Enduring Earth – Global Portfolio Lead

Global Portfolio Lead

About Enduring Earth

Enduring Earth is a collaboration of The Nature Conservancy, The Pew Charitable Trusts, World Wildlife Fund and ZOMALAB, the family office of Ben and Lucy Ana Walton. They are committed to using Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) to accelerate ocean, land and freshwater conservation worldwide to help address the climate and biodiversity crises and support community development.

The Role Job Summary

Role: Global Portfolio Lead

Location: The role is remote, but this person will need to work on Eastern Standard Time.

Travel: Required at least once every three months.

Purpose: Accelerating the delivery of the Project Finance for Permanence model to support the accomplishment of the United Nations Global Biodiversity Framework which tackles the biodiversity and climate crises.

Sector: NGO collaboration.

Type: Start-up.

Team: 6–9 Remote team members.

We are looking for a Global Portfolio Lead who has considerable experience managing complex projects and teams, with demonstrated experience or exposure to biodiversity conservation and conservation finance and the flexibility and attitude to transition between strategic and practical work. You’ll join a top-notch team for one of the largest and most ambitious conservation partnerships on the planet, committed to the durable protection of hundreds of millions of hectares of land and ocean, and supporting community development. You’ll work directly with and serve as a thought partner to Enduring Earth’s Managing Director and Executive Management Team. You will manage and have the opportunity to grow

a team of Project Finance for Permanence experts to support Enduring Earth’s portfolio of at least 20 deals, ensuring acceleration and highest quality execution. This role will have extensive interaction with all Enduring Earth partner organizations (Pew, TNC, WWF and ZOMALAB) and will be part of an innovative multi-disciplinary team. The Global Portfolio Lead will need to build strong working relationships and trust with staff at all levels and influence/inspire people to collaborate. The Global Portfolio Lead will serve as a strategic thought partner to top-level decision makers within the Enduring Earth portfolio.

Responsibilities

The Global Portfolio Lead is a key leader within the Enduring Earth Hub team, supporting continuous performance improvement and culture development, and will own four key areas, which are described in detail below. We are seeking a skilled leader, who is comfortable and excited to work at a global scale in a matrixed environment and at the same time, not afraid of being hands-on in a constantly developing and start-up-oriented environment.

Area 1: Deal pipeline management

• Expanding Enduring Earth pipeline through capability building and analysis to drive decision-making.

• Managing the stage-gating process for deal development including setting standards, developing templates / tools, offering guidance to deal teams, developing memos and codification of decisions, etc.

• Managing the day-to-day of the portfolio including tracking deal progress, developing transparent and accessible information tracker (database), and identifying where support is needed for individual deals across the stage-gating continuum and matching to the PFP expert and partner teams’ capacities.

• Coordinating the Portfolio Committee including agenda setting, meeting facilitation, and other administrative tasks as required.

Area 2: Enabling highest quality PFPs

• Building and managing a team of PFP experts, starting with two project managers with the opportunity to expand, to support Enduring Earth portfolio deals on execution, acceleration, quality, and rigor.

• Working with PFP experts to create standards/ ”what good looks like”, and bringing objective quality assurance to the broader portfolio.

• Identifying capacity & expertise within organizations and sharing knowledge & information across deals working in coordination with the Knowledge Manager.

• Partnering effectively on knowledge management to integrate lessons into deal stage-gating evaluation and PFP deal development to achieve greater acceleration and quality of implementation.

Area 3: Coordination of EE metrics, monitoring, evaluation.

• Finalizing the metrics for the Enduring Earth partnership deals, developing the processes for impact tracking, and executing.

• Coordinating whole of portfolio evaluation, tracking progress on representation, global goals, etc.

Area 4: Linking deal portfolio to the broader partnership

• Serving as a strategic partner to the resource mobilization, community engagement, and communication functions of Enduring Earth and vice versa.

Candidate Profile

The Global Portfolio Lead will require experience in managing complex projects and teams, with a strong preference for experience in conservation finance or biodiversity conservation and knowledge on the Project Finance for Permanence model, with best-in-class project management skills.

Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Ability

Qualifications required for your success:

• 10–15 years + relevant professional experience, including leading teams.

• Bachelor’s degree required and an advanced degree in a relevant field (i.e., business, environmental management, public policy, law, economics, etc.) preferred.

• Experience managing projects in biodiversity conservation or conservation finance (in foundations, NGOs or the private sector)

• Experience with the Project Finance for Permanence model, or other large-scale conservation finance schemes strongly preferred.

• Experience managing programs and/or pipelines and proficiency in management tools to ensure efficiency.

• Experience and/or familiarity with protected area system design and management and working with methods and standards of biodiversity.

• Experience or familiarity with developing social or economic development programs for communities tied to conservation initiatives.

• Knowledge of politics, economics, and society with respect to environmental policy and initiatives.

• Strong communication skills, including diplomacy, and demonstrated ability to navigate complex decision-making across multiple senior and executive-level stakeholders.

• Capable storytelling, able to synthesize multiple inputs into effective communication via written, spoken, and visual means.

• Can-do, go-getter attitude with low-ego and aptitude for leading from behind.

• Motivated to build something great from the ground floor.

• Ability to operate independently, effectively prioritizing to meet deadlines and commitments and produce high-quality work under pressure and time constraints.

• Proven ability to work independently and collaboratively in a matrixed team environment.

• Familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc.)

• Fluency in English required, proficiency in other languages a plus (especially French or Spanish).

How to Apply

All correspondence, at this stage, should be via Oxford HR. To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button on the job advert page, complete our online application form, and submit your CV and cover letter. Please provide a CV and cover letter in two different documents, which should be prepared before applying as they will be considered in the application process. The cover letter should be no more than two pages long and explain why you are interested in this post and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

The document should be saved in MS Word in the following format: Your First Name-Your Last Name-Document Name-Date (mmyy) e.g., Pat-Jones-CV-022023-EE or Pat-JonesCoverLetter-022023-EE.

Timeline

Closing Date: April 9

First stage interviews: Interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis so please apply as soon as possible.

Selection Process

All candidates will receive an update regarding their application after the closing date. We advise candidates to add the role email to their safe senders list and regularly check their spam folder.

Hiring Statement

Enduring Earth Deal Fund and Hub is a project of Windward Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative publicinterest projects and grant-making programs. Windward Fund is committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. Windward’s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.

Equality Statement

Equality and diversity are at the core of Enduring Earth’s values. Staff are expected to work collectively and individually to promote a constructive and sensitive approach to others from a variety of backgrounds, where the work of others is valued and respected.

Queries

If you have any queries on any aspect of the appointment process, need additional information, or would like to have an informal discussion, please email at enduringearth@ oxfordhr.com in the first instance.

About Oxford HR

Oxford HR operates globally - mainly within the international development and charity sectors. We carry out retained executive search mandates at board and senior management levels. We also offer human resource and organisational development consultancy.

Oxford HR has many years of experience in search as well as an extensive network of international development, social sector, corporate, public sector, and academic contacts from across the world. We carry out comprehensive and often international searches designed to meet the specific needs of our client.