Director of Climate Projects, Asia-Pacific

SUMMARY

Conservation International protects nature for the benefit of humanity. Through science, policy, fieldwork, and finance, we spotlight and secure the most important places in nature for the climate, biodiversity, and for people. With offices in 30 countries and projects in more than 100 countries, Conservation International partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous peoples, and local communities to help people and nature thrive together. Conservation International is one of the global leaders in using natural climate solutions (NCS) to combat climate change. There is significant growth in the demand for high-quality conservation projects that can access the voluntary and compliance carbon markets and CI is rapidly expanding their portfolio of high-quality carbon projects to meet this demand. CI Asia Pacific (CIAP) has manages the Asia Pacific Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), a multi-donor facility, to provide technical support and invest in NCS projects and enabling conditions.

Based out of the Asia Pacific Field Division, CI is seeking a Director of Climate Projects to lead the evaluation and development of a project pipeline of new bankable terrestrial and blue carbon avoided deforestation, restoration, improved forest management, and other NCS projects- and jurisdictional-scale initiatives, both internally within CI and externally with outside partners.

The Director of Climate Projects, working closely with the Asia Pacific NCS Senior Director, will be responsible for managing workflow for the scoping, feasibility, development and implementation of NCS projects using voluntary market standards like the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate Community Biodiversity (CCB) standards, or compliance markets, such as Japan’s Joint Crediting Mechanism. This role will provide analyses of the country, jurisdictional and site opportunities for terrestrial and blue carbon NCS carbon finance projects. This includes managing the development of Project Idea Note (PIN) scoping documents, managing the development of Project Opportunity Profile (POP) feasibility assessments, the production of Project Descriptions (PD), and Monitoring Reports (MR). The Director of Climate Projects will manage staff including the NCS Portfolio Manager and their team who are responsible for tracking and administering the TAF grants, communication with prospective TAF grantees, and reporting to internal CI/KI staff on project status through regular updates. As a member of the APFD NCS Team, the Directorr will work in close collaboration with the NCS Blue Carbon Team, the Carbon Finance Division technical team, project implementers such as CI’s country offices in Asia Pacific and external partners, project developers, finance partners, and with key personnel across CI’s Global Programs and Centers to provide workplans and budgets for carbon development components of NCS projects, and ensure efficient and timely delivery of NCS project documents and reports.

To be successful, the Director of Climate Projects needs to be fully conversant with developments and trends in NCS carbon markets, climate policy, carbon/climate, and Safeguards certification standards. Familiarity with carbon standards and methodologies is required. The Director of Climate Projects must also have demonstrated knowledge or experience in the role and development of conservation finance and forestry carbon finance transactions; and must be able to work across a broad range of stakeholders including external partners in the private sector, development finance institutions, project developers, government, and civil society. Must have a business and commercial acumen and be able to articulate an actionable plan for developing a pipeline of high-quality emissions reductions and NCS projects (environmental and social approach) at scale.

Managing NCS project information also requires excellent communication skills, a high degree of organization, attention to detail, interdisciplinary thinking, and strong technical writing skills.

In addition, the Director of Climate Projects should have a strong understanding of terrestrial and marine ecology, restoration activities in tropical ecosystems, climate-smart agriculture, and land management practices in the Asia Pacific Region. The Manager should be familiar with field methods for carbon inventories and oversee field efforts to ensure that the appropriate field measurements are gathered for the required set of equations and that quality assurance targets are met. A deep familiarity with standard forestry skills such as growth and yield modeling, regression estimation, and operation planning is required. A key element of success will be evaluating and creating new methodologies for the accurate calculation of carbon through the application of the latest ecosystem research to calculate and project carbon volumes over time. In addition, the Manager should have a solid understanding of land management laws and carbon policy for countries within the region.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

As a member of the APFD CNCS Team the Director of Climate Projects, working closely with the Asia Pacific NCS Senior Director, should:

