Principal Economist

The world is facing a nature crisis. We have lost 85% of the world’s wetlands, 35% of its forests, and 65% of its living creatures. Action on nature is the next frontier for sustainability, as the world expands beyond a narrow focus on net zero. Natcap is at the forefront of this movement, on a mission to accelerate the nature-positive transition by integrating nature intelligence into business decision-making. We support leading companies and financial institutions to identify, measure and act on their nature-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities.

Role Overview: We’re looking for an exceptional Principal Economist to own Natcap’s approach to translating nature- and climate-related physical risks into quantified operational and financial outcomes. This is a senior individual-contributor role at the intersection of economics, quantitative risk modelling and product development. You will be leading the development of new frontier models and data products that estimate the financial and operational impact of nature related shocks in supply chains and operations on a portfolio of companies. You will work closely with our Scientists, Product, Engineering, Delivery and Commercial teams, to turn these models into transparent, defensible and scalable products used by the world’s largest companies and financial institutions.

What you’ll be responsible for:

• Develop Natcap’s approach to translating nature- and climate-related risks into practical financial and operational insights for companies and financial institutions.
• Design and build quantitative methods that help customers understand how physical and transition risks may affect supply chains, business operations and financial performance.
• Work closely with Science, Product and Engineering to turn frontier modelling approaches into scalable, robust and explainable data products.
• Use data, evidence and economic theory to explore how environmental shocks translate into business outcomes, uncertainty and financial materiality.
• Lead the technical and economic components of customer work, explaining complex methods and results clearly to a range of audiences.
• Provide expert guidance across Natcap on economics, financial risk, model assumptions and uncertainty, while collaborating closely with a multidisciplinary team.

What your experience looks like:

Must have:

• An MSc, PhD or equivalent professional experience in economics, finance, environmental or agricultural economics, econometrics, actuarial science, catastrophe risk, quantitative risk or a closely related discipline.
• More than 5 years experience expertise in translating physical hazards, environmental exposures or operational disruptions into quantified financial outcomes.
• Strong quantitative modelling skills, including experience with econometrics, scenario analysis, probabilistic modelling, sensitivity testing, uncertainty propagation or model validation.
• A strong understanding of model governance, including documentation, assumptions, lineage, quality assurance, reproducibility, auditability and methodological transparency.
• Experience using AI tools to improve the speed and quality of research, modelling, evidence synthesis or documentation.
• Low ego, collaborative, and focused on outcomes over ownership.
• Comfortable in a fast-moving, low-certainty startup environment.

Nice to have:

• Experience working with financial-services users or use cases, such as banking, insurance, asset management, credit risk, underwriting, portfolio risk, stress testing, transaction diligence or capital planning.
• Experience delivering and presenting quantitative modelling approaches and outputs to risk teams, sustainability specialists, product and engineering colleagues, customers and senior decision-makers.
• The ability to communicate complex quantitative concepts clearly to risk teams, sustainability specialists, product and engineering colleagues, customers and senior decision-makers.

Why Join Natcap?

• The opportunity to help build a company addressing one of the world’s most urgent sustainability challenges.
• A high-impact role shaping a new generation of nature- and climate-risk products.
• Competitive compensation and an equity package.
• Enhanced parental, carers, compassionate and emergency leave.
• Enhanced sick pay.
• A wellbeing and lifestyle benefits package, including an employee assistance programme, and a cycle-to-work scheme.
• A dedicated annual learning and development budget.
• Regular social events, team awards and quarterly away days.
• Salary-sacrifice schemes.
• The opportunity to grow quickly, both personally and professionally.

This role reports to our Head of Product, Coraline. This role is hybrid: we’d like you to be able to come to our office near Chancery Lane in London at least three times each week.