Carbon Finance Lead

Reporting To: Founder & CEO

Type of Employment: FTE

Environment: We’re hybrid (London)

Salary: GBP 75,000-105,000 depending on experience + Options

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

Other: We cannot sponsor visas at this time

Please apply even if you do not see yourself meeting every criterion on this job spec. We want to build an inclusive, thriving team that represents the world we want to build and live in. We are led by our Founder/CEO who is a Woman of Colour and deeply values equity and inclusion.

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 - we must rapidly scale high-quality climate projects that remove and reduce carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. High-quality carbon removal projects, from afforestation to biochar, to newer/frontier technologies encounter formidable barriers in accessing necessary financing - that’s where Opna comes in. We’re combining data, financing innovation, and technology to help high-quality climate projects access right timed, right sized financing, anywhere in the world.

Our Solution

Opna offers a software platform for climate-action-committed companies to de-risk the financing and procurement of high quality carbon removal.

The world’s leading climate-action committed companies are moving away from simply buying carbon credits, to directly financing and procuring from high quality carbon removal projects. Thousands of other companies, big and small must follow suit, but simply do not have the inhouse resources, expertise, or large budgets to contract with projects in a cost-effective, transparent, and knowledgeable way.

Opna’s software lowers the barrier for new and existing carbon removal buyers to access and scale their carbon removal programs in a de-risked, transparent and cost efficient manner. This in turn, helps solve the massive financing gap for carbon removal projects and brings net-new supply of high quality carbon projects to the market.

Our Team

We are HQ’ed in London but also have team members in Berlin and Barcelona. Collectively we have deep experience and expertise across capital markets, carbon markets, startups climate finance, and FinTech. We hold each other accountable and give 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!

We are backed by leading multi-stage and climate tech VCs such as Atomico, Pale Blue Dot, My Climate Journey and supported by unicorn founders and accomplished operators from Klarna, Stripe, Eventbrite and Kinnevik amongst others.

Your Role

As the Carbon Finance Lead at Opna, you will own all things financing related to carbon markets transactions - working closely with our customers and suppliers to facilitate frictionless, robust and effective long term carbon markets contracts. This is a business development and a deal-focused role- you will be working closely with the rest of the Commercial team and the product/engineering teams.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities include:

• Forge Deep Relationships: Cultivate robust connections with corporate and financing leaders within Voluntary Carbon markets.
• Transaction Expert: Lead a number of significant carbon market financing transactions.
• Ecosystem Proficiency: Master the value chain of voluntary carbon markets and financing contracts, including challenges and due diligence criteria.
• Project Insight: Grasp diverse carbon market project types, spanning removal to reduction, driving innovative solutions.
• Independent Innovator: Acquire customers autonomously, shaping Opna's strategies in response to shifts in the financial landscape.
• Learning Advocate: Stay ahead by continuously learning about evolving carbon markets, informing Opna's strategy and product direction.
• Impactful Communicator: Deliver compelling written and verbal communication with finesse.

Required Skills and Qualifications

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

• Proven record of partnering with corporate/financing players within Voluntary Carbon markets.
• Previous participation in significant carbon market financing transactions.
• Strong grasp of carbon financing contracts, structures, and associated challenges.
• Excellent comprehension of de-risking and due diligence criterion for carbon projects.
• Good understanding of how corporates/financial investors would evaluate carbon financing transactions
• In-depth grasp of voluntary carbon markets and the intricacies of ecosystem value chains.
• Familiarity with diverse carbon market project types, covering removal and reduction initiatives.
• Agility to stay ahead through continuous learning about evolving carbon markets.
• Ability to independently acquire customers and align Opna's strategies with financial changes.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills for engaging diverse stakeholders.

Nice-to-Have:

• Considerable engagement with key carbon market players (e.g., Verra, IETA, ICVCM).

Personal Traits

We think you will thrive here if...

• You want to dedicate your skills and experience to solving climate challenges - We are an early stage company building in a nascent market. Without the alignment with our mission, You will likely find the going hard, and the learning curve steep.
• You care deeply about customer and business needs and see technology as the most effective way to solve them. 
• You can prioritise effectively-This is a critical distinction because your focus will be both internal and external - helping our product/GTM teams on the carbon expertise and customer front, and serving our customers' needs directly.
• You want to, and are comfortable working in an early stage/resource constrained environment, where your role may stretch beyond the responsibilities of a senior role and your day-to-day will involve rapid changes and associated chaos. 
• You are willing to constantly learn and apply yourself - be it a new tech tool or market information.

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.

• Screening with recruiter/ Opna Chief of Staff Matt
• Video call with our CEO, Shilpika Gautam
• Carbon Markets Task (onsite in London, preferably)
• Meet the team
• Call with a board member/investor+ References + personality test.
• Final offer

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.