Senior Director, Carbon Market Development (Remote - Worldwide)

Job Title:   Senior Director, Carbon Market Development

Location:   Remote - Worldwide (with significant overlap with US business hours)

Start Date:   Immediately

Reports to:   Chief Legal, Policy, and Markets Officer

Verra is a global leader helping to address the world's most intractable environmental and social challenges. As a mission-driven non-profit organization, Verra is committed to helping reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions, improve livelihoods, and protect natural resources across the private and public sectors. Verra manages a portfolio of standards, including the:

• Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) – the world's leading carbon crediting program, with more than 1,800 registered projects in 80 countries that account for two-thirds of all voluntary carbon market transaction volume.
• Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta) – a flexible framework for assessing and reporting on the sustainable development benefits of project-based activities.
• Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards – to identify projects that simultaneously address climate change, support local communities and smallholders, and conserve biodiversity.
• Plastic Waste Reduction Program – to enable robust impact assessment of new or scaled-up waste recovery and recycling projects around the globe.

With climate action growing rapidly and driving a new wave of investment, Verra is enhancing its team responsible for the development of high-integrity, high-impact carbon markets around the world.

A day with Verra's Legal, Policy, and Markets Team might include…

• Holding your regular check-ins with senior officials at a leading carbon crediting project developer, a corporate sustainability official at a Fortune 500 company, and a major exchange.
• Engaging with senior colleagues throughout the organization to show and assess progress in achieving the work plan that you and your team have developed for scaling with integrity primary- and secondary-market demand for high-quality carbon credits.
• Meeting senior representatives of a leading financial institution aimed at identifying and resolving concerns about participation in voluntary carbon markets.
• Presenting at a global carbon trading conference about the responsible corporate use of offsetting to accelerate the achievement of net-zero goals.

Specific functions you will be responsible for leading...

• Market participant engagement. Develop, maintain, and strengthen relationships with carbon market participants with a view to identifying their priorities and requirements, synthesizing and analyzing findings, and advancing actionable recommendations aimed at strengthening Verra’s carbon market offerings. Such participants will include demand-side participants (e.g., corporates, financial institutions, investors), intermediaries (e.g., exchanges, brokers), supply-side participants (e.g., project developers), and ratings agencies.
• Secondary-market scaling. Manage and/or support processes aimed at building and scaling secondary markets for Verra’s carbon credits.
• Market intelligence. Identify, synthesize, and analyze key carbon market developments and provide timely data about, analysis of, and strategic responses to developments in global carbon markets that inform the organization’s priorities, budget forecasts, resource allocation, and other strategic work.

You bring with you...

• Significant relevant professional experience (10+ years preferred) in the development of markets for emissions units and/or carbon credits, including at a minimum a demonstrated understanding of the drivers influencing the development of carbon markets.
• Direct experience in carbon market activities such as origination and/or trading, gained in a corporate and/or a financial institution, would be a strong asset.
• Proactive, creative, can-do attitude, with an ability to think quickly and to conduct oneself authoritatively and persuasively in a variety of situations.
• Strong organizational skills and discipline to be able to prioritize and work efficiently and effectively under deadlines in an independent manner.
• Excellent networking and interpersonal skills, maintaining a professional approach and demeanor in high-pressure situations, and ability to work effectively with stakeholders and partners from different countries and cultures.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Fluency in English is essential. Fluency in other languages would be an advantage.

In this role, you will grow and expand your expertise by...

• Strengthening organizational efforts to develop high-integrity, high-impact voluntary carbon markets.
• Gaining exposure to challenges and opportunities faced by carbon market participants.
• Expanding your network of professionals working on climate and sustainable development, including government officials, private-sector actors, NGOs, and others.
• Learning from a diverse group of climate and sustainable development leaders with vision and other passionate professionals at Verra.

You will know you are successful if...

• You effectively build, lead, and manage a team of professionals dedicated to building a high-integrity, high-impact voluntary carbon market.
• You develop effective and trusted working relationships with demand-side users of Verra’s carbon credits.
• You lead your team to achieve deliverables across the finish line on schedule.

You will join a team...

• From diverse locations and backgrounds, including carbon market experts, project developers, consultants, climate negotiators, researchers, auditors, and more.
• Committed to driving quality so that finance can flow at scale to projects and programs that advance climate action and sustainable development through high-quality standards and programs.
• That embodies the values Verra has established for itself, which include Teamwork, Results, Integrity, Balance, and Exploration.

Compensation at Verra

To help us attract and retain top talent, Verra pays employees competitively to the market. In return, we expect each employee to, at a minimum:

• Meet expectations in terms of work effort and performance;
• Take the initiative to build the skills and knowledge needed to do their job effectively;
• Embody Verra's values.

Salary is one component of Verra's total compensation package, which also includes:

• Health, vision and dental care, and life insurance;
• Verra contributions to each employee's retirement plan;
• Verra contributions as required by national labor laws in countries where staff are located;
• Paid Time Off (PTO), comprising 22-30 days plus eleven floating holidays, sabbatical after five years of service, and other leave allowances; and
• Funds to support professional development.

To apply, please send us the following:

• Cover letter (not to exceed one page)
• Resume/CV (not to exceed two pages)

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Verra provides equal opportunity for all job applicants and employees and is committed to providing a work environment free of discrimination. We conduct our recruitment and hiring without regard to race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, genetics, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, and local law.