Team Leader - CASA 3

Palladium; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Palladium seeks a Team Leader to lead the Climate Ambition Support Alliance (CASA) programme in London, reporting to the client and coordinating with consortium partners and technical delivery teams. The role focuses on governance, risk management, and delivering multi-year outcomes in climate diplomacy and development.

Ideal candidates bring experience leading donor-funded programmes, strong stakeholder engagement, and ability to manage budgets, workplans and reporting.

Qualifications

• Strong academic background, or commensurate experience, in fields related to climate change, international development, climate negotiations, climate governance or related disciplines.
• Proven leadership in complex donor-funded programmes, preferably DESNZ or FCDO-funded programmes.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and report-writing skills, with ability to influence senior decision-makers.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership and overall accountability for successful delivery of the programme.
• Serve as primary contact between client, consortium partners and technical delivery teams; ensure coordination across activities.
• Build and maintain relationships with client, negotiating groups, technical experts and partners to maximise impact.
• Lead end-to-end programme management, ensuring delivery remains robust and adaptive.
• Establish governance structures, delivery systems, and reporting mechanisms.
• Identify and manage risks and opportunities; advise on adaptive responses.
• Lead preparation of annual workplans, delivery plans and budgets with Project leadership.
• Oversee consortium partners and subcontractors; ensure compliance and delivery against plans.
• Promote integration of MEL and GESI considerations; oversee communications and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Programme management

Team leadership

Financial management

Governance & reporting

Risk management

Communication & briefings

English fluency

Education

Strong academic background in climate change/ development

Job description

About Palladium:

Palladiumis a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact onthe lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health,water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, andtransformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges;and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have aworkforce of 2,100 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions,races, languages, and gender identities.

About CASA 3:

The Climate Ambition SupportAlliance (CASA) is a UK-funded programme dedicated to enhancing the capacityand capability of ambitious, low-income, and climate-vulnerable countries ininternational climate negotiations. Overseen by the Department forEnergy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), CASA currently provides support to theLeast Developed Countries (LDC) group, the Alliance of Small Island DevelopingStates (AOSIS), the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) and the Independent Allianceof Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC).

This Opportunity:

Palladium is seeking a Team Leader to join our proposal for the next phase of the programme. This role will act as the central point of leadership for programmedelivery. The Team Leader is responsible for representing the programme with arange of external organisations and individuals, including regularly reportingto the client, maintaining strong working relationships with relevant localentities, other programmes, as well as with corporate Palladium staff. This is an excellent opportunity for experiencedproject leaders to play a critical role in the fight against climate change andprovision of support to climate-vulnerable countries. Should the project be awarded, the Team Leader wouldbe expected to start full-time in January 2027. This a multi-year programmerunning until March 2030.

Location:

The position is hybrid based in Palladium’s London office.

Primary Roles and Responsibilities:

Project Leadership, Stakeholder Engagementand Representation

• Provide strategic leadership and overallaccountability for the successful delivery of the programme, ensuringachievement of objectives, outcomes and contractual commitments.
• Serve as the primary point of contact between theClient, consortium partners and technical delivery teams, ensuringeffective coordination and communication across all programme activities.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with theclient, negotiating groups, technical experts and consortium partners,ensuring partnerships contribute effectively to programme delivery andimpact.
• Represent the programme in governance forums,steering committees and external events as required.

Programme Management, Governance andDelivery

• Lead end-to-end programme management, ensuringdelivery remains robust, adaptive, effective and responsive to emergingpriorities and stakeholder needs.
• Provide strategic guidance, oversight and qualityassurance for all programme activities, outputs and deliverables, drawingon specialist expertise from across the team where required.
• Establish and maintain effective programmegovernance structures, delivery systems and reporting mechanisms.
• Proactively identify, assess and manage programmerisks and opportunities, advising both Palladium and the Client onemerging issues and adaptive responses.
• Lead, alongside the Project Manager and ProjectDirector the preparation of annual workplans, delivery plans and budgets
• Oversee management of consortium partners andsubcontractors, ensuring compliance with contractual requirements anddelivery against agreed workplans.
• Promote the integration of MEL and GEDSIconsiderations throughout programme delivery.
• Oversee programme communications andknowledge-sharing activities to maximise the visibility and uptake ofprogramme achievements, lessons and best practice.

Team Leadership and Management

• Provide leadership, direction and support to theprogramme team, fostering a collaborative, inclusive and high-performingculture.
• Establish and maintain effective managementsystems, processes and ways of working across the programme.
• Lead staff performance management processes,including objective setting, performance reviews and individualdevelopment planning.

Financial Management and Compliance

• Provide overall oversight of programme finances,ensuring sound financial management and stewardship of programmeresources.
• Alongside the Project Director and Manager, leadbudget management, forecasting and financial planning processes, ensuringexpenditure remains aligned with programme objectives and approvedbudgets.
• Monitor and demonstrate VfM across programmeactivities.
• Ensure compliance with ODA requirements, contractualobligations and relevant programme policies and procedures.

Required Qualifications:

• Strong academic background, or commensurateexperience, in fields related to climate change, internationaldevelopment, climate negotiations, climate governance or relateddisciplines.
• Proven experience in a leadership role on projectsof similar complexity designing and delivering technical assistance in theclimate space.
• Demonstrated experience leading and managingcomplex donor-funded programmes, preferably DESNZ or FCDO-fundedprogrammes.
• Strong programme and financial managementexperience, including budgeting, forecasting, risk management, VfM andcompliance oversight.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement, facilitationand relationship management skills, with the ability to build trust andinfluence senior decision-makers.
• Direct experience supporting climate negotiationsand strengthening the engagement and influence of climate-vulnerablecountries in international processes would be particularly advantageous.
• Strong analytical, communication andreport-writing skills, with the ability to produce timely, concise andhigh-quality reports and briefings.
• Collaborative and adaptive leadership style, withstrong interpersonal skills, resilience, self-motivation and the abilityto respond effectively to changing priorities.
• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion -

Palladium iscommitted to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do.We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encouragediversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. Wepositively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce;and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatmentregardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (butare not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity andexpression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality,veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Safeguarding

We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken byPalladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come intocontact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.

Our company provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics.