A senior member of CIFF’s India Office and Climate Programme team, leading on a number of significant programmes and accountable for strategy development and programmatic implementation.

This includes, but is not limited to, reviewing the 5 year strategy and looking at the way forward, being CIFF’s leader on India climate portfolio – clean energy transition in power sector/energy access, air quality, sustainable cooling, electric mobility, climate resilient agriculture, climate smart cities, industrial energy transition, sustainable finance, and on the intersection of all the sectors at the sub-national level and embedding the principles of just transition – taking a long-term view on what strategies, solutions, and partnerships are needed to deliver accelerated and reinforcing action. The role will also include the review and ongoing management/monitoring of the India climate portfolio.

CIFF is an evolving organization and priorities adapt with the latest evidence and needs of the community and the wider philanthropic sector. This role will require the ability to evolve and flex with that, stretching and developing existing portfolio areas, fostering meaningful and innovative connections with other portfolios and taking on other portfolio responsibilities as required. The role involves a lot of collaboration as the individual would operate as a full member of the global Climate team.

The role is required to provide world class thought-leadership, innovation and connectivity across internal and external strategies and partners, while being grounded in implementation detail and political and economic realities. This would also include leading national and subnational government partnerships and key relationships, and the effective implementation of localisation in India Office through more purposeful ecosystem engagement and working collaboratively with Executive Director and other Programme Directors; co-funding and partnership especially with domestic and government.

The role will include representing CIFF at Board level with some of our major strategic partners and to pursue co-funding relationships for this and CIFF’s wider portfolio to leverage in more resources.

As a senior member of the team, risk management and political engagement for the India office, as well as day to day line management the India Climate team members would also be part of this role.

Role’s responsibilities

As a member of the India Office and Climate Senior Management Team

• This role will be responsible for strategy, portfolio development and programme management of investments under India Climate Strategy and CIFF India Engagement Plan, ensuring they are aligned to the Foundation Strategy.
• Provide up-to-date, professional advice to the Executive Team, Executive Director (ED) India and Directors in India office and CIFF Board on national and sub-national development and economic insights and related issues, to support the development of Foundation strategies, and risk compliance in coordination with External Affairs and Communications team.
• Take the lead on corporate, cross-cutting initiatives and projects, as required by the ED India and Executive Team.
• Provide compelling, consistent and united leadership which creates clarity for all staff in the team and builds a sense of shared accountability for its success and that of the organisation.
• Develop and maintain excellent external relationships within the sector specialism, acting at all times as a corporate ambassador for CIFF, to help build the organisation’s reputation and profile as a professional, visionary and collaborative philanthropy.
• Deputise for ED India or Director Climate, as required.

Strategy & planning

• Direct CIFF’s India climate strategy (2019-24) related to clean energy transition in power sector/energy access, air quality, sustainable cooling, electric mobility, climate resilient agriculture, climate smart cities, industrial energy transition, sustainable finance, and on the intersection of all the sectors at the sub-national level and embedding the principles of just transition.
• Develop new strategies, opportunities, capacity/skills and partners needed to deliver accelerated action in the next 3-5years. For illustration, this could include but not be limited to – review of current India climate strategy and develop new sector priorities and place-based strategy; deepening CIFF’s sub-national work, strengthening the intersection between the climate, health and nutrition communities more broadly; deepening CIFF’s just transition principles in India programmes to ensure an equity focus.
• Provide strategic leadership, working alongside CIFF’s grantees, CIFF’s regional teams, partners, and the wider funder community in the areas of climate and energy in India.
• Lead the preparation and presentation of high-quality analysis and insight for the CIFF Board/ Trustees, as required, to support determining future strategic priorities and setting operational plan.
• Lead the production of programme strategy and the associated evidence base, guiding and coaching other members of the climate team to provide relevant inputs, prior to a proposal’s submission for approval.

