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.

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 the (Associate) Director of QA/QC, evaluation and optimisation within the Project Design, Management & Evaluation (PDME) team, you work in our Climate Projects Business Line. You will be responsible for planning, developing and maintaining an up-to-date pragmatic process and optimised global workflows for the technical teams to maintain the quality of our deliverables and impacts/products to the highest level possible. This entails coordination with the director of NBS, ST and Implementation within the PDME, operations, portfolio and regional NBS/ST teams to assure all of our due diligence criteria, particularly social/community and ecological integrity, processes related to the projects, are appropriately defined, set up and evaluated during PDME processes regionally; from project identification and initial assessment to project realisation, impact issuance and long-term maintenance of the project.

For the communication of the DD and risk management updates linked to our portfolio management, you will directly collaborate with a dedicated DD focal point within the portfolio team of Climate Projects (CP) business line. Furthermore, to make it transparent and traceable, you will directly coordinate with a dedicated DD focal point within the operations team of CP to implement and operationalise our DD processes in our system and make it transparent and traceable.

You will own and maintain all strategic components and IPs related to ongoing QA/QC, DD and optimisation for all project deliverables: workflows and processes in direct collaboration with our operations team. With your support and efforts, we aim to develop the best quality projects with a transparent overview of involved risks and the risk management process and status.

Furthermore, you will revamp the budget and internal costs on workflows that can standardise and enhance SP’s competitiveness in our sector.

You will be responsible for supporting and monitoring the planning, budgeting and progression of the QA/QC and DD execution by the technical teams globally in coordination with the regional leads/directors and our operations teams. In addition, you will lead, direct and supervise a team of senior experts within the PDME and regional technical teams.

Main tasks & responsibilities:

• Act as the global leader on projects QA/QC topics, including processes and know-how and develop/organise a progressive and up-to-date optimised process and workflow around our due diligence and quality assurance aspects of our projects
• Support and coordinate directly with the Project Strategy Director incl. Director of NBS/ST within PDME on their strategic technical assessments, inputs and needs in different areas and scopes
• Assure that global and regional technical teams within the CP unit are equipped with the latest effective tools, knowledge and approaches around QA/QC, DD and evaluation topics and can smoothly apply them in the field to deliver long-impact products (e.g. ERs and SDGs etc.) with appropriately set social, community and ecological integrity and high quality
• Directly liaise with operations to review and update/improve QA/QC workflow linked to operational and systematic processes (e.g. in AQ, salesforce, ERP etc.) in coordination and alignment with the director NBS/ST within the PDME;
• Assure that project workflows within SP are always optimised for both quality and efficiency aspects
• Serve as a partner to global and regional project team heads on QA/QC and DD topics
• Ensure consistency of approach and quality of our QA/QC and DD workflows across the regional teams globally.
• Define with different team units (e.g., Portfolio, KAM, Ops) the product requirements (criteria) considering other final buyer profiles that match particular quality checks
• Identify the guidelines/frameworks/policy gaps in our QA/QC processes and workflows and coordinate with the different unit members to develop the missing information.
• Identify common knowledge gaps and be PDME’s focal point for any QA/QC knowledge transfer topic for the Climate Academy
• Ensure each project that is categorised as sensitive (usually community involved) is reviewed at least once but preferably twice per year to track the quality (M&E + project cycle performance, community risks etc.).
• Research the current market for similar QA/QC or DD products and compare results (e.g., platforms or initiatives to rate the projects, common carbon credits acquired by key buyers, etc) with coordination with the portfolio for alignment.
• In coordination with other PDME leadership, support implementing new processes and creating new tools to automate testing for the operationalisation in our system to be coordinated with the operations team.

Requirements:

Essential 

• Preferably a Master’s Degree in natural resource management, forestry and nature conservation, biodiversity, sustainable development business, sustainability/project management or related fields
• Extensive experience in Engineering, Forestry/Ecology, Sustainability Consulting, Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation or related fields
• Vast experience in guiding and directing the work of others, with thorough functional knowledge/expertise in all fields of NBS/ST and know-how on NBS/ST implementation i.e. ground/field measures and activities and evaluation process around them
• Ability to manage priorities and motivate a team, keen sense of efficiency
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to identify gaps and design/enhance processes, tools and guidance to address them
• Advanced controlling and organisation skills to ensure proper use of processes and tools
• Ability to compromise and work with different teams within the organisation
• Ability to build, develop and manage large teams
• Be very responsive and reachable to all internal and external stakeholders
• Strong multi-tasking, prioritization and delegation skills Keen sense for project administration & management
• Extensive people Management experience, including performance management, developmental plans and succession planning
• Fluency in English

Desirable 

• Experience in scaling up a fast-growing team in the context of a highly competitive market environment
• A second language is a plus

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.