Associate Director - ESG (Climate Reporting) | Melbourne

Acumentis; City of Melbourne; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Acumentis ESG seeks an Associate Director to lead AASB S2 climate disclosure engagements, working with clients, assurance providers and third parties. You’ll guide governance teams, CFOs and boards through complex disclosures with clarity and accuracy.

You’ll bring extensive sustainability reporting experience, including assurance over climate disclosures, and lead multi-workstream engagements to tight deadlines and budgets.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in sustainability reporting or climate risk.
• Experience in assurance over climate disclosures (ASSA 5010/5000 or ISAE 3000).
• Exposure to board-ready communication and governance.
• Big 4 or mid-tier professional services background preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead AASB S2 climate disclosures engagements from scoping to board adoption.
• Manage plans, timelines, budgets and resourcing for engagements.
• Coordinate with emissions data providers and assurance firms.
• Develop and refine methodologies, templates and QA checklists.

Skills

Sustainability reporting

Climate risk

Assurance knowledge

Stakeholder management

Big 4 experience

Education

Accounting/Finance degree

Tools

ASSA 5010

ISAE 3000

AASB S2

ISSB/TCFD

Job description

Associate Director - ESG (Climate Reporting) | Melbourne

Fluent in AASB S2. Also fluent in CFO, COO and board?

Climate reporting has a language problem. ASRS, ISSB, Scope 3, transition risk, limited assurance. Acronyms stacked on acronyms. Standards written by specialists, for specialists.

The people who have to act on it aren’t specialists.

Every climate disclosure has several readers. The auditor wants evidence. The CFO wants the commercial impact. The board wants to know what it’s signing. The operations team needs to know which risks and opportunities to act on, and how.

Most disclosures are written for one of them. Everyone else gets lost.

Acumentis ESG is hiring someone who speaks climate and can translate climate reporting requirements with confidence and clarity.

The role

As Associate Director, ESG, you'll lead AASB S2 climate disclosure engagements day to day, as the main contact with our clients', assurance providers and third-party relationships. You'll work directly with Marco Gritti, National Director, ESG.

Our clients are CFOs, Head of Risk and Compliance and company secretaries with a board to brief and an assurance deadline that won't move. They need disclosures that hold up under review, and someone who can explain them and guide them through the process.

You’ll know the technical detail: climate risk registers, scenario analysis, transition plans, emissions accounting and judgement logs built for assurance. You’ll also know how to use it: bringing a committee to agreement, walking a CFO through an unexpected scenario and defending a judgement to an auditor with confidence.

Expertise gets the work right. Communication and strong relationships get it adopted.

Five languages, one job

1. Client

• Lead AASB S2 and ASRS engagements from scoping through to board adoption
• Own plans, timelines, budgets and resourcing, and land work on time and on fee
• Run workstreams across governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets
• Coordinate partners such as emissions data providers and fold their outputs into the disclosure

2. Auditor

• Be the main contact between clients and their assurance providers under ASSA 5010 and ASSA 5000
• Build evidence files, judgement logs and audit trails that answer the question before it's asked
• Anticipate information requests and resolve issues before they become findings

3. Standards

• Review every deliverable for technical accuracy against AASB S2 and the Corporations Act
• Take key judgements (risk ratings, materiality thresholds) through the client's governance, not around it
• Sharpen our methodologies, templates and quality checklists

4. Team

• Set the quality bar and hold everyone to it, yourself included
• Keep the team current on standards, regulation and assurance practice
• Help recruit and onboard new clients and business opportunities

5. Commercial

• Be the senior day-to-day contact for client sponsors
• Spot follow-on work: Year 2 and 3 engagements, assurance readiness, financial quantification of climate risk and introduce clients to wider Acumentis services, including valuation and asset advisory
• Support proposals, scoping and fee estimates
• Build relationships with assurance firms

To be clear: this is a delivery role with a commercial edge. You'll carry revenue responsibility for yourself and your team. Better you hear that now.

Signs you're already fluent

• An auditor asks for supporting evidence. You know which page of the judgement log.
• A CFO asks what it costs. You answer in dollars, not frameworks.
• A board asks if it's material. You answer in two sentences, no acronyms.
• You'd rather teach a client to do it themselves than keep them needing you.

Your phrasebook (what you'll bring)

• A tertiary qualification in accounting, finance, economics, environmental science or a related field
• 5+ years in sustainability reporting, climate risk or sustainability assurance, including time in a Big 4 or mid-tier professional services firm
• Hands-on experience with limited or reasonable assurance over sustainability or climate disclosures (ASSA 5010, ASSA 5000 or ISAE 3000), from either side of the table
• Detailed working knowledge of AASB S2, the Corporations Act sustainability reporting requirements, and the ISSB and TCFD frameworks behind them
• A sound grasp of greenhouse gas accounting (Scopes 1, 2 and 3), scenario analysis, and physical and transition risk
• A track record of running multi-workstream engagements to deadline and budget

Highly regarded:

CA ANZ or CPA designation, a recognised sustainability or climate risk credential, and experience with property, infrastructure or other asset-heavy clients.

Why speak it here at Acumentis ESG

• Climate advice with an asset lens. We sit within Acumentis (ASX: ACU), an independent Australian property valuation and advisory firm. Our clients get climate advice from people who understand what their assets are worth.
• Capability, not dependency. Our approach is to build the capability of our clients with a focus on upskilling through our free Learning Hub and Academy which exist so eventually our clients can take the work in-house. Unusual for a consultancy. Deliberate.
• Room to grow. A clear path to grow the team and management responsibility, in a division where your judgement shapes the methodology.
• Four values. Never Quit. Walk the Talk. Support Our People and Clients. Embrace Equality of Opportunity. You'll see them in practice, not on a poster.

Show us your ESG fluency

Acumentis is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and are happy to discuss adjustments to the recruitment process.