Programme development, delivery & performance

• Personally manage a portfolio of ongoing programmes under the India climate portfolio, with a value c. $65-70m including some of CIFF’s long-standing partners and a high-impact funder collaborative as well as developing an active pipeline of potential opportunities in accordance with the sector priorities and plan. This involves overseeing the strategic relationship with partners (including Board-level representation) as well as being accountable for and understanding the specific details of the programme objectives and progress against delivery.
• Lead CIFF’s overall India climate portfolio approach to sectoral priorities and place-based strategy, providing direction to CIFF’s regional (Europe, China and Africa) and global sectoral teams, partners strategies to capture opportunities, understand and address barriers, share learnings and advise on course-correction.
• Maximise the value of CIFF’s cross-cutting investments through well-coordinated engagement/feedback with the wider CIFF Climate team (especially Child health & nutrition and Girl Capital teams in India office), and by providing value-adding insights and support to CIFF’s partners and networks (including new and existing funders) to enable them to flourish.
• Against key corporate and / or sector team indicators and targets, monitor and report internally on the performance of the strategy portfolio and individual programmes; and draw out insights and analysis from this reporting about the portfolio and sector’s performance. As part of this, lead engagement with the sector team’s Evidence, Measurement and Evaluation (EME) Business Partner, to identify and embed appropriate monitoring and evaluation processes to all proposals and programmes.
• Oversee and actively programme manage the strategy and partners, conducing regular reviews of the progress and performance of programmes and overseeing course correcting action when targets are not being met or investments are not delivering as expected.
• Lead accountability for applying due diligence and risk management protocols appropriately throughout the development and delivery of proposals and programmes aligned to CIFF India Engagement Plan, to ensure the interests and reputation of the Foundation are protected in collaboration with External Affairs and Communications team.
• Conduct structured feasibility analysis on investment proposals, using an appropriate range of methodologies and techniques, to ensure they are based on logical and robust assumptions, which can withstand scrutiny from the Executive Team (ET) and CIFF Board.
• Lead work either with sector colleagues or independently, to prepare summary reports, board reports and portfolio investment reports, ensuring these are produced to a high-standard and in a timely fashion, often within tight timeframes.

Sector knowledge and profile-building

• Be CIFF’s subject matter expert in climate change and energy transition in India, keep abreast of key developments – national and state level sectoral policies on energy transition, proactively maintain external networks with experts and opinion-formers and establish appropriate information gathering networks and channels to deepen professional knowledge and skills and to ensure the team’s work is shaped by the most up-to-date insights and research.
• Provide world class thought leadership to CIFF’s partners and funders including domestic philanthropy and philanthropic initiatives in the sectoral areas of climate change and energy transition, pushing forward thinking into new areas and intersections and galvanising the grantee and funder community around evidence-based strategies.
• Distil and share knowledge appropriately across the CIFF climate matrix structure and CIFF India more widely where relevant (e.g., air pollution and children’s health; climate resilient agriculture-food security-nutrition security, etc.) in order to enhance programme and strategic outcomes.
• Provide high quality insight on current developments, including to CIFF’s Board as required, on external developments and insights from CIFF’s own portfolio, sometimes at very short notice.
• Proactively contribute to the development of thought leadership on CIFF Voice, to support CIFF’s ambitions to scale-up, mainstream and leverage additional support for its initiatives.

Stakeholder and partner management

• Lead engagement with new and existing funders to build confidence in CIFF’s partners and strategies in the relevant areas, resulting in increased co-funding.
• Provide leadership, quality partnership, support and constructive challenge to CIFF’s existing partners and networks and identify and cultivate new partnerships to enhance strategic objectives.
• With a variety of external audiences, develop and maintain strong partnerships and act as a knowledgeable resource about CIFF’s programmes and priority areas.
• Conduct rigorous research and evaluation of potential partners, using agreed corporate protocols and techniques, to assess their suitability and credentials for collaborating on CIFF initiatives.
• Apply CIFF’s agreed account management disciplines and approaches in all dealings with programme partners and stakeholders, to ensure productive and professional relationships are maintained in a coordinated and strategic manner.

