Back Manager II, Carbon Finance, Global Restoration Initiative

This position will be hybrid requiring a few days per week in Washington DC office; WRI Global Office (US). Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission. WRI is unable to sponsor any visa work sponsorship for this position.

About the Program:

WRI’s Global Restoration Initiative informs, enables, and invests in people that restore degraded land. The team’s flagship investment program for locally led enterprises and community non-profits, TerraFund, currently finances, trains, and monitors 200+ growing organizations across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

The program operates three funding windows: In Africa, TerraFund for AFR100 finances 200+ organizations through grants and low-interest loans, with a focus on the Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda; the Greater Rift Valley of Kenya; and the Ghana Cocoa Belt. In India, Harit Bharat Fund, a new landscape restoration fund, is funding its first cohort of restoration champions in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. And globally, the Priceless Planet Coalition is financing large-scale restoration projects that benefit the climate, biodiversity, and communities.

These portfolios are built through the TerraMatch platform, an end-to-end system that hosts open calls for proposals, connects champions with technical assistance, and tracks the progress of funded projects through a standard monitoring, reporting, and verification protocol. Through its more than 50 core business processes and tested standards, TerraMatch funding programs show that targeted investments in locally led champions can build viable restoration economies around the world.

Job Highlight:

Reporting to Senior Manager, Terra fund, you will build a coalition of actors dedicated to building a pipeline of high-quality projects that can access carbon finance, pulling from local organizations identified through funding programs associated with TerraMatch.

Working with WRI staff and external partners across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, you will determine the characteristics of locally led organizations that could meaningfully use carbon finance, as well as other results-based finance mechanisms, e.g., payments for ecosystem services and biodiversity credits, to complement their work, identify project developers that can connect these organizations to markets, and define the qualities of transactions that bring high-quality, community-first climate impacts, including carbon credits, certificates, and other results-based financing.

You will also work with the team’s experts to train promising organizations in the opportunities and complexities of accessing carbon finance and other results-based finance mechanisms, and you will shape the work of WRI’s research team as it develops and tests new methodologies to bring transparency and accessibility to carbon and other results-based transactions in Africa and other regions.

By coordinating this network, initially focused on Africa, you will broker transactions that will bring robust and measurable results and capital to both local organizations and the community members that they support. In sum, you will test innovations, track their impact, and then develop partnerships and strategies to scale up the most successful examples.

What will you do:

Program Management (75%):

• Oversee WRI’s carbon and results-based finance strategy for locally led land restoration projects, coordinating staff and partners to deliver through clear work-plans
• Develop and implement with partners “carbon accelerators” for local organizations that could benefit from carbon finance to complement their existing activities and advance their capacity to measure, monitor and valorize low-carbon production methods
• Broker carbon transactions by managing a community of local organizations and buyers of low-carbon commodities and carbon credits that meet WRI’s standards
• Contribute to the development of novel carbon measurement techniques by shaping the creation of new methodologies developed by WRI’s in-house research team
• Lead engagement with carbon standards, like the Verra, Acorn, Gold Standard, and the development of new approaches to improve access from local organizations
• Work with the TerraMatch product team to integrate carbon finance data into the product suite, simplifying the process for recommending local organizations for carbon finance

  Research (25%):

  • Determine the characteristics of locally led organizations that could meaningfully engage with carbon finance and other results-based finance mechanisms, researching which projects have the most effective strategies and which landscapes are best positioned to benefit
  • Define the qualities that appropriate buyers of high-quality, community-first climate impacts, including carbon credits, certificates, and other results-based financing, must meet in order to engage with WRI
  • Shape WRI’s institutional position on carbon finance within the Nature & Carbon Markets task force, ensuring consistency and leading strategic discussions with leadership and, while mitigating risks to WRI’s institutional reputation
  • Contribute to publications and research to develop standards and benchmarks for local organizations, including how carbon finance projects nest within jurisdictional carbon crediting schemes

    What will you need:

    • Education: You have a completed Bachelor’s degree in in business, forestry, agriculture, data science, or other related field, Master’s degree, preferred
    • Experience: You have a minimum of 7 years of experience, including professional history working directly in carbon finance and other result-based finance markets
    • Knowledge of carbon finance and relationships with stakeholders in the space
    • Experience brokering carbon finance transactions, preferably linked to the corporations with Science-Based Targets
    • Experience operating or advising carbon projects that restore land, preferred
    • Experience managing multi-stakeholder partnerships, mobilizing partners toward a common vision
    • Experience working with people from different cultures and backgrounds and coaching them to deliver timely results
    • You have experience owning and managing work plans through online project management tools, such as Air table and Monday.com
    • Languages: You have written and verbal proficiency in English, with additional fluency in Spanish, Portuguese, and/or French considered an asset.
    • Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization

      Potential Salary: Salary range is between 96,000 and 110,000 USD. Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors.

      How to Apply: Please submit a resume with cover letter by the date of 19 January 2024. You must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.

      What we offer:

      • Access to the WRI global network with the opportunity to exchange with and learn from passionate colleagues working at the cutting edge of their fields across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the US
      • The chance to have an impact and to develop your career within a mission driven organization with access to varied learning and training opportunities.
      • A workplace that strives to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
      • The opportunity to join and get involved in different working groups and affinity groups to shape the future of WRI
      • Commitment to hybrid working model with flexible working hours.
      • Generous leave days that increase with tenure

        About Us:

        Founded in 1982, World Resources Institute (WRI) is an independent, nonprofit global research organization that turns big ideas into action at the nexus of environment, economic opportunity, and human well-being. We are working to address seven critical challenges that the world must overcome this decade to secure a sustainable future for people and the planet: climate change, energy, food, forests, water, sustainable cities, and the ocean. WRI has a global staff of over 1,800 people with work spanning 60 countries. We have offices in Africa, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Colombia and the United States, as well as a growing presence in other countries and regions.

        The foundation of our work is delivering high-quality research, data, maps, and analysis to solve the world’s greatest environment and international development challenges and improve people’s lives. We work with leaders in government, business, and civil society to drive ambitious action and create change on the ground. Equally important, we bring together partners to develop breakthrough ideas and scale-up solutions for far-reaching, enduring impact.

        Our mission and values: