Associate Director, Decentralised Energy

Location: hybrid (home-working/London office)

Start date: as soon as possible

Contract: 1 year fixed-term contract with opportunity to extend

Reporting to: Ryan Jude, Programme Director for Built Environment

About the Green Finance Institute (GFI)

Established in 2019, the Green Finance Institute (GFI) is an independent advisor to governments and investors. It is at the forefront of shaping how finance can be used to facilitate a real economy transition, by designing, testing, and scaling financial solutions that enable capital to flow where it can deliver the greatest impact in the real economy.

The GFI delivers positive outcomes for climate and nature by aligning policy, capital and pipeline development. As a commercially focused philanthropic organisation working with governments and partnering with financial institutions, corporates, NGOs, policymakers, academics and civil society experts, the GFI has mobilised over £80bn in committed capital to date.

The GFI is headquartered in London and has a presence in eight countries including Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Indonesia, the Philippines, Scotland, South Africa and Spain, and its missions work across the built environment, carbon dioxide removals, industrial decarbonisation, energy, transportation and nature.

What’s the role?

The GFI’s Built Environment Programme (BEP) aims to create and scale the Green Home Finance Landscape – co-developing solutions that will play a significant role in enabling the decarbonisation and electrification of the global built environment by overcoming barriers to deploying private finance. Driving scalable solutions through expert insight and a strong delivery focus, the BEP aims to convene the market to identify investment challenges and mobilise capital into decarbonising and electrifying the built environment. This is done through developing and scaling innovative propositions, which address both the opportunity and risk of investing in these solutions , and designing solutions to address investment barriers.

As the Decentralised Energy Associate Director, you will lead on developing solutions to accelerate investment into decentralised, place-based energy infrastructure. Initial work will focus on the UK, but you will also support GFI's international offices on relevant workstreams. Your work will also be flexible and respond to emerging market trends and GFI priorities.

You will work closely with the wider BEP team, including GFI's work supporting the Warm Homes Plan, Great British Energy and other Public Financial Institutions, as needed. You will need to be able to work at a local and national level, engaging with relevant industries, financial institutions and local, regional and central government.

This role provides an opportunity to scale investment in this crucial space, at a unique time for global energy policy, and UK devolution policy. This presents the chance to make a real tangible difference that can be scaled globally. You will be expected to work closely with a diverse range of stakeholders, conduct research on international approaches, co-develop innovative solutions, support financial modelling undertaken by the GFI F&IA team, commission additional work as needed and manage delivery partners, and work with GFI funders.

The ideal candidate will have a combination of experiences from across finance or relevant sectors, local and/or national government, and the energy sector; be a clear communicator with a delivery focus, have experience of managing and leveraging relationships with a wide range of cross-sectoral stakeholders and be a confident public speaker.

Responsibilities

Project Delivery and Relationship Management

• Lead the delivery of GFI's work on scaling investment into decentralised energy infrastructure.
• Focus on capital mobilisation, including developing new financial products and working to scale existing solutions.
• Work with policymakers to overcome barriers to investment, and support work on targeting public finance.
• Conduct and oversee research into successful solutions and non-financial barriers that can support capital mobilisation.
• Build strong relationships with relevant financial institutions, PuFIns, infrastructure investors, banks, industry, local authorities, national government and third sector organisations.

Internal Collaboration

• Work closely with Built Environment Programme, Local Investment team, and other relevant teams.
• Oversee and review financial models from the F&IA team on relevant projects.
• Support GFI Lab on relevant areas of work as appropriate.

Strategic Input

• Develop and scope out new work in this space, through setting strategic direction alongside the Programme Director.
• Keep up to date with relevant developments in the market, within industry and the broader regulatory and political landscape, utilising these to inform the strategy.
• Amplify work through thought leadership, external speaking engagements, and media engagement.

Key Areas of Focus

• Investment in rooftop solar across all building types.

• Develop financing models for iconic local community buildings and explore the integrated financing and linkage between investment in these buildings and neighbouring housing and other businesses.
• Microgrids and cross-sector place-based investment linked to local energy.
• Subscription service models for decentralised energy infrastructure, for homeowners, private rented sector and social housing.
• Growth of a sustainable heat network market in the UK.
• Innovative financing approaches to underpin growth of the community energy market in the UK.
• GFI's relevant work with PuFIns on decentralised energy, to support public finance to leverage private investment.

You need to have:

• Prior experience of leading programmes, setting direction and working collaboratively internally and externally
• Proven track record of successful delivery of complex, multi-stakeholder projects
• Experience in setting strategic goals and demonstrating impact
• Strong project management skills
• Good research and analytical skills, including ability to analyse financial models
• Good judgement – ability to collaborate, make decisions and solve problems with well-considered, sensitive and efficient solutions
• Strong communication and influencing skills, ability to build relationships with a wide range of partners, anticipating and understanding their needs and perspectives
• Self-motivated and brings a strong positivity/energy to the team
• Excellent IT skills, in particular in the use of Microsoft Office 365 suite and MS Outlook
• Adaptable, must be comfortable working in a small team and part of a fast-paced, agile, start-up environment
• A passion for helping to achieve decarbonisation and electrification.

Desirable:

• Experience of public speaking to a professional audience/running roundtables with a variety of stakeholders
• Previous work relating to electrification, place-based investment and/or low-carbon infrastructure
• Experience of working on infrastructure finance transactions
• Experience working with national government departments
• Experience of working with local and combined authorities
• Understanding of the wider challenges facing the built environment and local regions when it comes to decarbonisation and electrification.

If this sounds like you:

To apply - please submit your CV and a short cover letter (of no more than two sides). Your cover letter should include details of:

• your relevant work / educational experience.
• how you meet the broader requirements of the role.

CVs without a cover letter will not be considered.

The closing date for applications is COB Monday 21st September 2026. Please submit your application via the link on our website or via LinkedIn.

Please note:

• If you do not already hold the right to work in the UK and/or require sponsorship in order to continue working here, you should think carefully before applying.

The Green Finance Institute is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity. If you are invited to interview and need any reasonable adjustments during the interview process, please let us know.