Associate Director, Global Energy Transition Initiative

About the Role

ClimateWorks Foundation’s (CWF) Global Energy Transition Initiative (GETI) supports efforts to rapidly transform the global power sector toward clean energy, beginning with 15 emerging economies across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These are countries where power demand is projected to rapidly grow, and there is huge potential for solar, wind, and other renewable energy deployment in this decade. The benefits of a transition to clean energy go far beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. It creates jobs, builds local manufacturing value chains, improves infrastructure, protects public health by keeping pollutants out of the air, and provides affordable and accessible power. By shifting to clean energy, developing nations can secure a resilient and thriving future.

The Global Energy Transition Initiative has developed a global initiative to support the solar industry associations for unifying missions and voices, providing policy and regulatory inputs, shaping public communication and narratives, coordinating knowledge and standard leadership, and ensuring financial sustainability and business models.

Department Summary - Programs

The Programs department leads ClimateWorks’ strategies and grantmaking to advance climate solutions around the world. The team works alongside funders, regional grantmakers, field experts, and frontline leaders to design, implement, and steward high-impact grantmaking portfolios across sectors. Focus areas include renewable energy, industrial decarbonization, electric transport, sustainable finance, adaptation and resilience, and more. Grounded in data, local context, and field expertise, program teams identify emerging opportunities, scale solutions, and equip partners with the evidence and capacity needed to drive transformative climate progress. Through strategic grantmaking and trusted relationships, the Programs department supports ClimateWorks’ efforts to catalyze durable, scalable change.

How you will contribute

The associate director will report to the Global Head of the Global Energy Transition Initiative and will be responsible for programmatic coordination of the solar industry association initiative, engaging with regional leads of GETI in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as the selective regions in Europe.

The associate director is responsible for delivering strategic outcomes, overall coordination within ClimateWorks, as well as with external partners and funders. Together with the program manager who will be responsible for project management functions, the associate director will ensure the key components of the solar industry association initiative are delivered

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Global coordination for solar and storage associations support

• Lead and coordinate complex, multi-stakeholder workstreams, ensuring strong relationship management, strategic quality, timely information sharing, and smooth end-to-end program execution.
• Maintain and continuously refine the Solar and Storage Industry Association Strategy, ensuring it remains responsive to evolving global and regional market, policy, and industry dynamics, in line with partner activities and learnings.
• Support GETI Program Leads in advancing the Solar Industry Association Initiative, ensuring deliverables are high quality and outputs, and outcomes remain closely aligned with the overall strategy.
• Provide strategic direction on which regional and global convenings to prioritize, working across teams and stakeholders to ensure participation is purposeful, well-coordinated, and aligned with broader solar agenda goals.
• Serve as the primary coordination point for solar associations, the Executive Taskforce organizational development team, communications teams, and the GETI program team, ensuring seamless execution of all initiative-related activities. 

Funder engagement:

• Play significant role in funder engagement and communications.
• Coordinate with internal and external partners for organizing funder briefings.
• Lead preparation of agendas, briefing materials, and top-line messages.
• Collect and synthesize updates from grantees through regional leads.
• Draft funder-specific or general written reports.

Strategic and programmatic communication and convenings:

• Support, lead, or monitor global, regional, and national solar convenings in coordination with external partners and communications experts.
• Design, develop and/or support strategic communications activities in collaboration with communications partners and coalition partners.
• Develop policy-maker-friendly briefings and written materials.

Quality, impact, and learning:

• Develop and maintain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for solar industry associations using agreed criteria
• Maintain a high-quality database of learnings to create a repository of materials accessible to all stakeholders
• Facilitate learning sessions with grantees to capture successes and lessons learned
• Lead preparation of bi-annual monitoring and learning reports for stakeholders

Qualifications

• At least 12 years of relevant professional experience, including 7+ years in a managerial or leadership role.
• Experience working with trade associations and/or at the intersection between the public and private sectors for clean energy would be an advantage
• Highly experienced in strategic planning, project oversight, and budget management, ideally within complex, multi-stakeholder or international environments.
• Relationship-oriented and solutions-focused, with a strong service mindset and ability to partner effectively with internal teams, grantees, and external stakeholders.
• Familiarity with philanthropic, nonprofit, coalition, advocacy, or legislative communities preferred.
• Self-directed and thoughtful, with sound professional judgment and the ability to balance strategic vision with operational execution.
• Able to work efficiently and effectively (both virtually and in person) with minimal supervision.
• Experience working in a global matrixed team
• Ability to communicate the success stories and impact of the work
• Commitment to the mission and values of ClimateWorks Foundation

Location

ClimateWorks Foundation is based in the San Francisco Financial District. This is a full-time remote job with expectations for frequent travel. Ideally, within 4-5 hours of the CET timezone (ideally Europe or the US East Coast)

Candidates will be expected to work across time zones, especially the US West and East Coast, the UK, Myanmar, Indonesia, Brazil, Kenya, and Nigeria.

Compensation

International salary range to be determined based on the location and local cost of labor.

We recognize that compensation and benefits can vary across countries and understand that this can raise important questions. Our goal is to ensure fairness, equity, and competitiveness within each local context. To achieve this, we align our compensation structure with the economic conditions, labor market dynamics, and social benefit systems of the regions where we operate.

Salaries are determined based on country-specific labor markets, allowing us to offer pay that is competitive within each region and consistent with other international organizations. Compensation is intentionally structured to be above leading local market averages and appropriate to the regional cost of labor. This approach supports our commitment to equity across our global workforce while enabling us to attract and retain top talent in diverse locations.

Culture

ClimateWorks’ culture is rooted in our core values: collaboration, humility, curiosity, learning, and risk-taking. We come together around shared goals, draw strength from diverse perspectives, and face challenges with an open mind. We grow through experience and boldly experiment to drive meaningful impact in climate philanthropy. Together, we turn ambition into action—spotting big opportunities, convening people, and helping scale bold solutions.

As a globally distributed organization, ClimateWorks offers multiple opportunities each year for staff to meet in person, foster relationships, and enhance collaboration. Staff are expected to attend an in-town week in San Francisco, an all-staff retreat, and a department retreat annually.

About ClimateWorks Foundation

ClimateWorks Foundation is a catalyst for accelerating climate progress, driving bold solutions that benefit people and the planet. We connect funders and implementing organizations worldwide to identify and scale transformative solutions across sectors and geographies, achieving faster, greater impact together. Since 2008, ClimateWorks has granted over $2 billion to more than 850 grantees across 50 countries, working with over 80 funders.

ClimateWorks Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer

ClimateWorks Foundation is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity and compliance with all federal, state, and local laws concerning employment discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities Act. We make decisions about all aspects of our employment practices, without regard to race, color, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, marital status, sex (including childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions), pregnancy, uniform service member and veteran status, citizenship status, disability, protected medical condition, genetic information, or any other status protected under applicable federal, state, or local laws. 

As part of our commitment to centering diverse people and perspectives and providing equal opportunities, we ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided with reasonable accommodations. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application process, please note that in your application. 

How to apply

Follow the link below to apply for this position. Please note that ClimateWorks will never request applicants’ credit card or financial information during the interview process. Should you receive a message requesting this information, please report it to ClimateWorks. All current job openings are listed on our careers page: www.climateworks.org/careers.