About Tara Climate Foundation

Tara Climate Foundation is an Asia-based philanthropic organisation committed to building a moresustainable and prosperous future for the region. At the heart of our mission lies Asia’s just energy transition– recognising that with half the world’s population and the fastest-growing energy demand, the region’s progress will shape the world’s collective future.

Established in 2021 and headquartered in Singapore, Tara Climate Foundation works with over 400 partners across 12 Asian geographies, including think tanks, research institutes, advisory groups, and associations. Tara provides grants, convenes stakeholders, and facilitates knowledge-sharing to accelerate clean energy development, drive a just transition, and enable clean industrialisation. Underpinning these efforts is a strong commitment to unlocking sustainable finance, supporting climate goals, and aligning business action with a people-centred energy transition. Our team of over 50 experts is spread across the Asia-Pacific region, working to accelerate climate action in this decisive decade.

For more on Tara Climate Foundation, visit https://taraclimate.org/.

About the Role

The Senior Program Officer [South Korea] will work closely with the Program Director to accelerate the energy transition programme and expand its work across [South Korea] and the region by supporting think tanks, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.

Key responsibilities

The Senior Program Officer’s main areas of responsibility are:

Program Strategy

• Lead the development of strategies that will accelerate a just energy transition, including in the areas of sustainable economic development policies, corporate decarbonization and mobilizing finance, and ensure that the program is multi-faceted, complex and multi-layered and developed in consultation with partners.
• Contribute to the development of national long term program strategy and annual objectives in line with Tara's organisational goals and vision.
• Identify grantees and strategies that can help drive further climate ambition in these sectors.
• Contribute to reporting quarterly on progress, and annually on the achievements, impact, and lessons learned of the [South Korea] program.
• Contribute to developing requirements and budget plans and tracking key performance indicators for the program.
• Proactively review developments in the economic sector and political situations that may impact the program and continuously adapt and revise strategies and tactics.
• Contribute to funding proposals and reports to funders on progress.
• Support the Korea program director in developing and implementing specific projects to advance the country strategy.
• Support the Program Director to develop and deliver grant-making strategy for the [South Korea] program in consultation with national partners. This includes ensuring that a multi-faceted and multi-layered strategy is developed together with national partners and that the strategy is regularly evaluated for its impact.

Partnerships and Coordination

• Identify, assess and onboard new partners for grantmaking in alignment with program strategy.
• Contribute to developing a trust-based ecosystem of diverse partners who work collaboratively towards common goals.
• Network with various stakeholders, including industry sector, industry associations, existing grantees, potential partners, and national, regional and international organizations working in the space relevant to the program’s implementation.
• Facilitate coordination among partners inside and outside of [South Korea] to ensure Tara achieves outcomes that are larger than the sum of the individual partners’ efforts.
• Create and implement network strengthening and organisational development strategies with Tara partners.

Representation and Networking

• Establish and maintain good working relationships with key stakeholders, including funders, civil society, business and government as needed to advance program objectives.
• Support Tara’s partners to develop constructive working relationships with government agencies, international financial institutions, and diplomatic missions. By doing so, he/she will support Tara’s partners’ work to strengthen [South Korea]’s position and influence in international climate and energy forums.

Grantmaking

• Develop and deliver a portfolio of grants across selected climate mitigation sectors.
• Guide and advise current and prospective grantees to ensure activities achieve their intended objectives and results.
• Monitor deliverables and submissions from grantees and provide feedback on their timeliness and quality.
• Manage a program budget and partner grants, including developing and incubating new partners
• Guide and advise grantees, partners, and prospective partners in the field to ensure activities achieve their intended objectives and results.
• Monitor grantee and partner deliverables and submissions and provide general oversight on their timeliness and quality.

Leadership and management

• Provide supervision and guidance to individual program officer(s) as required.

Expertise and knowledge

• Use knowledge of national, regional and global trends to help inform and adapt programs to changing contexts.
• Use expertise of the South Korea’s political, social, economic, diplomatic, cultural context and energy systems to contribute to understanding the emerging risks and opportunities for Tara's work.
• Confidently communicate insights to key external audiences as well as internal collaborators

Convening and collaboration

• Facilitate collaboration among program partners and other stakeholders by organising meetings and workshops to foster joint initiatives and learning.
• Collaborate effectively with Tara regional thematic and program support specialists.

Compliance and risk management

• Follow all organisational standard operating procedures and policies including compliance, budget and financial management, human resources, procurement and IT.
• Support risk management, safeguarding and safety & security management to protect people, information and assets.

Person Specification

Excited by the prospect of working for a dynamic and fast-growing international organisation with a mission to solve the climate crisis, the ideal candidate will have:

• At least 10 years+ of relevant work experience, gained in either local or international foundations, donor agencies, NGOs or clean energy related companies or financial institutions
• At least 5+ years experience in management positions, with experience managing junior level team members or up to 1 team

In addition, the ideal candidate will demonstrate:

• Experienced in developing and implementing successful advocacy and campaign strategies, utilizing a wide array of tactics.
• Demonstrated policy analysis skills.
• An innate grasp of strategy, systems thinking, and the ability to articulate strategies in a clear and compelling way and the ability to translate strategy into implementation.
• Robust understanding of economic development planning processes and the dynamics in the corporate and finance sector.
• Knowledge and understanding of the political, diplomatic, economic and cultural context in South Korea, particularly on sustainable development and energy transformation issues.
• Knowledge on Korea’s media environment and climate journalism.
• Demonstrated communication and networking skills that enable effective collaboration with a diverse group of partners.
• Strong critical and strategic thinking skills.
• Fluency in written and oral English and Korean, able to write briefing papers, funding proposal and reports
• Computer skills (Excel, Powerpoint, Word)

Personal attributes

• Deep commitment to solving the climate crisis and enabling systemic change;
• Intrinsic motivation, excellent organisational and self-management skills;
• Deeply collaborative;
• Flexibility over working hours to accommodate global time zones;
• Willingness to travel both regionally and internationally;
• Impeccable ethics, and experience working confidentially and operating with high security.

Education

• Master's degree qualification or relevant expertise in a relevant field such as renewable energy, environmental management, business administration, economics or sustainable development

Location

• The candidate must be based in South Korea and be a citizen of South Korea or have long-term residency status with legal permit to reside and work in the country.

What Tara Foundation can offer

• The unique opportunity to work as part of a highly dynamic, international team who combine their passion to make a difference with a rigorous and results-oriented approach to work
• A flexible work environment
• Opportunities for career develop and challenge yourself
• Competitive compensation and benefits
• A collaborative, fun and thriving team, driven by our mission and live our values

To Apply:

Please submit an A4 covering letter outlining your skills and achievements against the role responsibilities, why you would like to join us and your salary expectations, along with your up-to-date CV at Recruitment@taraclimate.org.

Please use the job title: Grants Officer South Korea as the subject in your email.

Applications without a cover letter will not be assessed.

Tara is committed to building leadership capacity within Asia. This position is based in South Korea. Applicants must have the right to work in the country.

We appreciate everyone's application, but only have the resources to respond to shortlisted applicants. If you have not heard from us within 3 weeks of the closing date, please assume you are unsuccessful for this role. If this is you, we appreciate your support and consideration and hope you will continue to consider roles with Tara in the future!

Visit us at: https://taraclimate.org/.