Main purpose of the role

The CIFF Climate team is driven by a vision of a climate-safe future for today’s children and future generations. We support the urgent global transition to a zero-carbon society. We are committed to strategies that get to the heart of the greatest climate challenges and are willing to support new approaches to accelerate action and the step-change in ambition required to keep global warming below 1.5 deg C.

The Climate team is structured across 3 main clusters, with local teams also working in China, Africa and India:

• China, Cities, Transport & Air Pollution
• Energy, Finance, Corporate Accountability and Latin America
• Europe, International Climate, Strategic Communications and Youth

Working closely with the Director, Europe & International Climate, the post-holder will provide senior management and leadership across the breadth of the cluster, deputising for the Director as required, and directly contributing to the delivery of the Climate team’s priorities and meeting the corporate objectives of the CIFF Board. CIFF has a growing climate portfolio and as well managing and enhancing existing grants this role will also ideate and lead the development and implementation of new strategies and grants.

The role will include direct management of a high-quality portfolio of multi-year grants and investments worth more than $70m, as well as indirect management and support in the strategic integration of other investments and programmes with a European footprint. This will require a long-term evidence-based view on what is needed to achieve the EU’s ambitious climate goals, deep knowledge and experience of the EU institutions, and the ability and humility to work with CIFF’s strategic partners in Europe, and globally, in order to build and support an effective and resilient civil society ecosystem.

The post-holder will act as the internal expert on EU climate policy/politics and provide cross-cutting thought leadership and connectivity to our sectoral and thematic investments in relevant areas, including but not limited to the energy transition, industrial decarbonisation, public engagement and strategic communications. To thrive in the role, you will need to be motivated by fast paced and diverse work that incorporates both your specialist subject knowledge (e.g. developing strategies, acting as the team expert) and programme management.

Role’s responsibilities

Strategy & planning

• Lead on the development of strategies related to European decarbonisation at both EU and Member State level, when necessary
• Horizon scan to identify the funding needs and field capacity/skills needed to achieve EU climate goals over the next 2-5 years
• Prepare and present high-quality analysis and research for the Board/Investment Committee, as required, to support determining future strategic priorities and setting operational plans.
• 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.
• As a senior manager within the team, you will be expected to attend and proactively contribute to the Climate Leadership Team meetings, including supporting organisation-wide risk management and external affairs.
• You will be expected to input to organisation-wide strategy development and implementation as it pertains to Europe, including Europe’s role in responding to global challenges, e.g. international climate finance and global regulation.

Programme development, delivery & performance

• Personally manage a portfolio of live programmes with a value of c.$70m.
• Harness CIFF’s global portfolio to help achieve the objectives of the EU Climate Strategy and contribute to the development and delivery of CIFF’s global strategies, building strong working relationships with Regional Climate Directors and Managers, as required.
• Guide, coach and have the ability to line manage members of the European & International Climate cluster, to maximise CIFF’s impact and support the personal growth and development of team members.
• Against key corporate and / or sector team indicators and targets, monitor and report internally on the performance of assigned portfolio.
• Instigate 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, to ensure the interests and reputation of the Foundation are protected.
• 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.
• Lead the development of grant agreements, to forecast and process grant payments and to enable effective grant management and reporting within the organisation.
• 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.
• Conduct regular reviews of the progress and performance of programmes under delivery to identify problems and delays, and work with partners to develop effective solutions (escalating to more senior colleagues for support and intervention, where required).
• Identify opportunities and options for improving processes, procedures and programme management approaches within (and beyond) the team, to support increased organisational efficiency and effectiveness.

Sector knowledge and profile-building

• Be CIFF’s regional expert on EU climate policy and politics, including the EU institutions (European Commission, European Parliament, European Council, EIB, EBRD, etc), keeping abreast of developments, establishing appropriate information gathering networks and channels to deepen professional knowledge and skills, and sharing knowledge appropriately across the CIFF climate matrix structure.
• Using this credibility, proactively contribute to the development of thought leadership, PR, marketing and advocacy materials, to support CIFF’s ambitions to scale-up, mainstream and leverage additional support for its initiatives, with minimal Director oversight.

Stakeholder and partner management

• Ability to represent CIFF on the advisory and supervisory boards of grantees within the portfolio, as required.
• Work directly with, and support CIFF’s CEO and Executive Director, Climate, in their capacities as Board members with Europe-based grantees.
• Conduct rigorous research and evaluation of potential grantees, 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.
• Lead the design and execution of strategies to strengthen CIFF’s partnerships to enable adoption, replication, co-funding or scaling-up of CIFF’s Europe Climate Strategy. This will include leading multi-funder coordination to actively increase resilience across the field.
• With a variety of external audiences, develop and maintain strong partnerships and act as a knowledgeable resource about CIFF’s programmes and priority areas.

Membership and leadership of the team

• Be a role model to less experienced 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.

Requirements

Skills & Experience

• Experienced leader of significant projects and programmes. Significant, proven experience in EU climate policy, political strategy and international capacity building.
• Strong knowledge of, and first-hand experience of working in an EU institution such as the European Commission and/or European Parliament.
• Significant experience in corporate communications and/or public affairs, preferably gained in-house with a large, complex organization or matrix-based structure.
• Demonstrable experience in analysis and due diligence; policy, planning and programme delivery, all within the climate or public policy sectors
• Knowledge of the evidence bases pertaining to programme design and implementation, and belief in the importance of evidence-based decision making
• An innovative and entrepreneurial thinker with a pragmatic and solution-oriented mindset
• 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, humble and professional, ability to always present the Foundation’s programmes in a compelling way to engage the audience
• Skilled in relationship building and strengthening; able to influence others and work collaboratively, uniting groups with a shared purpose
• IT proficiency (most specifically in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint)
• A proven self-starter, who works with pace and resilience

Key working relationships

• CIFF Climate Directors and Executive Director, Climate
• CIFF Investment Committee members
• Other CIFF teams – particularly CEO Office, EME, External Affairs, and functional teams (e.g. legal, HR, finance)
• Other funders and global NGOs / stakeholder organisations (e.g. European Climate Foundation, Ikea Foundation, Sequoia Climate Foundation, Oak Foundation)
• National governments and local NGO partners in priority geographies
• Research and academic institutions active within sector specialism

Benefits

The starting salary for this role is GBP 80,000

CIFF operates a hybrid work policy across all locations, which means employees works some of the time from home. We are happy to provide more information on this as part of the recruitment process.

Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a generous benefits package here at CIFF that includes, but is not limited to the following. All these will be prorated to the fixed term.

• 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 13th October 2023.