Senior Officer, Conservation Support, Conservation Finance

Application Deadline: Friday February 21, 2025

The Environment Portfolio at The Pew Charitable Trusts

For more than 30 years, Pew has been a major force in engaging the public and policy makers about the causes, consequences, and solutions to some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Our environment work spans all seven continents with more than 250 professionals working at the local, national, and international levels to reduce the scope and severity of global environmental problems, such as the erosion of large natural ecosystems that contain a great part of the world's remaining biodiversity, and the destruction of the marine environment. Pew's global environmental program focuses on science-based, nonpartisan, and sustainable solutions to help protect the planet and people. We work in partnership with governments, Indigenous rights holders, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, local stakeholders, scientists, and other researchers to advance public policy so that nature and communities can thrive.

Since 1990, Pew has worked in North America, South America and Australia to protect large and critically important terrestrial ecosystems, including rivers and other freshwater resources, coastal temperate rainforests, interior mountain ranges, the northern boreal forests, Australia's Outback, and Chilean Patagonia. We work to ensure these natural systems remain bountiful, functioning, and resilient, providing essential ecological services such as clean air and clean water, sustenance and food security for local communities and more broadly for the welfare of current and future generations. Our work relies on the sciences of conservation, sociology, biology, and economics to advocate for practical and durable solutions to the loss of biodiversity.

In the sea, reforms to how our oceans are managed are essential to address overfishing, pollution, and loss of habitat. Pew began its oceans program in the United States, focusing on ending overfishing and protecting fragile marine habitat. Starting in 2005, Pew's ocean conservation program expanded around the world and played a significant role in reforming marine fisheries management in the European Union and on the high seas and creating large scale marine reserves around the world. Our work is grounded in the best available science and pursues domestic and international conservation measures that are long-term and provide permanent, durable protections for marine ecosystems. We also work to address systemic threats to the ocean, including from plastics, over-and-illegal fishing, seabed mining, and climate change.

Conservation Support

Conservation Support works across Pew's environment portfolio to ensure development of robust policy positions and strategies, provide specialized expertise, assist in developing and launching new bodies of work, and provide for internal and external coordination, including coordinating Pew efforts around major international meetings.

Conservation Support is an integral part of the broader environment team, which currently focuses on safeguarding ecologically valuable land, freshwater, and marine habitats and tackling global threats to biodiversity such as climate change, overfishing, and plastic pollution. To achieve conservation at the scale needed to protect biodiversity, Pew is investing in big-bet partnerships that protect nature while also delivering economic, social, and health-related benefits for people. Recognizing the importance of local leadership and sustainable financing, Pew is committed to working in partnership with governments, Indigenous peoples, and local communities to protect, manage, and sustainable finance their natural resources.

Position Overview
The Senior Officer, Conservation Support, Conservation Finance is a cross-cutting role that will serve as a resource on conservation finance issues across Pew's environment portfolio.

This position will primarily focus on sovereign debt-for-nature conversions as a conservation finance tool, supporting deal identification and scoping of individual transactions in countries of strategic interest to Pew. The senior officer will assess financial and political enabling conditions for deals, in coordination with internal and external partners. The position will also support deal design and financial structuring of specific deals and will work with partners to maximize the conservation benefits from these deals. This work will constitute Pew's contribution towards the new Coalition on debt conversions for nature and climate (https://www.debtfornature.org) that was launched at COP16 in Cali in October 2024 and which Pew is a founding member of.

The senior officer also will deploy their knowledge and understanding of a variety of conservation finance approaches and their experience of developing and securing conservation financing deals to negotiate financing solutions for nature and climate with an array of potential partners, investors, and other funding sources. They will work internally to foster an informed discussion about the opportunities and risks in this space and to build consensus around the best paths forward. This is a new position which will further add to Pew's capacity on conservation finance - a field that continues to grow in importance and need.

Located in Pew's Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA, Portland, OR, London or Brussels offices, the position will participate in Pew's core in-office days on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and will have flexibility to work from home the remainder of each week, as business needs permit.Other locations may be considered. The senior officer will report to the project director, conservation support, who is based in the Washington, DC, office.

Responsibilities

• Foster a work environment that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible and in line with Pew and the project's related goals.
• Develop and support debt-for-nature deal identification and scoping in an initial set of countries. Assess both financial and political enabling conditions. Build partnerships to deliver on these solutions.
• Provide technical support to fundraising efforts. Write proposals as needed.
• Convene key stakeholders in selected geographies to deliver well designed debt-for-nature deals, including supporting financial structuring. Move deals forward towards close. Work with partners to maximize the conservation benefits from these deals.
• Represent Pew in engagements in coordination with partners working in the space, as well as in formal partnerships.
• Use technical expertise and thought leadership on conservation finance to expand and deepen Pew's internal understanding and application of these approaches to support conservation goals. Support other conservation financing efforts such as sovereign bond issuance as opportunities arise.
• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with key private sector, government, public funding, and nongovernmental partners and alliances including the coalition on debt for nature and climate. Maintain strong internal relationships across Pew's environment portfolio.
• Represent Pew publicly at conferences, seminars, and official forums. Participate in or lead Pew delegations to relevant international and intergovernmental meetings.
• Effectively communicate complex financial concepts to non-specialist audiences, such as in policy briefs, papers, written analyses, and as a media spokesperson for Pew on matters of conservation finance.
• Experience of successfully working with individuals from diverse backgrounds and on projects in diverse contexts.
• Help to develop and implement new strategies and approaches to address environmental issues.
• Contribute to and participate in departmental and institutional projects and activities as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required; advanced degree or equivalent experience preferred.
• Generally 10 years of experience.
• Experience working in and with developing countries and debt-distressed contexts.
• Demonstrated skills in negotiation and deal-making. Practical experience in identifying, designing and closing conservation finance solutions.
• Adept at navigating a matrixed organization and cultivating trusted relationships internally with other operational units.
• Efficiently synthesizes information and makes recommendations on how to proceed.
• Demonstrated experience meeting multiple deadlines with a high degree of independence and autonomy.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills. Conveys complex ideas and technical information in compelling ways.
• Effective interpersonal and diplomatic skills; media-savvy and politically astute.
• Demonstrated experience achieving results in a complex working environment.
• Demonstrated business judgment and discretion in handling sensitive matters.
• Experience working within a diverse set of contexts and cultures, ideally in both developed and developing countries. Develops and maintains productive relationships with colleagues and partners from diverse backgrounds who may have disparate or conflicting goals or approaches.

Key attributes and preferred experience

• Experience working on debt-related financing tools is strongly preferred, such as experience with debt-for-nature conversions and swaps.
• Results-oriented style, with focus on achieving clear and ambitious goals.
• Flexible, resourceful, and results oriented.
• Responsive to user needs. Excellent listening skills.

Travel

Domestic and international travel expected approximately 30% of the time.

Salary Range

The salary range represents a reasonable estimate of the annual salary based on Pew's commitment to provide equitable and market-competitive pay. The actual salary offered will take into consideration many factors including but not limited to job-related knowledge, skills and experience, internal pay equity, and business need.

Total Rewards

This position offers a competitive salary and benefit program.

The Pew Charitable Trusts is an equal opportunity employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Pew considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to age, sex, ethnicity, religion, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity, military/veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.