Senior Operations Officer - Climate Lead, LAC Region

Senior Operations Officer - Climate Lead, LAC Region Senior Operations Officer - Climate Lead, LAC Region

Job # : req32039

Organization : Sector :

Investment

Grade : 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 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 toernment 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 localpanies to grow while improving their transparency, efficiency and sustainablepetitiveness; (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 electricalponents, light manufacturing eg. textiles and construction materials cement, glass) are Greenhouse Gas (GHG) intensive, presenting opportunities for IFC to deliver on its climatemitments and to support low carbon growth. This includes helping clients to achieve their own climate related strategies andmitments 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 targetpanies 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 ( 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

People and Resource Responsibility

Selection Criteria

World Bank Group Corepetencies

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

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated andmitted 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. Job ID req32039