Senior Operations Officer – Climate Lead, LAC Region

Job #:

req32039

Organization:

IFC

Sector:

Investment

Grade:

GG

Term Duration:

3 years 0 months

Recruitment Type:

International Recruitment

Location:

Bogota, Colombia; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Panama City, Panama; Vienna, Austria; Mexico City, Mexico

Required Language(s):

English

Preferred Language(s):

Spanish, Portuguese

Closing Date:

7/8/2025 (MM/DD/YYYY) at 11:59pm UTC

Description

IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities. Our mission is to leverage the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet.

IFC has embarked on an ambitious growth strategy (IFC 3.0) to stimulate more private sector investment activity in frontier markets. This strategy aims to proactively work “Upstream” with clients and partners in our member countries to create, deepen, and expand markets and to imagine, design and implement investment projects. To operationalize the Upstream strategy, IFC has created Regional Upstream Units within each of the Global and Regional Industry Departments (Financial Markets, Infrastructure and Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services) to drive the Upstream mandate to incubate opportunities, focus resources, and coordinate initiatives across IFC and the WBG to create new markets. Ultimately, it is about creating a new multi-year pipeline of bankable operations / projects.

IFC’s Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services (MAS) Department covers sectors which cater to basic human needs such as food, shelter, jobs, health, education and a wide range of manufactured goods. They play a critical role in providing goods and services to consumers, creating jobs, contributing to government revenue, and stimulating growth through small or medium-sized businesses. Through the business it does with its private sector clients, IFC's priorities in MAS are: (i) increasing productivity and access to goods and services, while protecting the environment, supporting low carbon growth and enhancing resilience to climate change related impacts; (ii) making IFC the preferred financing partner of choice for targeted clients, in part through its world-class industry expertise; (iii) supporting select local companies to grow while improving their transparency, efficiency and sustainable competitiveness; (iv) catalyzing foreign investment, including mobilizing parallel financing; and (v) developing client, sector and country-level solutions that can be scaled and replicated with a special focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Mitigating climate change and helping clients and member countries to adapt to climate change risks and impacts is a strategic pillar of the World Bank Group. Many manufacturing sectors (spanning various verticals including chemicals, fertilizers, plastics, automotive and electrical components, light manufacturing eg. textiles and construction materials e.g. cement, glass) are Greenhouse Gas (GHG) intensive, presenting opportunities for IFC to deliver on its climate commitments and to support low carbon growth. This includes helping clients to achieve their own climate related strategies and commitments and to align MAS’s projects in a manner that also helps countries to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions. Advisory Services in MAS works with clients and their supply chains to help them improve key areas including: carbon and water footprint, circularity, increase efficiency of manufacturing, enhance sustainability and “greening” supply chains, promote practices that contribute to Climate Smart Agriculture, enhance productivity and promote uptake of water / energy / materials efficient practices and technologies that can reduce the GHG and resource footprint of MAS clients.

IFC is seeking for a Senior Operations Officer experienced in decarbonization technologies and trends in manufacturing to lead the Upstream and Advisory climate and sustainability offering in both Latin America and Europe MAS Upstream Units, support the investment teams on climate related issues and engage with key stakeholders in IFC on climate topics relevant to MAS sectors. The successful candidate will also support climate and sustainability activities across other MAS verticals including Agribusiness, Health & Educations, Tourism, Retail and Property Sectors as relevant. The candidate will: (i) design and implement relevant advisory products and toolkits to support potential IFC clients in their decarbonization strategies, (ii) support and develop Upstream engagements that entail the adoption of new decarbonization technologies across all relevant subsectors (hard to abate industries, chemicals, Green H2, SAF, EVs among others); and (iii) assess sector and market trends in both LAC and Europe to identify opportunities for private sector investments in clean manufacturing technologies; iv) ensure close alignment between Upstream and Advisory, MAS Climate Business Team, and the CBD team in terms of product offering and strategy, (v) ensure a close alignment between Upstream and Advisory and MAS investment teams, seeking to develop projects that have a line of sight to investment (vi) support business development (for both the investment and Upstream teams) across the region on key climate-related topics and (vii) provide strategic, forward-looking thinking, on key trends in manufacturing decarbonization and develop innovative ways to engage with clients in this space.

The Climate Lead will report to the Upstream and Advisory Manager for LAC and Europe as well as the Manufacturing Manager for LAC. S/he will work across IFC business lines and will support relevant policy work and other interventions across the World Bank Group to maximize the impact of IFC’s effort.

