Global Product Director, Carbon Compensation Solutions

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 Consultancy & Advisory Services team provides our clients with outstanding technical expertise that enables the successful implementation of complex sustainability projects. Our expertise spans across multiple topics including land and water management, climate strategies, renewable energies, environmental impact assessments, green products, climate policy, carbon pricing, climate finance, and sustainable finance, to name just a few. 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:

South Pole is an established market leader in the sale of Climate Action Credits ("CAC"). The purpose of this role is to lead South Pole’s CAC practice. In this senior leadership role, you are accountable for overseeing all aspects of developing the solutions that catalyze the sale of carbon and other environmental credits for the voluntary market- including climate neutral product labels, digital CAC sales channels, and advisory related to CAC. 

Your expertise of the voluntary carbon markets, strong commercial mindset, and excellent communications skills will help you to develop and execute visionary product development. In accordance with our 2027 Climate Solutions Strategy, the CAC product vision will be industry leading in its ability to drive credibility and scale of corporate climate action through the carbon markets. which will be brought to our clients through theregional Climate Solutions organizations’ targeted sales strategies. 

You will report into the Head of Solutions and you will have thesupport of various teams within your business line, such as operations, sales and marketing teams, as well as outside the Climate Solutions business line, working closely with the portfolio team. 

Through your vision and leadership, you will inspire our multifaceted teams worldwide to drive business growth and increase our market share while powerfully impacting the communities around us and the climate action movement as a whole.

Main tasks & responsibilities:

• Strategy: Lead the development of our Climate Action Credits (CAC) solutions offering, as part of the integrated climate journey, in alignment with the business line’s vision and strategy. Define the target clients and criteria for resource allocation, in collaboration with the global Sales Director and Regional Heads, to maximize environmental impact and commercial results. Contribute to the global strategy, annual planning and budgeting processes of the Climate Action Credits practice

• Solutions Ownership: Ensure commercial success of our bespoke, standardized and digital CAC solutions, which are brought to market in close collaboration with the regional teams. Lead a center of product excellence and scale CAC knowledge (carbon markets, offsetting, corporate pledges and claims, projects, certification) and CAC products (climate neutral products etc) for our clients

• Solutions Development: Formulate a product vision and design a compelling suite of solutions aligned to the Climate Solutions 2027 strategy which foresees to develop a comprehensive offering that includes both integrated certificate solutions (ClimateClick, API/webshop solutions, Climate Neutral Labels) and curated certificates (enterprise webshop solution, advisory services)

• Oversee the development of new CAC solutions in response to evolving client needs and market trends (eg corporate claims aligned with SBTi, TSVCM, VCMI, etc). Understand the needs and behaviors of different client segments and lead the development of relevant solutions (eg climate neutral products, packaged CAC solutions, integrated and digital CAC Sales channels) together with the marketing team

• Standardization: Drive standardization and digitization of scalable CAC solutions, together with our marketing and digital team, in order to decouple our growth from headcount and free up resources for tailored services

• Performance Management: Establish targets for the team and be accountable for the overall performance of the CAC Practice. Work closely with colleagues across the organisation to empower matrixed teams to deliver on our company vision

• Team Development: Lead, develop and inspire a high-performing CAC practice team consisting of global CAC solutions owners and regional CAC experts and ensure members can deliver to their fullest potential

• Budget Responsibility: Establish and own the annual budget of the CAC practice, in close collaboration with regional heads, and be accountable for the financial performance of the practice

• Represent & Inspire: Represent South Pole in meetings and at events as a carbon markets expert and inspire clients, partners and employees to accelerate the fight against climate change

Requirements:

Essential -

• University degree in Environmental Sciences, Business or other relevant disciplines

• Extensive relevant work experience, including strong experience in a dynamic product management role, proven experience overseeing product development across the full product lifecycle - from idea to market scaling

• Knowledge and expertise in carbon and broader environmental markets. Including several years of experience in the carbon markets, in a business development, portfolio management, procurement or trading role

• Strategic mindset, with the ability to establish a compelling vision for the function

• Strong quantitative skills and the ability to use data and metrics to inform decisions

• Strong business acumen, with the ability to structure and negotiate deals that are commercially sound and profitable for South Pole

• Outstanding interpersonal, communication and collaboration skills to partner effectively with key internal and external stakeholders

• Exceptional leadership and managerial skills, with the ability to inspire action and get the best out of people. Experience in establishing clear performance targets and metrics, with a proven track record of meeting or exceeding challenging targets

• Experience managing cross-functional, high-performing, diverse, remote and global teams

• Comfortable operating globally in a fast-paced, high-growth international environment

 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.