Head of Energy Strategy – North Africa in Burnley

Overview

The Pooled-fund on International Energy (PIE) is an international grant-making and strategy platform hosted by the European Climate Foundation. PIE collaborates with foundations, re-granting organizations, and civil society partners to promote clean energy and phase out coal and gas within a just transition. The core mission is international and transnational efforts to achieve carbon-free power sectors globally by 2040 and to accelerate decarbonization in the iron and steel industries. The role focuses on identifying and working with partners to co-develop strategies, make grants, convene actors and initiatives, and build forward-looking grantmaking strategies based on robust facts and analysis. The Head of Energy Strategy in North Africa will report to the Director of the Africa portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Lead and co-develop strategic frameworks and manage the implementation of PIE's Africa workstream, in collaboration with the program team and re-granting partners.
• Coordinate with regional and international partners to ensure alignment with core themes and regional priorities.
• Manage and potentially supervise team members, primarily consultants or Advisors supporting the Africa work.
• Strategic development – Formulate and recommend a technical energy strategy for Africa with a focus on North Africa, addressing campaigns, communication, technology innovation, transition, and economic drivers. Define countries part of the annual strategic focus and five-year plans.
• Grantmaking and implementation – Lead execution of the relevant part of the PIE 5-year strategy and its grantmaking in coordination with the Africa team; ensure alignment with regional climate foundation partners; support funders' initiatives and oversee grantmaking with the PIE operations and ECF finance teams, including monitoring and evaluation.
• Strategy advising and intelligence – Liaise with philanthropic foundations to advise on North Africa (and/or MENA) strategy, prepare grant proposals, and align foundation engagement; oversee consultants delivering the strategy and develop a data-driven approach to inform PIE and partner plans.
• Team management – Oversee performance and wellbeing of direct reports where applicable.
• External relations – Build and maintain relationships with civil society, labor, business, and government actors; support cross-regional networking across regional climate foundations; represent the program externally as needed.
• Research and convening – Commission impactful research and organize stakeholder engagements; convene and cultivate a field of partners as co-developers of strategy and maintain productive relationships with grantees and partners.

Experience and qualifications

• At least 5 to 8 years of relevant experience in driving change through public campaigning, advocacy, network mobilization, or related roles in agencies, businesses, or government.
• Ideally includes exposure to campaigning and communication strategies.
• University degree or equivalent.
• Proficiency in Arabic (C1 level) is required. Knowledge of North African dialects is an advantage.

Essential knowledge

• Understanding of the energy sector and how energy policy or system setups operate.
• Advocacy and campaigning experience and/or diplomatic and government insight; familiarity with how NGO campaigning impacts policy processes.
• Climate politics and policy understanding; regional knowledge of North Africa is desirable but not essential.

Skills and competencies

• Strong written and verbal communication in Arabic and English; ability to crystallize complex issues into clear strategy documents.
• Excellence in strategic thinking and translating strategy into implementation.
• Self-management and organizational skills to operate effectively with limited supervision.

What we offer

• Opportunity to work within a dynamic international team with a rigorous approach to impact.
• Access to a network of partners with deep grantmaking and strategy development expertise.
• Flexible, self-managed approach to day-to-day work.

Location

This is a flexible, home-based role. The successful candidate should be able to operate effectively within North African business days and working hours.