Major Function
World Wildlife Fund-United States (WWF), one of the world’s leading environment organizations, seeks a Senior Director to lead its work on innovative financial structures for climate finance and carbon markets. The Climate Finance team works with interested partners to mobilize long-term sustainable funding including carbon credits, direct corporate investment, philanthropic grants, public finance, guarantees, and other innovative financing mechanisms. Through its Climate finance products, WWF aims to use its global reach, landscape knowledge, and diverse partnerships to showcase high-quality Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that mitigate climate change. WWF’s approach to NbS addresses climate mitigation, the threats and drivers of nature loss, while incorporating transparent governance and equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms for the communities in the focus geographies.
The initial program that the Senior Director would lead is structuring the finance and deal origination for the WWF Planet Portfolio. Planet Portfolio is a joint program of the WWF Climate and Forest teams. – The objective of Planet Portfolio is to originate and implement NbS interventions for both private and public actors that will demonstrate and set the bar for high-integrity climate mitigation, positive nature impacts and community benefit-sharing. Operationally the Planet Portfolio is split into two main functions or pillars: (1) a landscape origination and support role (housed in the Forest team) to collaboratively develop and deliver NbS portfolios; and (2) a deal origination/finance role (housed in the Climate team) that develops integrated financial models and appropriate transaction models to fund projects in each participating landscape. Planet Portfolio is currently piloting this approach in five tropical forest geographies: Yucatan, Mexico; Madre de Dios, Peru; Atlantic Forest, Brazil; Northern Highlands/Diana, Madagascar; and the Central Annamites, Viet Nam.
Beyond the work on Planet Portfolio, the person in this role will develop a vision for expanding climate and nature finance models with other WWF goal teams and ecosystem types (e.g., freshwater, oceans, agricultural lands), and collaborate within Climate, Private Sector Engagement, and other teams to generate demonstration deals and strategies that drive towards climate and nature market transformation.
Reporting Structure: The Sr. Director will report to the Senior Vice President – Climate and will directly manage two professionals responsible for climate finance deal origination, financial modeling and carbon credit pricing. For the Planet Portfolio initiative, the Sr. Director will have a secondary reporting line to the Planet Portfolio Program Lead.
Position Length: Full-time, Regular
FLSA Status: Exempt
Salary: The expected compensation range for this position is $139,800 to $200,900.
Key responsibilities of the position include:
Lead the deal origination/finance pillar of Planet Portfolio with a specific near-term focus on the successful execution/closing of corporate engagement transactions in selected landscapes.Evaluate the potential for WWF to implement investment opportunities that create climate mitigation through the generation of a financial return and/or the issuance of carbon credits.Lead due diligence on high potential opportunities and assist with structuring deal terms for chosen interventions.Key Competencies
Innovative Problem Solving and Strategic Leadership. The ability to investigate a problem and propose innovative solutions in a timely, efficient manner to address both immediate and longer-term challenges. Thoughtfully and sensitively deploys and adapts different structures to a myriad of country contexts.Initiative. Self-starter with ability to manage the team’s work and deliverables to produce high-quality results. Ability to work against deadlines and under frequently changing circumstances.Outstanding teamwork. Ability to work across units and influence outcomes without direct control. Ability to engage individuals working in different roles and countries; capable of training and guiding team members with a high degree of cultural sensitivity. Must be client-focused and enjoy problem solving and working with teams.Exceptional people and project management skills. Must be able to lead and manage direct reports and manage the team’s work and deliverables to produce high-quality results. Solution-focused adaptability. Must be comfortable working in a fast-paced, changing environment, executing quickly on a range of strategic and transactional responsibilities, as well as thinking critically to add value and solve problems. Ability to work against deadlines and under frequently changing circumstances.Self- Awareness and emotional intelligence. Incorporates constructive feedback, owns mistakes, and holds oneself accountable.Required Skills and Experience
Graduate degree in economics, business administration or finance.Minimum of 8-12 years of transactional experience making ecosystem-based climate investments, investing in project finance deals or structuring carbon credit transactions.Proven experience in working with a variety of transaction structures, including impact bonds, equity funds, structured finance products and blended finance transactions.Experience in carbon markets a strong differentiator including familiarity with landscape data collection, carbon calculations and carbon credit pricing.Superior financial and business analysis experience and skills, including demonstrated ability to understand and oversee discounted cashflow modeling.