Senior Consultant or Principal Consultant (Climate Policy and Finance)

Oxford Policy Management is seeking a highly effective, results-driven and dynamic Senior Consultant or Principal Consultant (Climate Policy and Finance) to work on a permanent basis in one of our leading OPM offices. Our vision is for you to lead on projects and tenders related to climate policy and strategy, climate governance, climate finance and related areas. As a leading force in results-driven work, you will provide strategic leadership, set strategic direction, technical leadership to deliver impact, lead projects and develop new business.

You will be adept at providing technical leadership on climate policy and climate finance and should be ready to work on a range of technical areas and apply your transferable skills and wider expertise to successfully deliver.

Your key objectives will see you leading projects ranging from short technical inputs of a few months to large, multi-million pound complex projects and your success will come from your technical skills, programme management, excellent people skills and a focus on impact to deliver these projects successfully. You will also have the opportunity to manage staff and provide coaching others through their involvement in projects and bidding, ensuring you support internal learning for yourselves and others. Lastly, you will be willing and able to develop senior external relationships to identify opportunities for OPM to win work and have impact and you will be adept in building an external profile to support OPM’s work in this regard.

You will have the pre-existing right to work in one of our offices (a specific list will be provided for you in the application form) as unfortunately we are unable to sponsor visas for this role.

Day to day responsibilities for this role will include (not exhaustive): 

• Develop, lead and promote OPM’s work on climate policy and finance to build future work, deliver existing projects and programmes
• Lead and deliver technical work on climate policy and finance and provide technical support to others.
• Represent OPM externally, manage relationships, network and provide advice externally on climate policy and finance.
• Oversee and manage teams of technical experts working on projects (OPM, consortium and external consultant inputs), achievement of financial targets and client reporting. You will do this in collaboration with other members of the team, such as project managers and other technical staff, potentially acting as Project Director (taking overall responsibility) on some projects.
• Contribute to problem solving around project delivery by developing new or improved approaches. Ensure teams are supported in dealing with such issues, share learnings and ideas for the overall benefit of the project and portfolio
• Ensure that programme inputs and deliverables are defined and delivered on time and to quality standards, providing everyday support to Team Leader and Project Director.
• Manage, support and coach more junior staff, supporting their personal development and growth
• Be an integral part of the Climate, Sustainability and Resilience Practice, and engage across other relevant OPM teams to define, develop and deliver opportunity pipelines for key clients in line with portfolio acquisition and diversification targets.
• Build upon existing strong external networks by identifying and building relationships with key external organisations, associates and external consultants

     Successful shortlisted candidates will be able to display the following essential skills and experiences: 

• A Master’s or other post-graduate University qualification in relevant discipline
• Substantial relevant work experience in Climate Policy, Climate Governance and Climate Finance. 
• Work experience in developing and emerging markets
• Proven ability to work in a range of technical areas.

      Consulting skills: 

• Strong bidding and proposal management skills, which includes proven ability in actively prepositioning for strategically important and impactful projects and developing clear strategy for submitting winning bids
• Experience in the development of project plans, priorities and processes to achieve its objectives, including managing budgets, resources and risk management
• Demonstrated leadership skills, with experience in mentoring or managing staff, ability to manage time effectively in a busy environment
• Experience in externally representing your specialist area with partners, donors and with other external experts
• Sound decision making skills, experienced in evaluating technical and commercial information to provide clear direction on projects in line with the portfolios objectives
• Experience in private sector climate finance is of particular interest to us and would be an advantage, although this is not essential.

     Personal attributes: 

• Ability to communicate effectively with colleagues and clients, verbally and in writing
• Excellent problem solving, organising and management skills
• Switches comfortably between attention to detail and bigger picture, joined up thinking and approach to providing solutions
• Good at prioritising changing and competing demands and tasks, while consistently delivering quality work
• Outstanding interpersonal and communication skills; collaborative and constructive approach to working with others, building effective relationships internally and externally

If you meet the essential skills and experience listed above, we would be delighted to welcome an application from you. Please apply with your updated CV on the OPM portal before the closing date on the website or as early as you can, as we will be reviewing on a rolling basis. We look forward to receiving your application.