Global Head of Resilience Finance

Job Title: Job Title: Global Head of Resilience Finance

Location: Remote - UK/Europe

Department: Resilience

Reporting to: Deputy CEO

Level: 2

The Climate Bonds Initiative (Climate Bonds) is a pioneering international non-profit working to mobilize the bond market for climate solutions by developing credible standards for climate finance. The resilience programme will leverage Climate Bonds established reputation in green finance and market transformation to support governments and investors create the policies and frameworks needed to mobilise capital for resilience.

Purpose:

The Global Head of Resilience is responsible for driving forward the resilience programme with a goal to align investor and government finance with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, building in resilience to climate impacts.

This will include working closely with public and private sector stakeholders to support the implementation of tools such as resilience taxonomies and sustainable finance frameworks that can deliver a rapid shift of public and private sector capital flows to reflect resilience priorities.

As the Global Head of Resilience you will bring a strong background and understanding of climate adaptation and resilience across multiple critical sectors such as infrastructure, urban areas, or agriculture. A solid understanding of the processes and stakeholders involved in relevant global policy frameworks and financial architecture will also be valuable to deliver Climate Bonds strategy in this rapidly growing area of sustainable finance.

Acting as an ambassador and domain expert for Climate Bonds, you will externally spearhead public and private sector engagement and fundraising activities to build a broad and supportive network and drive resilience thought leadership. Internally you will act as a focal point for Climate Bonds' work on adaptation and resilience, driving cross team collaboration and communication, identifying opportunities and supporting teams to overcome obstacles. You will bring your domain knowledge on adaptation and resilience to Climate Bonds and seek to upskill your colleagues to enable the resilience agenda to be integrated across the organisation at pace.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Act as Climate Bonds subject matter expert on Resilience and Adaptation, utilising deep technical knowledge to upskill and embed resilience expertise and activities across the organisation, such that it becomes integrated into all team strategies.   
• Keep abreast of market and industry developments in Resilience and Adaptation, anticipating potential needs and challenges that seek to proactively identify opportunities to optimise the pace and success of Climate Bonds contribution.
• Support senior leadership in developing a fundraising strategy for Resilience to secure long-term sustainable funding.
• Execution of the global fundraising effort, from cultivating donor relationships, managing funding / donor  relationships, and driving fundraising initiatives that will build the Resilience Programme income and enhance the organisation's impact.
• Build coalitions that support the evolution of resilience priorities with public sector and corporate capital flows.
• Develop CBI’s work to track and report the adoption of those priorities through reporting of aligned investment and other indicators.
• Participate in external initiatives to embed Climate Bonds Resilience priorities into other framework setting initiatives.
• Partner with the Head of Programme Design to ensure domain expertise and feedback gained from implementation, delivery and the external landscape is iterated and developed into the programme as required.
• Partner with Head of Taxonomy and Head of Standards to bring into life a full resilience taxonomy within 2 years. 
• Support the teams developing the resilience taxonomy through engaging internally and externally with sector technical experts and financial institutions and investors to create A&R criteria which are rigorous but easily usable and accessible to the end users.
• “Products delivery and refinement” Partner and engage with our Climate Bonds Network  – asset owners, asset managers, insurance companies and banks – and the CBI team which manages the network, to (a) distribute and encourage the adoption of the A&R criteria as broadly as possible, and, (b) test our CBI criteria as they come to the market and bring back feedback to the technical and standards teams to update and refine A&R criteria accordingly.  Be a bridge between the internal technical teams and the external clients.
• Project manage the current pipeline of Resilience Projects and ensure its adequate resourcing, oversee any direct consultants or direct team resources, until such a time as funding is in place to recognise the optimal structure for delivery.

Essential:

• Undergraduate degree in relevant field
• Practitioner experience of adaptation and resilience in at least one critical sector and knowledge of approaches across multiple sectors.
• Demonstratable experience of climate A&R finance, existing A&R frameworks such as the MDB joint methodology and the EU Taxonomy
• Strong stakeholder engagement and programme management experience at a senior level, including with developing and implementing an engagement strategy 
• Previous experience successfully managing multiple, high value and complex programmes, including managing donor relationships and reporting.
• Demonstrable experience in philanthropic fundraising and donor management
• Ability to work as part of a team and to take a collaborative approach.
• Strong critical thinking, strategic and problem-solving skills, able to drive change and provide clarity on the implications of complex issues and how these will affect the programme
• An excellent communicator with outstanding relationship management skills and the interpersonal skills required to build relationships with staff and colleagues in different cultural environments.
• Ability to bring a positive outlook to working at Climate Bonds and energising teams around the mission.
• Effective presentation style as well as strong speaking and written communication skills.
• Experience of developing and managing a network of professional relationships.

Desirable:

• Experience working in sustainable finance, ideally in fixed income, able to communicate with stakeholders from both the issuer and investor spheres