Associate Director, Climate

Job purpose and background

If you are passionate about climate action and want to have a global environmental impact by working at the nexus of private and public sectors - this is the perfect job for you. CDP’s Associate Director, Climate will be responsible for overseeing delivery of a select number of CDP’s funded projects, ensuring implementation of CDP’s climate change strategy, fundraising, and team management. This role requires you to drive private sector action, provide insights to policy makers and support funding efforts, whilst working to mainstream corporate reporting on this topic by companies and investors a new business norm.

The successful candidate will be recognized as an expert in the field. You will have a strong record of excellence, and demonstrable achievement of leading teams and initiatives in complex, fast-paced, and fluid environments. You should have experience working in multi-stakeholder settings and be comfortable communicating with senior-level stakeholders from government, sub-national actors, business, finance, and civil society. You should be passionate about CDP’s mission and be able to spot opportunities to develop integrated and inclusive multi-sectoral approach to systems change, as well as expand and grow CDP’s network. You should have an excellent international network of experts and practitioners.

The successful candidate will sit within the Environmental Practice team at CDP and will work with various teams across CDP to ensure highest impact is achieved; providing strategic input to the Interim Executive Director and Global Climate Change Director; and work collaboratively with CDP’s Stakeholder and Regional teams to implement its ambitious strategy. You will be responsible for managing the successful execution of the climate strategy, drive thought leadership, and directly manage the day to day operations of CDP’s climate change team.

Key responsibilities:

• Funded projects: providing oversight and project management for effective and high-quality delivery of identified projects
• Implementation of CDP's climate goals, working with CDP teams to ensure the strategy is socialized and implemented, including monitoring and evaluation
• Fundraising: work with CDP's Development team and the Interim Executive Director on establishing long term, sustainable funding for the program. This would often mean being the content lead for large proposals.
• Team management: line management of at least three climate team members
• Supporting the strategic future of climate questionnaires, scoring methodologies, and accompanying guidance, taking a sector lead where necessary
• Supporting CDP's cities, states, and regions program, creating synergies between CDP's work with companies and sub-national actors - providing expert input and guidance as and when needed
• Maintaining and building thought leadership knowledge across CDP's body of work across climate change
• Defining and implementing structures to collaborate across and within key CDP teams to deliver on climate goals
• Deputizing for the Global Director, Climate Change externally and internally
• Supporting the Global Director, Climate Change in ensuring the diverse range of activities that the climate change team works on, including the Science-based Targets Initiative and RE100 are aligned and working in the best way so as to achieve CDP's vision and mission
  

The precise description and nature of your job may be varied from time to time and you may be required to carry out other duties as necessary to meet business needs.

Skills and experience required:

• Around 8+ years of experience working in environmental management, sustainability, or related field
• Good knowledge of the ESG reporting landscape, including an in-depth understanding of the indicators used in frameworks and standards, such as the Task Force on Climate-Related Disclosure (TCFD)
• Track record in research, analysis and report-writing
• Demonstrable expertise in climate change, in particular the role that the private sector, capital markets and national policy plays in driving change
• Project management
• Ability to deputize for CDP's senior leaders internally and externally
• Ability to effectively exercise management authority, including performance reviews, recruitment, discipline, and other personnel actions
• Ability to provide inputs into and adapt departmental plans and priorities to address resource and operational challenges
• Ability to work independently in a lean, cross-functional environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Good experience of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook
• Fluency in English

The Associate Director is a full time fixed-term contract for 18 months based in CDP’s London office on Great Tower Street.

Salary and benefits: Competitive salary, 30 days of holiday plus bank holidays, generous non-contributory pension provision, annual discretionary bonus (depending on the organisation’s performance), Employee Assistance Programme, life assurance, training and development, flexible working opportunities and other benefits.

Interested applicants must be eligible to work legally in the UK.

Before you apply

We’ll only use the information you provide to process your application. For more details on how we use your information, see our applicants privacy notice. By emailing us your CV and covering letter, you are permitting CDP to use the information you have provided for recruitment purposes.

How to apply:

To apply, please email your CV and a covering letter setting out how you meet the required skills and experience or key responsibilities, which should be no more than two pages, to [email protected] with ‘Associate Director, Climate’ in the subject, followed by your first name and surname. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis with a final closing date of 9th March.