Director, Climate Diplomacy (Shipping)

Opportunity Green

Employment Type Full time 4-day working week

Role: Permanent.

Location Hybrid · London, UK

Preference for London-based, open to remote in the UK or Belgium if willing to travel frequently

Salary £70,000 (GBP) plus 10% employer-contributed pension

Seniority Mid-level, Senior

Closing: 9:00am, 24th Mar 2025 GMT

About us

Established in 2021, Opportunity Green is a fast-growing not-for-profit organisation that helps to identify and unlock opportunities to tackle climate change. We build ambitious coalitions, support climate vulnerable countries in international negotiations and find innovative legal pathways to fight climate change. We are now looking for a new colleague to lead our work at the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

What’s the role?

The role will lead our engagement at the IMO. You will set Opportunity Green’s multi-faceted IMO strategy, with the objectives of:

· Increasing the overall ambition of IMO Member States as quickly as possible to ensure full decarbonisation;

· Ensuring that the principles of justice and equity are at the forefront of that transition;

· And, supporting climate vulnerable developing countries to be present and participating in all relevant meetings.

Opportunity Green already has a reputation for bringing rigorous legal analysis and centring the principles of a just and equitable transition in our work at the IMO.

The International Maritime Organization is due to agree both a fuel standard and a GHG pricing mechanism on international shipping. Amongst other areas, work will then turn to implementation and the distribution of revenues. Opportunity Green’s broad goals will be to ensure that the fuel standard does not drive the uptake of biofuels (endangering biodiversity, implicating food security, etc.) and LNG (a fossil fuel) but rather supports the development of green hydrogen and green hydrogen-derived fuels. On these points you will work closely with the SASHA Coalition.

Core parts of the role include:

· Relationship building with IMO delegations, particularly from climate vulnerable countries, spending a considerable amount of your time at the IMO during formal meetings and out and about meeting delegations year-round.

· Managing the development of neutral information briefings for climate vulnerable countries that we develop ahead of every IMO meeting;

· Managing the development of independent legal and policy analysis for our broader network of civil society, country and ambitious industry partners;

· Proactively spotting and acting promptly to fill gaps in countries’ legal, policy or economic knowledge that could pave the way for increased ambition;

· Ensuring that OG meets and manages the expectations of our funders.

We believe that a shipping levy is one of a small number of great opportunities to ensure that the climate transition is equitable on a global scale. We are looking for someone who can think strategically about the IMO’s role within international climate diplomacy to work with those who can amplify ambition. We will expect you to be the driver of OG’s strategy in the IMO and key contact for OG’s funders of our IMO work. You will be comfortable in an international diplomatic environment and, while pushing ambition as much as possible, will maintain diplomacy and ensure that the most climate vulnerable countries are the ones whose opinions OG listens to the most. You will also be the media spokesperson for OG on our IMO work.

You will report to the Senior Director, Climate Diplomacy to ensure that Opportunity Green’s strategy in the IMO aligns with our strategy in other international fora such as ICAO and the UNFCCC. You will manage a policy officer and assistant. You will also be collaborating with OG’s analytics (economics & science) and legal teams as required.

About the candidate

We are looking for a candidate with:

· A passion for using their skills to tackle climate change, with an ability to strategically work with global policymakers to provide them with the support they need to increase ambition.

Desirable skills and experience:

We do not expect any candidate to have all skills listed below but rather we look for transferable skills and potential as well as past experience.

· We have a strong preference for someone who is already familiar with shipping decarbonisation, especially in the context of the IMO negotiations.

· Experience working with a diverse range of policymakers to improve and drive ambition through diplomacy, especially in an international context. As a large portion of your work will involve engagement with stakeholders from climate vulnerable countries, we particularly value applications from those with lived and/or professional experience in those countries.

· Ability to get to grips with technological and policy detail around shipping and international climate finance as necessary and to know when that detail is needed in policymaker meetings.

· Experience of generating realistic, ambitious and implementable policy ideas to drive climate ambition.

· Passion for climate justice and proven experience incorporating a climate justice framework into relevant projects.

· Ability to provide a platform for voices of countries less represented at international climate discussions.

· Experience of working with the media to become a trusted contact and generate strategic communication moments.

· Active listening skills, negotiation skills and the ability to work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders.

· An engaging public speaker.

· Ability to think critically, independently and creatively.

· Effective at building relationships at all levels of the organisation.

· Experience of philanthropy and fundraising for an NGO.

What we offer

The successful candidate will be offered an annual salary of £70,000 plus 10% employer-contributed pension. Please note that Opportunity Green has fixed salary scales, with the possibility of step increases with strong performance. When hiring we always hire at the bottom of a band and do not enter negotiations with new employees as negotiations have been historically shown to disadvantage women and minorities.

We take our team’s well-being and professional development seriously. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer:

· A commitment to work/life balance, with a 4-day work week at 28 hours.

· A generous holiday entitlement of 20 days’ holiday per year, plus bank holidays and office closure between Christmas and New Year’s that does not count towards your holiday entitlement (and expectation that you fully disconnect when taking time off).

· A market-leading pension of 10%.

· A progressive family leave policy, including 26 weeks’ paid leave for both parents, as well as other support.

· Lots of flexibility within a hybrid working arrangement, with regular opportunities to come together as a team.

· Support for your professional development as part of Opportunity

Green, with a budget to support your learning & development plus opportunities to lead projects, publish content, learn from experts, work directly with policymakers and stakeholders, and take part in conferences and events.

However, it is important to note that while this role is permanent, employment is always reliant on Opportunity Green continuing to receive philanthropic support from our funders, which we expect every member of the team to play their part in working towards.

How to apply

To minimise the risk of unconscious bias, we ask that applicants remove certain identifying elements from their CVs. If you do not remove these details, we reserve the right to withdraw your application from review.

· Photos

· Name – if needed, please use ‘Applicant’

· Age

· Email and/or phone number

We also reserve the right to withdraw your application from review if you use AI tools such as Chat GPT to complete the sift questions / write your CV.

Unfortunately, if you do not already hold the right to work in the UK (or Belgium) and/or require sponsorship to continue working in the UK (or Belgium), Opportunity Green will not be able to consider your application at this time.

The closing date for applications is 9am GMT 24 March 2025.

We actively encourage applicants to reach out if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to help them demonstrate their full potential in the hiring process. 

Please get in touch at recruitment@opportunitygreen.org and we can discuss how to best make the recruitment process as accessible and comfortable for you as possible.

You can read our application guide here.

What happens next?

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview to discuss their experience and suitability for the role. After this, candidates that are most suitable for the vacancy will be invited for an in-person interview in our London office, for which there may also be a short task. Travel will be reimbursed for non-London-based applicants (including Eurostar from Brussels).

Online interviews are likely to take place w/c 7 April. In person interviews will likely be shortly after this (w/c 14 April).

We reserve the right to ask for references during the recruitment process.

If you have any questions, or you need any reasonable adjustments at the application stage, please contact recruitment@opportunitygreen.org.