Duties and Accountabilities

The roles and responsibilities of the position will include but not be limited to:

Business Responsibility

Develop and implement innovative Upstream and Advisory projects and initiatives that support the energy transition through the decarbonization/low carbon growth towards carbon neutrality or net zero of manufacturing industries
Identify opportunities for sustainability improvements in client operations which can form the basis of advisory projects to support / add value to IFC financings to clients. Examples include opportunities for energy and/or water efficiency improvements – traditional REF, increasing use of sustainable inputs/materials in place of virgin materials, increasing circularity in the manufacturing process and renewable energy such as Solar PV or Bioenergy.
Support business development by identifying key climate-related market trends and sector growth drivers as well as target companies for Investment and/or Upstream and Advisory services related to the adoption of decarbonization, circularity and sustainability related technologies.
Originate, develop and implement business development and idea generation activities to create scalable climate advisory products, market creation initiatives and early-stage project development opportunities (ie. Regional and Local Cement Sector Associations: FICEM, SNIC, ASOCEM, etc).
Help spot new trends and business models in the manufacturing sector that further the climate goals of the World Bank and can address development challenges in emerging markets.
Support the identification and assessment of impactful and innovative potential investment opportunities based on country and sector strategies and market creation potential.
Engage with and establish partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, including across the World Bank Group, to foster innovative thinking about creation of new markets to increase development impact in difficult markets in the MAS sectors.
Develop, evaluate and provide feedback on proposals for climate advisory offerings in mainstream financings, upstream seed initiatives and upstream projects.
Convene climate stakeholders, form partnerships and connect climate expertise from various Upstream, investment and advisory staff, the Bank GPs, and external parties to enable delivery of upstream projects and initiatives in the MAS sectors.
Ensure close alignment between MAS Investment, Upstream and Advisory, MAS Climate Business Team, and the CBD team in terms of product offering and strategy.
Identify new climate investment opportunities in the MAS sectors.
Play a key role to both develop and promote climate products, tools, and services (e.g. sustainability-linked, green, and blue loans and bonds, and green buildings, as well decarbonization strategies), including climate finance structures, including to support IFC’s own Paris Alignment efforts, as well as clients’ strategies for decarbonization.

Knowledge Capture and Management

Disseminate knowledge and experience across MAS to support adoption of new approaches and best practices that further sustainability in the LAC and Europe regions.
Build external brand recognition through conference attendances and external engagements and amplify recognition of IFC’s distinctive capabilities in working upstream to catalyze greater flow of investment opportunities in the MAS sectors.
Serve as a bridge between the regional industry group and CBD, including disseminating knowledge, coordinating and delivering climate-related events and training, and contributing to knowledge management by identifying and sharing regional insights and lessons learned.
Connect IFC climate, global and regional teams, ensure solutions and knowledge flow across the World Bank Group, and help achieve MAS Upstream priorities

People and Resource Responsibility

Mentor junior staff working assigned to transactions and in the MAS LAC EUR Upstream and Advisory unit in support of the Upstream Manager and the Upstream Sector Leads

Selection Criteria

Master's degree or equivalent professional qualification in Business, Finance, Economics, Engineering, or related discipline, plus more than 10 years of experience including minimum of 5yrs in of relevant operational experience in the climate change field especially looking at GHG accounting (ie. GHG protocol, ISO 14064), energy (ie. ISO 50001) and water intensity KPIs, carbon markets and climate change assessments (ie. energy and water efficiency, clean energy power generation, wastewater treatment plants, green buildings, circularity)
Experience conducting at least 50 energy level 1 (walking audits) and level 2 audits (in depth) and Certified Energy Management (CEM) – AEE qualification.
Deep understanding of the manufacturing sector including the sector deep dives and sector strategies. Excellent understanding of how to assess and mitigate climate risks including related to production facilities and supply chains. Solid understanding of the climate footprint of operations related to agricultural production manufacturing facilities, and investments in services.
Experience with financing of decarbonization solutions for the real sectors particularly with topics such as green fuels, biomaterials, green hydrogen and its derivatives, resource efficiency, circularity and supply chain/value chain integration as it applies to one or more manufacturing verticals will be valuable.
Familiarity with finance: sourcing, structuring, and/or closing investments across various financing instruments (debt, equity mezzanine, convertibles etc) and/or familiarity with carbon finance and sustainability linked finance is a plus.
Experience in other sectors (such as agribusiness, health, education, tourism, retail, and/or property) in addition to manufacturing will be a plus.
Strong written and verbal communications skills in English. Proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese strongly preferred.
Genuine dedication to development and to the World Bank Group and IFC's mission, strategy, and values.
Commitment to the World Bank Group and IFC's mission and values. Deep understanding of IFC’s strategic priorities and changing business model against the backdrop of IFC 3.0, including collaboration with other members of the World Bank Group.
Proven track record of engaging with client companies, shareholders, and public stakeholders to encourage pioneering business and market development.
Demonstrated capacity for innovation and challenge the status quo to build new business models. Track record of delivery on leading project implementation of investment and/or advisory projects.
Excellent people skills and openness to feedback, new ideas, and ability to guide and incentivize staff to find solutions to problems.
Strong written and verbal communications skills. Ability to mentor and coach junior staff, share experiences and ensure quality.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.