Senior Specialist, Technical, NBS, Climate Projects - Africa
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.
Job summary
As part of the Project Technical unit, you will oversee the timely and effective generation and delivery of emission reductions of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) projects in the African region throughout their lifecycle focusing on adhering to robust internal and external carbon standard certification guidelines. In this role, you will take ownership of producing high-quality project description documentation and monitoring reports to ensure the smooth validation and verification of NBS projects in line with the certification standard requirements. You will be able to perform calculations adhering to the standard methodologies formulas and to analyse spatial results. Your role will also ensure that the projects are developed to have a reliable climate impact providing advice and support to project partners on the actions needed to adhere to the carbon standard.
You will participate in business rounds, technical sessions, site visits, and other relevant events.
In addition, you will support the commercial team in the technical assessment of any opportunities and coordinate with other teams in order to expand the NBS opportunities in the African Region. As a Senior Specialist for NBS Projects, you have to be able to work in a team of people, in order to reach the required result.
Main tasks and responsibilities
- Management of climate mitigation projects and of the carbon cycle project development until the issuance of credits
- Responsible, together with the NBS team, for writing NBS certification documents following the existent carbon standards and methodologies (e.g., VERRA, CDM, GS)
- Define and plan content and structure to support the certification of a project: work plans, work schedules, budgets, and deliverables
- Perform carbon credit estimation based on the existent methodologies and analyse data coming from the fields
- Work with local partners and clients to define project development, including the data collection and analysis
- Provide technical and budget reviews and quality checks
- Plan and conduct site visits and other types of business trips/training whenever needed
Essential skills and experience
- University degree in forestry engineering, agriculture, environmental science, natural resource management, ecology, or any other related field
- More than 3 years of work experience related to project development and monitoring preferably in Forestry, Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation or related fields in the African context
- Understanding of carbon project development and certification, including familiarity with carbon standards like CDM, VERRA, GS4GG, CCB, among others
- Ability to create high-quality written documents (PDD and MR) in English ● Strong calculation capacity and mathematical skills
- Strong calculation capacity and mathematical skills
- Experience in GIS analysis in the natural resource sector, particularly Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LUCC) analysis, and in the field of natural resources management in the varied African ecosystems
- Excellent oral and written skills in English
- Ability to manage targets and priorities and develop own goals
Desired skills and experience
- Ability to work within an interdisciplinary, global team (Junior to mid-level project coordinators) including internal and/or external collaborators sitting in different countries
- Knowledge of one of the other major African languages such as French, Kiswahili, Portuguese, etc. will be considered 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.
- Locations
- Florence, South Africa, Cape Town, Milan
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Work-life balance
From flexible working hours to flexible workplace (home office), with above-average vacation allowances, we strive to make the work and family life puzzle an easy one for our employees.
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Flexible Vacation Benefits
Options to buy up to 5 extra days of time off.
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Life Insurance
Available to all employees across the world.
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Care for your Wellbeing
Access to mental, physical and financial wellbeing support through our Employee Assistance Program (TELUS Health).
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Parental leave
Should any of our employees need to take time off the Iceberg as a result of a new addition to their household, we are happy to be able to offer competitive Paid Parental leave to support them during this time.
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Compassionate Leave
Sometimes life is unpredictable, and when unfortunate events occur, we want to give you peace of mind so you feel fully supported during this time.
What makes us unique
At South Pole, we are first and foremost a purpose-driven Company. People join us because they believe in our mission and want to be part of a community that fights together for our shared values and beliefs. But that is not the only reason why working at South Pole is such a rewarding experience.
- We know that our vision to help create a greener world is both bold and challenging. To achieve it, we settle for nothing less than the absolute best. We form a Community that is stronger than the sum of its parts.
- Entrepreneurial at heart. It’s not just our founders who are entrepreneurs. We actively promote an innovative mindset at all levels of the organisation, where each and every employee is encouraged to challenge the status quo and empowered to make decisions.
- Growing employees in a growing company. With a team of smart, passionate and engaged colleagues, as well as increasing demand from our clients, opportunities to learn, develop our skills and grow our careers are endless.
- All for one, and one for all! Above all other things, what truly drives our dedication and commitment to our purpose is our colleagues. We learn from each other and grow together. Because that is who Penguins are.
About South Pole
Our story began in Zurich, with 5 friends* in 2002. They had a belief and a vision to shape and change the future of the world through climate empowerment, education and projects with their non-profit organisation; MyClimate. These ‘social entrepreneurs’ went on to pioneer climate change with the introduction of South Pole in 2006*. More than 20 years on, with the support of some of the most passionate and talented entrepreneurs around them, who are empowered to all play their part and with their founding belief in aligning purpose with passion, people and profit, they have created South Pole, an organisation that has gone onto positively impact the lives of over 20 million people across the world through its projects, saving over 20,000 km2 of forests from deforestation.
*Patrick Bürgi, Thomas Camerata, Renat Heuberger, Ingo Puhl, and Christoph Sutter
*2006 Joined by Marco Hirsbrunner and Christoph Grobel
Senior Specialist, Technical, NBS, Climate Projects - Africa
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