Senior Director, Innovative Mobility

About The Role: 

CALSTART’s Innovative Mobility (IM) initiative focuses on deploying emerging transportation technologies and operating models to address persistent challenges in moving people and goods – reducing emissions, improving efficiency, and expanding access. IM takes a whole-system approach to designing transportation networks, with a deliberate emphasis on ensuring these solutions are accessible, affordable, and responsive to the needs of communities. Leveraging innovation and technology, IM advances mobility solutions that deliver broad public benefits while addressing long-standing gaps in transportation access. 

The IM initiative includes three major focus areas: 

• Personal Mobility – These efforts prioritize affordability, usability, and efficiency, and are developed in partnership with community stakeholders to expand access to reliable options for all communities. This includes IM’s flagship offering, the California Clean Mobility Options program, as well as mobility hubs, automated vehicle pilots, and other mobility programs. 

• Last-Mile Delivery – This work emphasizes reducing pollution burdens in over-impacted communities, improving neighborhood-level air quality, and supporting efficient goods movement systems. This includes the development and deployment of tools, research, and pilots of curb management innovation and fleet and vehicle right-sizing strategies.  

• School Mobility – Expands safe, sustainable transportation options for students by complementing school bus electrification with multimodal solutions such as e-bike lending libraries, carsharing, and local transit passes. Programs prioritize safe, reliable, and low-cost access for school-based trips and engage school districts, families, and local partners in program design and implementation. 

The Senior Director, Innovative Mobility reports to the Executive Vice President of Initiatives and collaborates closely with the other Initiatives, Policy, Business Development, Regional Offices, and Member Services. 

What You’ll Do: 

Initiative Strategy & Operational Leadership 

• Develop and manage the Innovative Mobility initiative strategy and operational plan, including annual goals, OKRs, KPIs, and quarterly performance reviews. 

• Align initiative priorities with organizational strategy, funding opportunities, and evolving market needs by leveraging insights from members, partners, and other key stakeholders. 

• Oversee development of work plans, hiring plans, and initiative-level budget coordination. 

• Drive and champion the creation of emerging solution projects across personal mobility, last-mile delivery, and school mobility. 

• Identify and address key market barriers such as funding complexity, infrastructure readiness, community engagement, and deployment challenges. 

Program & Portfolio Oversight 

• Provide executive oversight of major IM programs, including Clean Mobility Options and other projects spanning the initiative’s focus areas. 

• Oversee scopes, budgets, schedules, and deliverables across the initiative portfolio. 

• Ensure programs support initiative goals and accelerate equitable, zero-emission mobility adoption. 

• Guide development of technical assistance strategies, including mobility needs assessments, curb management strategies, and multimodal planning, with consideration of community-centered design principles. 

Policy & Industry Leadership 

• Partner with CALSTART’s Policy team, CALSTART members, and key stakeholders to advance policy and regulatory frameworks that support innovative mobility deployment. 

• Provide subject matter expertise on zero-emission mobility technologies, curb management, automated vehicles, shared mobility systems, and community-centered program design. 

• Engage with federal, state, and local agencies (e.g., DOT, DOE, EPA, FTA, CARB, CEC, NYSERDA, and others), supporting program design and implementation. 

• Represent CALSTART at public forums, conferences, and technical convenings. 

• Support funding strategies related to innovative mobility programs. 

Business Development & External Partnerships 

• Identify and secure new funding opportunities in partnership with Business Development and executive leadership. 

• Support proposal strategy, partnership development, and funder engagement. 

• Maintain and expand relationships with CALSTART members and other partners, including community-based organizations, transit agencies, school districts, technical solution providers, mobility operators, utilities, local governments, and philanthropic organizations. 

• Build coalitions and advance collaborative knowledge products through the Innovative Mobility Working Group. 

Team Leadership & Operations 

• Lead, mentor, and grow a high-performing team. 

• Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, accountability, and equity. 

• Ensure effective coordination across regional offices, initiative teams, and the mobility ecosystem. 

• Support talent recruitment, onboarding, professional development, and performance management. 

What You’ll Bring to the Table: 

Education: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Planning, Environmental Studies, Public Administration, Business Administration, or related field required. 

• Master’s degree preferred. 

Experience: 

• 10+ years of experience in innovative mobility, shared mobility, transportation planning, fleet electrification, or related clean transportation sectors. 

• Demonstrated experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder programs, ideally involving community-based mobility solutions. 

• 7+ years of program and project management experience. 

• 5+ years of business development and partnership cultivation experience. 

• Proven team leadership and staff management experience with direct reports. 

• Strong understanding of policy, regulatory, and market drivers impacting innovative mobility deployment. 

• Experience working with community organizations, local governments, technology providers, and public agencies. 

Desired Qualifications: 

• Exceptional strategic thinking and operational planning capability. 

• Ability to translate complex technical and community-centered solutions into actionable implementation strategies. 

• Strong coalition-building and stakeholder engagement skills. 

• Technical writing, speaking, and presentation experience. 

• Familiarity with modeling, business case analysis, and mobility performance assessment.