basing judgments concerning the admission, education, and employment of individuals upon their qualifications and abilities and seeks to attract to its faculty, staff, and student body qualified persons from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives. In accordance with this policy and as delineated by federal and Connecticut law, Yale does not discriminate in admissions, educational programs, or employment against any individual on account of that individual’s sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, disability, status as a special disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam era or other covered veteran.

Inquiries concerning Yale's Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment may be referred to the Office of Institutional Equity and Accessibility (OIEA).

Note

Yale University is a tobacco-free campus.