• Manage the Portfolio Team who are responsible for establishing and maintaining relationships with current and potential NCS project partners, assessing potential NCS projects, managing the Project Information Management system, and leading the reporting process of CI’s Asia Pacific NCS projects and TAF grants, including reporting to the Carbon Finance Division and APFD Senior Leadership.
• Lead the origination process to identify a pipeline of opportunities within and outside the organization and ensure that the Natural Climate Solutions team manages a growing number of projects across the Asia Pacific region.
• Develop new tools and processes to prioritize, communicate, and track details of all incoming projects
• Manage project development workflow through scoping, feasibility and implementation stages of terrestrial and blue carbon NCS projects to facilitate efficient and timely delivery of NCS project outputs such as Project Opportunity Profiles (POP), Project Descriptions (PD) and Monitoring and Reports (MR).Create workplans and budgets for the carbon development components of NCS projects working closely with implementing and technical partners, including Project Opportunity Profiles (POP), Project Descriptions (PD) and Monitoring and Reports (MR).
• Work closely with, coordinate, collaborate, and communicate with all multiple institutional Carbon-related CI staff & teams. Engage and collaborate with APFD country program teams.
• Manage timelines for a portfolio of carbon projects to ensure that all milestones are achieved on schedule and on budget.
• Work closely with other technical staff across the organization to ensure that all data required for PIN, POP, and PD development meets CI’s standards.
• Manage field data gathering efforts to ensure inventory data is gathered for carbon quantification following protocol requirements and the best management practices for data collection.
• Establish training and QA/QC programs for field staff to ensure high quality and efficient data gathering efforts.
• Research and develop techniques for improving carbon quantification methods and creating new methodologies for developing carbon projects based on solid ecosystem science.
• Establish state-of-the-art quality assurance techniques that ensure that errors are detected early and are corrected well before project validation and verification.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Engage with key stakeholders, including government agencies, NGOs, private sector partners, and local communities, to build strong partnerships and secure project buy-in.
• Advocate for supportive policies and regulatory frameworks that facilitate the development and scaling of NCS projects within the Asia Pacific region.
• Develop and implement training programs for CI staff, local partners, and community members to build capacity in NCS project development and implementation.
• Facilitate the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and innovations in NCS projects across CI’s global network and with external partners.
• Establish robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess the impact and effectiveness of NCS projects, ensuring continuous improvement and adaptive management.
• Support the preparation of comprehensive project reports for donors, stakeholders, and CI leadership, highlighting key achievements, challenges, and lessons learned.
• Foster a culture of innovation within the team, encouraging the development and piloting of new approaches to enhance project outcomes and sustainability.
• Work with project funders to develop financing and offtake agreements to move projects from feasibility to full development and credit issuance.

PEOPLE AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

• This role leads and manages the Portfolio Team which currently includes the Portfolio Manager and NCS Grants Senior Coordinator but may be expanded to include new roles. In this capacity, the Director is expected to transfer industry knowledge to and support career development for team members.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Masters degree in a relevant field (e.g. environmental science, economics, forestry, agronomy, law, or business).
• 5 to 7 years of work experience with NCS projects and/or jurisdictional initiative development and implementation.
• Proven knowledge or experience in climate-related issues including carbon finance transactions (origination, voluntary carbon market standards, and implementation), terrestrial and/or blue carbon, and a track record of success.
• Solid understanding of land management, forest operations, terrestrial and estuarine inventory practices, silviculture, and restoration activities in tropical forest ecosystems with a focus on Asia Pacific ecology.
• Demonstrated NCS carbon finance knowledge and experience, including voluntary carbon markets, and use of carbon standards such as Verra VCS, Climate Community & Biodiversity Standards, Climate Action Reserve, ART TREES, Gold Standard, etc.
• Experience managing complex projects.
• Excellent analytical and data quantification skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Highly organized and strong attention to detail.
• Demonstrated team player.
• Demonstrated problem-solving skills and ability to build on existing knowledge to develop new approaches.
• Demonstrated track record of working effectively and collaboratively with multicultural, international, and multidisciplinary teams to produce concrete results, including a strong capacity to navigate diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Self-starter with the ability to work in a matrix organization.
• Language Skills: English: Excellent written, reading, and speaking skills.

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• 7-10 years’ experience developing carbon projects for the voluntary carbon market.
• Experience working across different countries in the Asia Pacific region.
• Familiarity with spatial analysis, GIS, and remote sensing.
• Familiarity with land management project design (e.g. using Open Standards).
• Work experience with indigenous peoples and traditional communities.
• Language skills appropriate for the region (Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, etc.)

WORKING CONDITIONS

• The position could be based in Singapore.
• This is a full-time position with the flexibility to adjust to deadlines and time zones.
• Frequent travel within the region will be required, often this will entail travel to remote locations with rustic conditions.
• Flexibility in work schedule is required in order to accommodate time differences between the Arlington, VA office and field offices in Asia Pacific in multiple time zones.