Senior Financial Policy Specialist

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a non-profit global environmental organization with more than 1.3 million members and online activists.  We have offices in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Beijing, China.  Our staff of over 350 includes lawyers, scientists, economists, and policy analysts who work to protect the environment and public health through advocacy and education.

Position Overview:

NRDC is seeking a Senior Financial Policy Specialist for its Center for Market Innovation (CMI).  CMI combines business and policy innovation to accelerate deployment of clean technologies and practices.

Responsibilities:

NRDC is looking to hire a Senior Financial Policy Specialist to be based in New York, who will bolster CMI's capacity for policy development, outreach and financial analysis, to channel capital towards providing financing solutions for the building energy retrofit market.  This individual would help advance the CMI energy efficiency finance team's advocacy work in clean energy and energy efficiency finance. Specifically, this individual would:

• help design and advocate for financial mechanisms and associated policy initiatives that facilitate the rapid scale up of investment in energy efficiency and distributed renewable generation system retrofits, and low-carbon projects and technologies;
• collaborate with federal, state, local and private sector entities, as a "trusted but neutral" advisor, in efforts to  accelerate development and uptake of viable energy efficiency and low carbon technology financing mechanisms, both independent of and in coordination with federal programs;
• play a significant role in CMI's outreach and negotiations with the financial sector with an emphasis on efficiency finance initiatives and on other climate and energy issues;
• monitor and identify market trends based on a practical understanding of relevant financial market segments to support the development of appropriate market mechanisms; and
• collaborate with NRDC's Energy and Climate programs to assess the financial implications of key energy and climate change policy design elements and help to refine NRDC's policy agenda accordingly.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will have the personal and professional skills to advance CMI's objectives, including:

• Minimum 10 years of financial sector experience; ideally this would include relevant experience in more than one of the following areas: clean energy project finance, energy efficiency finance, securitization, sustainable real estate finance, and/or municipal finance, particularly related to energy or energy efficiency projects.
• Ability to identify market trends and articulate sector differences,
• Practical understanding of several relevant financial market segments to inform the development of appropriate market mechanisms
• Strong financial transaction skills as demonstrated by previous experience
• Successful experience in strategic thinking and driving implementation of collaborative projects
• Superior communication skills, including the ability to engage effectively with a broad range of stakeholders such as government officials, private sector actors and nongovernmental organizations
• Familiarity with climate and energy policy
• MBA or similar relevant degree preferred
• Development skills a plus

The NRDC Center for Market Innovation offers a unique opportunity to lead change at the intersection between markets and public policy innovation. 

Compensation: We offer competitive salaries (based on a nonprofit scale and commensurate with experience), excellent benefits, and a dynamic work environment, and we are committed to workplace diversity.  

To Apply: 

To apply, please visit NRDC/Jobs. Please submit your cover letter including salary requirements, resume and writing sample.  No phone calls or faxes.  Please reference where you saw this posting.

NRDC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  Please visit NRDC for further information.