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:
As a Technical Manager Sustainable Technologies (ST), you will be accountable for the delivery of all milestones proposed for projects under various carbon standards, mainly in Africa and collaborate with other members of the Project Development and implementation team.
You will be responsible for the design and development of carbon projects, and ensuring efficient delivery of carbon emission reductions and other climate change advisories.
In addition, you will be responsible for developing carbon estimations and delivering high-quality products (project documents, monitoring reports and others) in English and will assist in the audit process for the validation and verification of GHG reductions. You will participate in business rounds, technical sessions, site visits, and other relevant events.
Main tasks & responsibilities:
- Responsible for the implementation and management of viable carbon finance projects. This includes but is not limited to developing carbon emissions baseline and project scenarios,contributing to the identification and design of field implementation activities, writing project certification documents including PDDs, designing and managing work plans and budgets for technical activities related to carbon project development, and leading projects through audit and validation/verification processes under different standards (VERRA, The Gold Standard) among other local and international carbon schemes
- Conduct site visits and carbon due diligence, as needed
- Oversee the technical sections of carbon project feasibility studies, Project Documents and Monitoring Reports
- Be a key point of contact and maintain a good relationship with the team members inside the company, project partners, validation and verification bodies, and other counterparts
- Review and, where appropriate, facilitate the adoption of new methodologies and new technologies to expand and improve the efficiency of our carbon offerings
- Provide technical and business development support to project sourcing
- Follow up with the internal procedures in our internal project management tool regarding all signed ERPAs
- Support commercial teams on technical topics and carbon expertise with clients
- Prepare proposal and deliverables and finalise them to the quality required by South Pole and the partners
- Contributing to partners’ presentations for each project implementation opportunity
- Keep up to date on developments in the carbon field through research, sectoral watches, participation in industry groups, etc and disseminate knowledge to key people in South Pole
- Collect data from Partners or another third party for due diligence, financing plans and budgets, technical, financial and legal documentation
- Define and plan content and structure to support the certification of the project: work plans, work schedules, budgets, and deliverables
- Schedule Technical Reviews and Quality Checks
- Draft invoices to be approved by the supervisor and sent to accounting for submission to clients
- Manage Partners’ accounts in our internal project management tool
- Update proposal/project information in project management tool and ensure all relevant documents are accessible on the drive at any time
- Keep general information, milestones and cash flow in the project management software up to date
- Planning and development of site visits and other types of business trips/training
Requirements:
Must have (please do not apply if you do not meet these requirements) –
- Several years experience in getting ST Carbon projects through the full VCS and Gold Standard validation and verification process, including the development of Project Description Document (PDDs), Monitoring & Implementation Reports (MIRs), and Validation and Verification Body (VVB) audits. e.g water, cookstove, renewable energy, waste to energy projects
Essential –
- Relevant experience in managing data collection projects for research studies to deliver quality results on time, on budget, and within the scope
- Respective experience in organizing, coordinating, and leading stakeholder consultation engagements
- Proven team player, able to work effectively across cultures and within and across organizations.
- Highly organized and strong attention to detail
- Demonstrated problem-solving skills and ability to build on existing knowledge to develop new approaches
- Undergraduate/Bachelors/Masters in any of the following fields: Carbon Methodology, Market research, Monitoring and Evaluation, Project Management, Data and Analytics
- Ability to work on assignments that are diverse in nature, applying company policies, processes and procedures to resolve a variety of issues/problems
- The capacity to solve relatively complex project-related problems independently, and receive general direction on new assignments or projects
- Have excellent communication skills, especially verbal and written skills in English (and French but not required)
- Ability to create high quality written documents (proposals and deliverables) in English
- Team management experience
- Ability to manage targets and priorities and develop own goals
- National, or holder of a valid work visa for Kenya, Mozambique or South Africa
Desirable –
- A second language is considered a plus e.g. French
- Good statistical skills
- Experience working with different stakeholders
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.