Leadership of the team

• Provide strategic advice to India Executive Director, and perhaps take on direct responsibility for other elements of CIFF’s India climate portfolio.
• Provide strategic advice to the Director Climate (as their line manager) and Executive Director Climate on the portfolio.
• Be a role model to team members, demonstrating CIFF’s leadership behaviours and providing mentorship to aid their growth.
• Adopt a coaching approach with colleagues which instils a culture of openness and trust, embraces diverse thinking, and encourages continuous improvement and learning – particularly on land-use and finance.
• Provide ongoing support to all direct reports (in manager and/or analyst roles), ensuring high performance is enabled through objective setting, clear accountabilities and regular review.

Key working relationships

• CIFF Board members
• Other CIFF teams – particularly EME and functional teams (e.g., legal, HR, finance)
• Co-funders – e.g., Bloomberg Philanthropies, Oak Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, India Climate Collaborative, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation
• Global institutional partners/stakeholders – e.g., UN, World Bank, GIZ, FCDO, etc.
• International charities and NGOs – e.g., TERI, RMI, WRI, etc.
• National governments, state governments and local NGO partners in priority geographies
• Research and academic institutions active within sector specialism
• Responsibility of team management
• Responsibility for personal pipeline and delivery targets.

Management dimensions

Contributes to the effective performance of the sector’s whole portfolio and CIFF India office

Requirements

• Over 10 years’ experience in energy policy or climate policy or implementation at national or sub-national level, ideally in an area relevant to clean energy transition, having held leadership positions of significant strategic projects and programmes.
• Deep experience working with government systems and/or experience policy and programme management of public agencies, private sector organizations or donor organisations.
• Experience of working in/with the NGOs or the philanthropy sector or bilateral/multi-lateral institutions.
• Experience of managing a team that directly reports into them.
• Experience of working in India at national and sub-national level on clean energy transition.
• Skilled and experienced in cultivating and maintaining senior government relationships; able to influence others and work collaboratively, uniting groups with a shared purpose, experience of working with stakeholders of all levels (including very senior), internal and external – political sphere, philanthropies, partners
• Strategic and systems thinker, able to think innovatively and creatively but with a pragmatic and solution-orientated mindset
• Demonstrable experience in analysis and due diligence; policy, planning and programme delivery, including field experience, all within the development sector
• Understanding of the renewable energy landscape; specific knowledge and experience in Energy Transition and energy policy
• Good understanding of what can be done within the India context and also where the boundaries are, and of the political economy being independent from the portfolio perspective
• Knowledge of the evidence bases pertaining to programme design and implementation, and belief in the importance of evidence-based decision making
• Strong working knowledge of impact measurement and programme monitoring and evaluation
• Ability to analyse an organisation’s strength of management, vision and adaptive capacity. Ability to recruit, guide, influence and/or advise management teams to effectively implement programmes
• Effectively champions and promotes causes – credible and professional, they always present the Foundation’s programmes in a compelling way to engage the audience
• A proven self-starter, who works with pace and resilience and has the drive, curiosity and humility to think about what comes next
• High energy, with a strong work ethic; an operationally, action-oriented executive willing to get involved in the details whenever necessary
• Clear thinker, with the ability to see and drive change; able to translate complex ideas into clear, influential communications to drive action
• Ability to effectively build trust, network and influence through listening, persuasion, and diplomacy.
• English is CIFF’s business language – we expect all of our people to display outstanding verbal and written communication skills across all aspects of their role
• Capacity to work in a range of cultural and socio-economic contexts, adapting style and approach appropriately and in a culturally sensitive manner to maximise effectiveness.

Benefits

Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a generous benefits package here at CIFF that includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Annual leave – 25 days per annum. Increasing by 1 day after each year of service, to a maximum of 30 days.
• Bonus – CIFF currently operates a discretionary bonus scheme.
• Training allowance
• Wellbeing allowance
• Life insurance
• Medical insurance

Please submit your application on or before 3 July 2023.