Reporting To: Founder & CEO

Environment: We’re hybrid (London)

Travel: Some travel is required (visiting customers/projects/conferences/team gatherings)

Opna’s Vision

Imagine a thriving, equitable planet where everyone actively participates and benefits from building projects that contribute to a low-carbon economy, safeguarding our environment, and combating climate change. At Opna, we are on a mission to make this vision a reality, becoming the world's most trusted platform for climate finance. Our goal is simple: to ensure that funding for essential initiatives, from preserving rainforests to extracting carbon, is accessible to all.

The Urgent Challenge

We stand at a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change. We must rapidly undo the centuries-long impact of fossil fuels. This demands an unprecedented infrastructure revolution - carbon projects that remove and reduce carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. High-quality carbon projects encounter formidable barriers in accessing necessary financing. Lengthy project realisation timelines, extractive finance terms, and a considerable share of funding being absorbed by intermediaries jeopardise the well-being of communities and biodiversity.

Opna's Solution

That's where Opna comes in. We exist to eliminate the obstacles that hinder high-quality carbon projects from receiving timely and fair financing. Our mission is to unlock capital for these crucial climate initiatives, driving impact at scale and with equity.

Building the Future of Climate Finance

Our platform directly connects corporates and financiers to high-quality, vetted carbon projects, driving them towards their net-zero goals. By closing the financing gap, we accelerate the deployment and supply of game-changing climate solutions. Carbon removal needs to scale to a $1 Trillion/year market, up from a few hundred million $/year today. We embark on an audacious journey to address climate change meaningfully and with unwavering trust from our project development partners, corporate customers, investors, and an exceptional team, success is within reach.

Join us in shaping a sustainable world for generations to come.

Requirements

Your Role

As the Lead for Carbon Projects Origination at Opna, you will play a crucial role in the cycle of connecting carbon removal project developers with corporate investors.

Your mission is to identify and assess high-quality carbon projects, helping them receive the early and scaling financing they need to mitigate carbon emissions and foster sustainable communities and biodiversity. It will be imperative that you will cultivate and nurture relationships with carbon project developers globally. You'll research eligible projects for carbon credits, establishing a robust network of developers, verification organisations, and platforms. Your keen oversight will ensure projects meet objectives and deliverables throughout the carbon lifecycle, encompassing feasibilities, carbon credit validation, and verification.

You’ll experience the profound impact and unparalleled reach of your work daily. You’ll be part of empowering FTSE 500 companies to reach their net-zero targets, unlocking timely and equitable financing for our project partners and their communities. Your contributions will ripple through the communities protecting our forests and biodiversity and will shape climate commitments in corporate boardrooms.

Responsibilities

Your day-to-day activities will include:

• Setting up internal procedures for carbon projects review.
• Leading and recommending the selection of projects and partners for our portfolio.
• Travelling to conduct on-site project visits for thorough evaluation.
• Collaborating with colleagues and stakeholders to share domain knowledge.
• Tracking milestones and reporting progress of projects.
• Sourcing and nurturing potential business partnerships.
• Managing and nurturing the business development pipeline.
• Establishing and leveraging strategic alliances to enhance market reach.

Required Skills and Qualifications

To thrive in this role, you should have the following:

• A relevant Bachelor's or Master's degree in a sustainability-related discipline.
• 3-5 years of relevant work experience in carbon projects sourcing
• A strong technical understanding of the various types of carbon projects,including methodologies required for project development.
• Excellent knowledge of International carbon standards such as VCS (Verra), Gold Standard, and strong understanding of emerging standards
• Strong understanding of the emerging and evolving voluntary carbon landscape and the relevant players across the value chain
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
• Bonus points for experience working with Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards, Science-Based Targets, and Net Zero initiatives.

Personal Traits

You will thrive in this role if you:

• Are self-motivated and can work asynchronously with team members.
• Enjoy the dynamic nature of an early-stage startup, embracing a fast-learning and fast-moving environment.
• Are curious, open to differing opinions, and enjoy sharing your domain knowledge and perspective.
• Value working in diverse environments with people from different backgrounds and experiences.
• Find fulfilment in collaborating with and building relationships with peers.

Our Interview Process

We’re swift at moving things along for you. We need you to meet several people (onsite/virtually) because of the responsibility that comes with this role and ensure this is right for you.

• Quick video call with our Talent Partner
• Video call with our CEO, Shilpika Gautam
• Case Study - Take home task
• Meet the team
• Call with a board member/investor
• Final meet with Shilpika

Benefits

Benefits

Competitive salary, generous options, 25 days holiday + bank holidays, pension, homeworking set-up allowance.

Our Team

Today, we’re a small and agile team across London, Berlin and Barcelona. Collectively we have deep experience and expertise across capital markets, carbon markets, climate finance and FinTech. We keep each other accountable. We rely on regular and open communication. We share our optimism for finding solutions to climate change. We’re gritty and actively practise empathy. We are serious about our work but don't take ourselves too seriously!

Diversity & Inclusion

We know that diversity is multifaceted and intersectional, and we want to build a company where different identities and perspectives can come together to deliver on our mission and vision. We are a venture-backed company founded and led by a woman of colour. 100% of our team today has their roots in the global south, and over half of our pre-seed investors identify as women. We speak English, Hindi, Spanish and French across our team.