The Impact and ESG Department seeks to deliver impact on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by being a driving force behind scalable private sector interventions to deliver decent jobs, and economic growth (SDG 8), reduce inequalities between and within countries (SDG 10), and climate action (SDG 13). It supports the ambition of FMO to deliver actionable thought leadership that creates value on our top SDGs and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) risk management.
Within the Impact and ESG Department, the Impact Team is responsible for governing the Sustainability Policy across FMO’s organisation and drive strategic impact in its portfolio, such as FMO’s Green and Reduced Inequalities ambition and operationalisation thereof. The team’s Sustainable Finance Officers and Advisors also support investment teams in originating, developing and optimizing deals for strategic impact.
Your role
The Senior Sustainable Finance Advisor reports to the Manager Impact. He or she is part of a team of officers and advisors with different and complementary expertise in FMO’s relevant sustainability and impact areas, such as climate finance, environmental and social risk management, natural capital, gender, inclusive business, digital inclusion and human rights.
The Senior Sustainable Finance Advisor for environment and green finance is responsible for driving FMO’s strategic agenda and providing technical leadership on the topics of climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience, biodiversity, natural capital, resource efficiency and the interaction of these environmental priorities with development finance objectives and social inclusion.
In this role you will be responsible for:
- Spearheading the institutionalization of the SDGs approach throughout the organisation and provide expert guidance for FMO’s investment departments and clients;
- FMO’s ambition and direction on SDG13, our 1.5C pathway commitment, and keeping our sustainability policy aligned with international standards, grounded on a sound understanding of FMO’s markets and value proposition
- Advising on structuring, innovation and advisory on themes such as environmental and climate finance, green bonds, natural capital valuation, carbon accounting, climate risk, etc.;
- Supporting investment transactions, sector initiatives and partnerships across different FMO departments and focus sectors (Energy, Agri Food and Water and Financial Institutions);
- Contributing to the revisions and improvements to FMO’s Sustainability Policy and its supporting framework such as FMO’s Policies and Position Statements and operationalisation thereof;
- Supporting organisational change projects, managing different internal stakeholders, and providing technical and expert leadership and direction on climate action topics;
- Engaging with FMO partners and key stakeholders and representing FMO at impact focused events;
- You will also have an important role in educating, motivating and coaching colleagues across departments, as well as mentoring the more junior members in the Impact team.
Your background
- Master degree in Development Economics, Business, Finance, International Development, or other comparable studies around sustainability with a focus on private sector development or financing;
- Demonstrated and recognized thought leadership in sustainability and/or private sector development;
- Over 12 years of working experience, out of which at least 5 years in finance and/or impact investing in emerging markets;
- Proven track-record in sourcing, structuring, designing and executing green finance products and investments,
- Experience with greenhouse gas accounting; natural capital accounting is an advantage;
- Ability to identify impactful projects and assess high-level viability and project feasibility;
- Experience with several of the relevant themes: natural capital, sustainable agriculture; renewable energy; energy efficiency; cleaner production; water efficiency and management; waste management, etc.;
- Existing network in the green financing space (e.g. consultants, rating agencies, investment banks, fund managers);
- Strong knowledge of impact concepts and international conventions;
- Thorough understanding of sustainability policy, including affinity with international environmental, social and human rights standards, including the ones that are particularly relevant to the financial sector; and
- The ability to travel globally
Personal skills
- Commercial drive and sound business sense;
- Entrepreneurial mind-set;
- Team player and able to coordinate, inspire, motivate and mentor other colleagues;
- Display strong coaching and networking skills;
- Strong analytical and problem solving skills;
- Strong in planning, project management and organising complex activities;
- Capacity to think strategically, with a strong understanding for the business needs;
- Excellent communication skills and fluent in English both written and verbally, an additional language is beneficial.
Please note, if we make you an offer to join FMO, you will need to work through the screening process with our screening partner. The process is designed to check your integrity and reliability.
FMO – mission and values
We hire candidates with a passion for our mission; to empower entrepreneurs to build a better world. The values we live by are: Making the Difference, Diversity, Quality, and Integrity.
Diversity is one of our values. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability and pregnancy.