AD, Head of SBI, Green Buildings

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An international financial institution in Greater London seeks an Associate Director to lead initiatives on affordable sustainable buildings and green urban regeneration. The role focuses on climate strategy, project management, and policy engagement. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in climate finance and a master's degree in a relevant field. This position offers a hybrid working culture emphasizing inclusivity, sustainability, and employee wellbeing.

Benefits

Flexible working environment

Competitive benefits

Diverse team and inclusive culture

Qualifications

• Master’s degree preferred in climate science, engineering, or related fields.
• Extensive experience in structuring climate/green investments.
• Very good understanding of climate change science and risk assessment.
• Experience in digital solutions for buildings.
• Knowledge of heat decarbonisation solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead climate strategy for affordable sustainable buildings.
• Coordinate cross-functional activities in green urban regeneration.
• Develop programmes to enhance sustainability in building projects.
• Manage donor engagement and resource mobilisation for initiatives.
• Promote digitalisation and data-driven solutions in project delivery.

Skills

Climate finance expertise

Project management

Policy analysis

Digital solutions understanding

Excellent communication skills

Education

Master’s degree in relevant field

Tools

Digital twins

Performance measurement systems

Job description

Purpose of Job

The Associate Director, Head of SBI, Green Buildings leads the Climate Strategy and Delivery (CSD) department’s work on building affordable renovation, green buildings, and green urban regeneration across EBRD’s finance and policy channels, both private and public. The role covers five core areas: project support, product and aggregation scheme development, policy work, knowledge and methodology framework development and implementation, and donor and partner engagement. The AD GB coordinates business support, product development, and policy design and execution across all relevant Bank operations.

Building on EBRD’s extensive experience in policy engagement, technical assistance, and financing of green buildings and urban regeneration, the main goal is to develop programmes and initiatives that accelerate decarbonisation and enhance sustainability of the built environment across operational performance and affordability and full lifecycle dimensions. This includes promoting low‑carbon and circular construction materials and methods through aggregation models and renovation delivery schemes. The role achieves results by combining policy instruments with financial solutions and integrating multiple delivery channels, including financial intermediaries, real estate developers, ESCOs, and equity funds among others. The role will address the need to ensure that decarbonisation and sustainability solutions are adapted to specific market contexts and aligned with finance instruments to enable programmatic finance models that scale and accelerate market uptake in our countries of operation.

The AD‑GB will also promote digitalisation and data‑driven solutions such as building energy modelling, digital twins, smart controls, and performance measurement systems to enable scalable, verifiable, and replicable investment programmes. Given the relevance of sustainable built environment projects across economic activities, the role operates at the interface of all main EBRD business functions—FI, Sustainable Infrastructure, Corporate Sector, and Equity—and works closely with other Associate Directors in CSD with sectoral responsibilities. Coordination with the Regional Policy and Strategy team within VP3 ensures effective policy dialogue and technical assistance delivered through Resident Offices.

Background

The EBRD, created 30 years ago to help formerly communist economies adapt to market conditions, works in many countries that face the toughest challenges in reducing carbon emissions, or is vulnerable to climate change. EBRD countries are 35 per cent more carbon‑intensive than the world average, and highly polluting coal accounts for more than 40 per cent of primary energy supply in seven EBRD countries. Yet the EBRD regions are well positioned to benefit from the fast‑growing transition to renewables, thereby reducing their reliance on fossil fuels, with excellent resource and growing capacity in wind, solar and hydropower.

Designing a way out of economies built around fossil fuels within three decades will require intensive planning, including in securing the social conditions for a sustainable and just transition. The EBRD will also significantly scale up policy advice and institutional capacity building for low‑carbon and climate resilient strategies, promoting and supporting ambitious action in, and with, its countries of operations. This builds on the EBRD’s long track record of financing green investments. To date, the EBRD has signed close to €40 billion in green investments and financed over 2,200 green projects, which are expected to reduce 110 million tonnes of carbon emissions yearly.

A clear commitment to the goals of the Paris Agreement, whether by country or company, creates the enabling environment to unleash innovation and investment, creating high quality jobs, opening new markets, diversifying economies, creating cleaner, more liveable communities, and boosting sustainable growth. The goal of the EBRD is to support its countries of operation in creating that environment and supporting innovators and investors in realising those goals.

Facts / Scale

The CSD business group, established under Vice Presidency & Partnerships numbers c.95, comprising engineers, policy specialists and others with a wide range of expertise in green investment, decarbonisation, international and national climate policy and other related areas. It works with colleagues across the Bank to support the delivery of c.EUR 5 billion of green investments annually and numerous policy interventions. Where the Associate Director is responsible for a specified Banking team sector, they will also be responsible for supporting the delivery by that team of its GET ABI targets, ranging from c.EUR 300 million to c.EUR 1 billion.

The Associate Director will be the face of CSD in the sustainable buildings and green urban regeneration sector. The Associate Director must have the credibility to represent the Bank in discussions with senior private sector clients, government authorities and other counterparties. The Associate Director may have people management responsibilities for staff and lead functional teams of equivalent 10 people in size.

