Senior Director, Transaction Advisory

Environmental Defense Fund, Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); Remote; USD 120,000 - 135,000; Full time

Job summary

Environmental Defense Fund seeks a Senior Director, Transaction Advisory to lead the day-to-day execution across four Latin American and Caribbean countries under a World Bank‑funded program. This role aims to mobilize large carbon transactions to support jurisdictional forest protection initiatives.

The Senior Director will report to EDF’s AVP, Jurisdictional Alliances & Market Dev, Forests, and will manage a small team, coordinating a wide range of advisory partners, senior government actors,

Qualifications

• Native or bilingual Spanish speaker with excellent written and verbal communication.
• English fluency required.
• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Strong people and project management skills with multi-country engagements.
• Experience advising senior government officials, multilateral institutions, or executives on complex issues.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary government-facing counterpart across participating countries and translate priorities into actionable workplans.
• Lead Phase 1 diagnostics and Phase 2 transaction execution across four countries.
• Provide portfolio-wide advisory and market intelligence across all countries.
• Directly manage a Senior Transaction Manager and coordinate advisory partners and World Bank stakeholders.
• Ensure risk management and donor accountability across the program.

Skills

Spanish language (native or bilingual)

English fluency

Leadership & people management

Project management

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Job description

Location: Mexico Remote (Monterrey, Guadalajara or Mexico City preferred). Or US-Remote, with preference for those in proximity to current EDF US office locations.

Duration: This is a 2-year fixed-term position with full benefits and the possibility of extension.

Provisional Hiring: This position is contingent on an anticipated grant award with the World Bank.

EDF Forests Overview

EDF’s Forests Focus Area is one of EDF’s 8 global impact areas, whose goals rise to the level of the enormity of the climate and nature crisis. Through demonstrating proof of concept for large-scale forest conservation, engaging key Indigenous peoples and local communities forest policies and programs, and scaling access to finance for these solutions, EDF seeks to contribute global-scale contributions in support of meeting global targets to halt and reverse global forest loss by 2030 while boosting local livelihoods and forest restoration.

Protecting forests that regulate climate, preserve biodiversity, and support the livelihoods and climate adaptation of millions of people is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Recognizing the urgency, and in anticipation of a grant award with the World Bank, EDF and key partners will support jurisdictional REDD+ programming and transaction advisory, deploying a transaction‑focused delivery model, grounded in direct advisory support to governments and designed to move jurisdictions from readiness to executed carbon market transactions.

Overall Function

Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. ("EDF") seeks to hire a Senior Director, Transaction Advisory. This position will serve as the day-to-day transaction lead across four Latin American and Caribbean countries (Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala) under a World Bank‑funded program to mobilize 8 and 9 figure carbon transactions to support ongoing jurisdictional‑scale forest protection programs.

They will report to EDF’s AVP, Jurisdictional Alliances & Market Dev, Forests and directly manage a small team and coordinate a multi‑stakeholder group of advisory partners, senior government actors, and World Bank stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary government‑facing counterpart across all participating countries, building trusted relationships with senior government stakeholders, translating government priorities into actionable workplans, and ensuring continuity across jurisdictions.
• Lead transaction‑oriented diagnostics and commercialization planning across all four countries during Phase 1 (~6 months), assessing policy, legal, institutional, commercial, and supply‑side readiness and delivering Country Support Plans that define actionable, time‑bound pathways to market.
• Lead end‑to‑end transaction execution in priority jurisdictions during Phase 2 (~18 months), including commercial strategy, buyer engagement, market sounding, pricing and deal structuring, negotiation support, due diligence coordination, and support through commercial close.
• Provide portfolio‑wide commercial advisory across all participating countries, including market intelligence, commercialization strategy, buyer engagement support, and strategic advice on evolving compliance and voluntary carbon market opportunities.
• Lead Latin America Carbon Advisory Function and stakeholder coordination, directly managing a Senior Transaction Manager and serving as the central coordinator across advisory partners, senior government counterparts, and World Bank stakeholders to ensure disciplined execution across all workstreams.
• Participate in advancing EDF’s Organizational Effectiveness and Culture (OEC) goals, so people from all backgrounds and experiences feel connected, included and empowered to address environmental and organizational challenges in ways that align with EDF values.
• Manage program risk management and donor‑facing accountability, proactively identifying commercial, operational, institutional, and coordination risks, resolving execution bottlenecks, and ensuring project outputs meet EDF and World Bank expectations.
• Additional relevant responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications

• Native or fully bilingual Spanish speaker with excellent written and verbal communication skills. English fluency required.
• 10+ years of relevant professional experience in management consulting, investment banking, transaction advisory, or carbon trading and a Bachelor’s degree required.
• Passionate about conservation, and a strong belief in market‑based approaches to provide more equitable financing for forest landscapes
• Demonstrated experience advising senior government officials, multilateral institutions, or business executives on complex strategic or commercial issues, ideally in emerging market or Latin American contexts.
• Strong people and project management skills, including managing multi‑stakeholder and multi‑country engagements.
• Experience leading negotiations involving commercial or public‑sector transactions, whether M&A, infrastructure deals, sovereign advisory, or carbon/commodity trading.
• Experience working in emerging markets, with a demonstrated capacity to navigate institutional complexity, build trust across cultures, and deliver in environments where processes are non‑linear.
• Proactive, attentive to detail, and highly organized.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated experience and understanding of carbon markets — or a clearly demonstrated capacity and willingness to rapidly develop this knowledge.
• Demonstrated self‑awareness, cultural competency and inclusivity, and ability to work with colleagues and stakeholders across all cultures and backgrounds.
• Must be willing and able to travel up to 30% of the time across Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala and to the EDF’s New York office.

We offer a strong total rewards package encompassing competitive salary, robust benefits, and professional development opportunities consistent with a modern global organization. We take into account factors such as candidate experience, skills, training, internal team equity and local norms.

Please note that pay ranges are country specific. As a result, the stated currency is not meant be converted into any other currency.

2,220,000 - 2,500,000 MXN