Start date: Immediate

Duration: Aligned to phase funding, with strong prospect of extension. Fixed term

Type of contract: Full time

Location: London, UK (hybrid working considered); ability to travel required

About Financial Innovation for Impact &, the Climate Finance Team

Financial Innovation for Impact (Fii) is an international, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the advancement of scalable, sustainable, and evidence-based financial and regulatory innovation. The Climate Finance team is a high-performing and growing function at the forefront of mobilising investment into climate-positive opportunities across emerging and frontier markets. At its core sits the Commonwealth Investment Network (CIN), which has proven its model across the Caribbean and Pacific and is entering its most ambitious phase. Driving system-level change is at the heart of what makes this team distinctive, with a mandate that spans business acceleration, capital mobilisation, and enabling environment work across climate-vulnerable markets. The CIN's goal is not to build individual projects but to address the structural barriers that prevent capital from flowing at scale. The team works with investors, financial institutions, governments, DFIs, development partners, and local ecosystem actors, designing solutions that are commercially grounded, contextually appropriate, and built for enduring impact. The Climate Finance team is deliberately lean, combining a high-ownership core team with shared organisational capabilities (finance, operations, marketing and communications on a matrix basis) and a rich external network of advisors and partners.

The CIN operates across three mutually reinforcing pillars:

• Bankability: building investment-ready pipeline matched to investor appetite through IPA and local partner capacity
• Enabling Environment: co-designing the institutional conditions (frameworks, taxonomies, sandboxes, governance) that allow private capital to flow, supported by a Knowledge Exchange (CIN KE) driving shared learning across Commonwealth markets
• Strategic Initiatives: investor-facing interventions designed to resolve structural barriers to capital flows at scale. Current initiatives include project aggregation and innovation districts, a pre-feasibility and impact data layer, a capital alignment and orchestration hub, and embedding insurance as an enabler of climate finance, each developed to address root causes of the climate finance gap rather than its symptoms

In a period of geopolitical instability and shifting trade relationships, the Commonwealth has become an increasingly important platform, connecting diverse countries and ensuring that member states have equal voices on a global stage, a distinctive and durable foundation for investment and partnership.

THE ROLE

The Market Programme Manager owns the upstream components of the CIN's theory of change: building the enabling environment conditions and investment-readiness programmes that make capital mobilisation possible. This is a position with ownership, an externally facing brief, and scope to contribute to strategy and co-design solutions with stakeholders. It is a role which demands range, with significant intellectual and delivery dimensions. The successful candidate will combine market and stakeholder insight with the operational discipline to make things happen, working in close partnership with the Head of Climate Finance, the CIN Capital Programme Manager, and a broader network of contributing partners and matrix colleagues. As the portfolio grows, the Programme Manager has the potential to take on management responsibilities and oversight of in-country teams, ensuring that programme standards and learning travel with the platform. Candidates who are energised by complexity, motivated by our mission, and ready to operate with a high degree of autonomy in an entrepreneurial environment will find it exceptionally rewarding.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Enabling Environment & Stakeholder Management

• Work with governments, IPAs, local institutions, and partners to understand and co-design interventions around the policy and regulatory levers that can drive transition, adaptation, resilience and real economy impact in their markets; bring a private sector and investor lens, working with partners including to build on existing work
• Build and manage productive relationships with stakeholders across governments, development partners, regional bodies, and ecosystem organisations; take ownership of IPA engagement, including designing capacity building, structuring regional collaboration and facilitating training
• Own the workstream’s delivery workplan and operational preparation for CHOGM (Antigua & Barbuda, November 2026); coordinate with stakeholders and colleagues to maximise impact

Bankability & Knowledge Exchange

• Develop and manage delivery of investment readiness support SMEs and projects; design and implement a scalable project preparation offer leveraging AI tools, online resources, expert content, structured learning pathways; identify, onboard, and lead the Expert Advisory Group; on the ground relationships building local capabilities to enable decentralised delivery
• Lead the market research and stakeholder engagement that shape Knowledge Exchange content and community strategy, work with the Learning Technologist to build genuine peer-to-peer value across the network, and ensure operational excellence; embed the CIN KE as the key collaboration space for Steering Committee and Advisory Group/Board

