Title: Technical Manager, Carbon Project Development / Agri-Carbon Projects Technical Manager
Reporting to: Head of Carbon Markets
Managing: 1-5 Regional Project Operations Officers
Remuneration Range: Based on experience
Location: Global/Remote (Africa or Europe preferred home base). Up to 50% travel may be required.
Role Maturation: 6-18 months, becomes Head of Technical Assurance
About Degas’s Carbon Market Division:
Degas’ newly established carbon markets division has ambitious goals to leverage climate finance for the development and empowerment of rural communities across the world. We are passionate about delivering high-quality agricultural land management and emissions avoidance projects that can produce tangible and measurable sustainable development outcomes.
Working closely with Degas’ technology, Agri-operations, business development and finance divisions, the carbon markets team will deliver end-to-end project development solutions and digital products that will improve the livelihoods, crop productivity and economic resilience of smallholder farmers for generations to come.
If you’re ready to take on the biggest challenges of our generation, and drive large-scale institutional investment into climate mitigation, food security, and sustainable development, come and join an innovative and diverse team that is positioned to deliver eight-to-nine-digit annual growth over the next few years!
Position Description:
This is a senior technical role within Degas’ Carbon Markets Division focusing on all technical elements related to end-to-end project development.
This role ensures that the pipeline of Degas’ project and capital aggregation mechanisms are credible and robust, and deliver the required conservation and social outcomes according to international certification standards.
This role will ensure that Degas’ measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification standards and procedures are of the highest quality, and lead to the successful development of projects.
This role will maintain the quality and integrity of carbon project data, ensuring Degas’ D-MRV products are trained on high-quality, accurate and decision-grade information.
Scope:
Advise all technical elements on projects and manage processes for the delivery of technical documents (e.g PDDs, project sampling plans etc.)
Develop and maintain auditable standard operating procedures and QA/QC processes for all required fieldwork, GIS data, surveying, and project sampling.
Work closely with verification bodies to manage project audits and ensure the successful validation and verification of projects.
Develop and manage project implementation plans and operations budgets.
Develop strategies to reduce project costs and increase operational efficiency. This may include piloting different stratification, sampling and measurement tools, procedures and models.
Work closely with Degas’ Regenerative Agriculture team to drive project adoption and ensure projects are compliant with methodological requirements of carbon certification. This will include collecting project data, managing trials, monitoring project quality, and making agronomic recommendations for continuous project improvement.
Manage and develop key partnerships for all required technical services.
Engage in continuous innovation scouting for new practices, activities, and digital products and services that can be integrated into Degas’ carbon portfolio.
Target experience and competencies:
5+ years of work experience in sustainable agriculture.
PhD (or equivalent knowledge/experience) in agronomy, soil science or environmental science is a plus.
Ideally, experienced in the development and or verification of carbon projects.
Has the ability to work in the field for extended periods, comfortably operating agricultural machinery, and comfortable training and mentoring field agents in sample collection and preparation processes.
Cover letter:
Please describe the most difficult technical problem you have solved.