Associate Director, Technical, Europe, Climate Projects

South Pole is an energetic, global company offering comprehensive sustainability solutions and services. With offices spanning all continents across the globe, we strive to create a sustainable society and economy that positively impacts our climate, ecosystems and developing communities. With our solutions, we inspire and enable our customers to create value from sustainability-related activities.

Our Project Development team is at the forefront of developing and managing climate mitigation activities. By working closely with project owners and developers as well as their local communities, we manage the complete registration, verification and evaluation of carbon projects to enable the issuance of emission-reduction certificates, in line with official carbon standards. If you are a smart, ambitious and dynamic sustainability professional with a strong passion to make a real difference in the fight against climate change, the below position may be right for you!

Job summary:

In the role of Associate Director, Technical, Europe, Climate projects, you will oversee all project management activities carried out by the team. By doing so, you are responsible for the management and expansion of a growing portfolio of emission reduction and removal projects. This will include general account and partnership management, the timely delivery of services to our clients, ensuring the quality of the deliveries of the team, and support of team collaboration internally and externally. You will manage a medium size team of project managers and technical experts being responsible for the performance of the team and individual career development support.

In the current European portfolio, projects in the AFOLU area predominate. In the near future, this portfolio will be diversified and expanded. Over the next months, you will be responsible for both, AFOLU projects and sustainable technologies / new sectors. From 2024 onwards, the role will be split allowing you to focus on sustainable technologies and new project types that you will develop. 

Main tasks & responsibilities:

• Lead emission reduction and removal projects which currently focus on agriculture but will include additional sectors in the future
• Oversee the full project cycle, including project development, and quality checks for proposals and deliverables and project administration
• Manage a team of Project Managers PMs Control the assigned budgets in line with overall sourcing targets and regional budgets and manage resource at optimum efficiency Provide quality checks of work of the Project Managers PMs 
• Ensure timely delivery of services Check and approve invoices and payments to external clients upon delivery of services
• Support the Director Europe in developing a vision and strategy to replicate and scale projects in European
• Support the Director Europe in maintaining a qualitative existing project portfolio Link with Southpole’s technical directors in analyzing new project opportunities 
• Oversee the interaction with external clients, including client, Project Partners, auditors and other external collaborators Owner (PO) and DOE (third party independent auditor and certifier) and ensure overall good relationship management including invoices, payments and accounting follow ups
• Support Key Account Management and Portfolio teams with tenders and proposal preparation as well as the Marketing team for project info requests
• Oversee invoices, payments related to the project management work
• Overview the development of technical guidance and claims in the Scope 3 activities
• Represent South Pole in public presentations and client meetings, including meeting of commercial or regulatory character beyond technical matters. 
• Report to the Regional Director Europe

Requirements:

Essential -

• Bachelor/Master degree in engineering and/or environmental sciences
• Extensive experience in voluntary carbon project development or GHG corporate
  accounting
• Experience with writing project design documents, the design of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems, and interaction with carbon standards
• Experience with the development carbon projects
• Experienced people management skills
• Fluency in English

Desirable -

• In-depth knowledge of CDM, VCS and GS standard guidelines and methodologies

• Fluently in French, Spanish and/or any other additional European language is an
  advantage

What we offer:

At South Pole, we care about our employees as much as we care about the planet. South Pole is not just an employer, we are a Team. South Pole does not just offer people a job, we offer you a career. By joining our team, you will find strong purpose and deep meaning in everything you do. You will have the chance to make a real difference for our clients and for the planet, working alongside a passionate team of like-minded colleagues, while building your knowledge/skills and developing your career in a fun, dynamic, international and fast-growing organisation. 

We’re a planet of 7.5 billion unique and different people. We all have a contribution to make; South Pole is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status or disability. Our recruitment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit and business need.