System-Level Change

• Bring market intelligence, stakeholder perspectives, and on-the-ground knowledge of what works for the private sector in SIDS to the design and prioritisation of locally grounded system-level interventions; Contribute to market-facing aspects of system-level initiatives as they move into implementation; coordinate with local partners and institutions to test, iterate, and scale approaches that work
• Ensure that enabling environment and bankability activities are consistently designed and evaluated in terms of their contribution to market-level change, addressing the structural barriers preventing capital from flowing at scale, not just individual outcomes

Programme Delivery & Team

• Represent the team at events, bilateral meetings, and workshops, building the credibility that positions the CIN as a trusted convener and technical expert; ensure that reports, SteerCo papers, and external-facing outputs consistently meet funder requirements and reflect the quality the team is known for
• Ensure the Steering Committee can operate as an effective governance and strategic asset for the CIN; coordinate, attend and document discussions, ensuring that insights are captured and translated into clear action points, which are then followed up between meetings; where appropriate present updates on workstreams
• Contribute to the team’s culture, standards, and ways of working; as the CIN expands into new markets, provide support and knowledge transfer to in-country teams; potential to take on oversight and management responsibilities based on team needs and individual performance
• Collaborate effectively with colleagues and contributing partners; work with colleagues across technical assistance, policy, and applied research directorates as directed by the Head; maintain detailed workplans, risk registers, and KPI frameworks across workstreams

REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• 6+ years of experience in programme delivery, international development, partnerships, acceleration, policy or a related role in international development, sustainability, finance, or trade, in more than one market or geography; experience working across both the public and private sector is strongly preferred
• Experience of multi-stakeholder programme management in an international context; natural ability to take initiative, track commitments, and follow through, keeping to time, budget, and quality without requiring close supervision; able to escalate effectively where needed and manage deliverables independently
• Climate, sustainability or resilience expertise including an understanding of business models and sectors and how these opportunities are assessed by investors; appreciation of how climate risk and sustainability considerations shape decision making and market development and affect investment flows at a business, policy, regulatory, framework or capital holder level
•  A demonstrated track record of building and managing substantive, productive relationships with businesses, investors, governments, and/or ecosystem organisations; comfortable representing an organisation credibly at senior levels and building long-term trust with diverse counterparts
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills and cultural sensitivity, able to translate complex ideas for diverse audiences and represent the organisation in high-stakes external settings; ability to operate in high-context settings and produce written content which is sensitive to cultural, historical, or political environment and nuances
• Strategic and analytical capabilities to contribute to complex problem-solving, concept development, and strategy; comfortable producing high-quality concept notes, analytical inputs, and programme documentation for senior audiences
• Appetite for a fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment where the team's portfolio is actively growing and developing
• A degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field (international development, economics, finance, business, climate, science, or related discipline)

Desirable

• Experience working with Investment Promotion Agencies, government departments, or economic development bodies
• Familiarity with blended finance, capital mobilisation, or investment readiness
• Awareness of climate and sustainability disclosure frameworks (TCFD, TNFD, SFDR, ISSB) and how these shape markets
• Experience in or knowledge of SIDS, Caribbean, Pacific, or African Commonwealth markets, ideally including in-country experience
• Knowledge of the Commonwealth and/or experience working in a multilateral context
• Experience working with or for organisations which deploy capital, across any aspect of the impact spectrum

INCLUSION

We welcome applications from all backgrounds. We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to everyone. If you require any adjustments to support your application or participation in the selection process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

HOW TO APPLY

If you feel that you meet some but not all of the stated requirements but have the right expertise and motivation for the role, we encourage you to apply.

Interested candidates should apply by 19 June. We may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date if we receive a high volume of applications. We therefore encourage interested candidates to apply as early as possible.