Accountabilities & Responsibilities

• AD-GB leads CSD activities in the area of affordable sustainable buildings, green urban regeneration and buildings renovation and coordinates related CSD activity across all EBRD countries of operations, including overseeing the CSD contribution to the all green buildings related activities across five core areas : (i) project origination support, (ii) CSD product and aggregation scheme development, (iii) policy work, (iv) knowledge & methodology frameworks, and (v) donor and partner engagement.
• The AD-GB is the main CSD reference and point of contact for the EBRD in the affordable green buildings area and organises the work of CSD to support relevant Banking teams deliver their business and impact objectives.
• They oversee the application to sustainable buildings projects of methodologies and approaches to support climate and green investments (including through nature‑based solutions), regulatory reform and activities across all relevant economic sectors and systems. Also, coordinate the Bank's external engagements in this area.
• They supervise and coordinate the design and execution of policy dialogue engagements to promote enhanced sustainability at a client and country level, in co‑ordination with colleagues in the regional offices.
• The AD-GB works alongside other functions in CSD to support climate and green policy reforms supporting sustainable buildings and urban regeneration in the context of economy wide climate / biodiversity strategies and plans. Including heat decarbonisation strategies (building electrification, low‑temperature district energy integration, demand response).
• The AD-GB shall coordinate the cross‑functional Green Buildings Hub network, ensuring structured workflows and alignment across EBRD teams working on the urban space.
• The incumbent leads the development of digital measurement, including the adoption of recognised performance verification protocols and the creation of project and portfolio‑level data systems that support climate finance attribution and donor reporting.
• The AD-GB leads the strategic approach to donor engagement and resource mobilisation underpinning Hub delivery, including identification of funding needs and co‑development of multi‑country TC frameworks
• They actively, support CSD Managing Director and Directors in developing and implementing all CSD deliverables, including in relation to strategy, projects prioritisation and resources allocation

Knowledge, Skills, Experience & Qualifications

Qualifications and Skills

• Master’s degree preferred (climate science, engineering, infrastructure planning, economics, risk management, energy, environmental) and / or relevant experience applicable to sustainable buildings and infrastructure.
• Extensive experience in structuring climate / green investments in sustainable projects with proven experience in climate finance (including climate resilience) approaches and methodologies.
• Very good understanding of climate change science and the approaches, methodologies, tools to assess climate risks and the implications of climate change in terms of economic and social impacts
• Experience in structuring programmatic building renovation finance, including green mortgages, energy performance contracting models, and / or on‑bill or on‑tax recovery schemes an advantage.
• Understanding of digital solutions for building performance, such as building energy modelling, digital twins, smart building controls and performance monitoring / verification protocols.
• Knowledge of heat decarbonisation solutions and their integration into building and district‑level systems.
• Experience working on housing affordability, inclusion and social outcome considerations in the context of building retrofit or regeneration projects (desirable).
• Very good understanding of methodologies for risk analysis and management.
• Excellent computer literacy, in particular with understanding of modelling, data management and processing.
• Good understanding of policy analysis and policy formulation in the areas of climate change, climate resilience, infrastructure development.
• Sound understanding of business and finance principles.
• Experience in emerging markets and developing countries.
• Excellent written / oral communication skills in English and preferably in another language of the Bank (French, Russian or Arabic).

Experience and Knowledge

• Ability to operate consistently within business guidelines and ethics and work sensitively in multicultural environments, building effective working relations with clients and colleagues.
• Influencing, negotiation and relationship building skills, with both internal and external partners.
• Ability to coordinate and convene multi‑stakeholder partnerships across government, municipalities, social housing actors, financial institutions and private developers, ensuring shared objectives and effective implementation.
• Result‑oriented, self‑motivated, ability to work to and meet tight deadlines and to plan and organise work unsupervised in a logical and efficient manner.
• Familiarity with role and requirements of EBRD and / or other international financing institutions and / or development agencies.
• Leadership and team management : good team management skills, with the ability to lead, motivate, and develop a high‑performing team.
• Proven track record as team manager for project preparation or implementation tasks, consulting and advisory and / or policy development.
• Experience and familiarity in working within multicultural projects and teams.
• Experience of and judgement on integrity matters.

What is it like to work at the EBRD? / About EBRD

Our agile and innovative approach is what makes life at the EBRD a unique experience! You will be part of a pioneering and diverse international organisation, and use your talents to make a real difference to people's lives and help shape the future of the regions we invest in.

At EBRD, our Values – Inclusiveness, Innovation, Trust, and Responsibility – are at the heart of how we work. We bring these to life through our Workplace Behaviours : listening well and speaking up, collaborating smartly, acting decisively with full commitment, and simplifying to amplify our impact. These principles shape our culture and define our success. We seek individuals who not only share these values but are also committed to embedding them in their daily work, fostering a positive and high‑performing environment.

The EBRD environment provides you with

• Varied, stimulating and engaging work that gives you an opportunity to interact with a wide range of experts in the financial, political, public and private sectors across the regions we invest in.
• A working culture that embraces inclusion and celebrates diversity. Our workforce reflects a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences, bringing fresh ideas, energy, and innovation and enhancing our ability to serve our clients, shareholders, and counterparties effectively.
• A hybrid workplace that offers flexibility to teams and individuals; that is based on trust, flexibility and connectedness.
• An environment that places sustainability, equality and digital transformation at the heart of what we do.
• A workplace that prioritises employee wellbeing and provides a comprehensive suite of competitive benefits.