About KAYA

KAYA is a new organisation coming to life in Q1 2023. It is being co-founded by purpose-driven professionals with different cultural backgrounds and with several years of experience in nature conservation, clean energy, rural development, real estate, and e-commerce. KAYA’s vision is to mitigate climate change by working with nature. In doing so, it also aspires to support the impacted communities and societies in accessing new livelihoods and becoming more resilient. KAYA’s mission is to develop multi-year landscape-scale conservation and restoration projects in terrestrial ecosystems. It will bring the developed projects upon maturity to the market for payments for their ecosystem services.

About this role

This is a techno-managerial role in the climate department at KAYA head office.  The responsible colleague will be a critical link between the scientific staff in the head office and the colleagues in the offices in the countries where the landscape-scale conservation and restoration projects are being developed.  The ecosystems in focus are forests, agricultural and grasslands.  The work would involve ensuring the adherence of projects, through their lifecycle, to the regulations set forth by various certification standards.  The Project Development Manager will work closely with the Landscape Specialists, Earth Observation Specialist, and GHG Accounting Specialist.  Periodic travel to project sites for monitoring and evaluation will be an integral part of this role.

Responsibilities

• Steer the designing of forestry, agriculture and grassland projects by coordinating the activities of head office climate department and country offices
• Develop project concepts and project idea notes based on the inputs gathered from the colleagues in the climate department
• Ensure adherence of project development and implementation to the selected scientific forestry, agriculture or grassland methodology
• Be the organisation’s focal point to Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, Plan Vivo Standard and Preferred by Nature Certification, and track developments there
• Steer the certification standard-mandated public consultation process in the projects under development
• Lead the planning and scheduling of project operations
• Steer the complete documentation process through the life cycle of the project
• Coordinate the certification standard-mandated third-party validation and verification process in the projects under development
• Support Chief Climate Officer and the Finance Office in building project financial plans

Requirements

• Strong understanding of Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, Plan Vivo Standard and Preferred by Nature Certification
• Deep knowledge of multiple AFOLU methodologies under the above-mentioned standards and certifications
• Over three years of experience in managing multi-team conservation and restoration projects with the potential to show samples of work done
• Willingness to live and work in Berlin
• Willingness to travel overseas for work, especially to sub–Saharan Africa
• Openness and adaptability to the atmosphere at a start-up
• Professional references
• In addition to English fluency, languages desired are French, Portuguese, and/or Spanish
• Education in agricultural, forestry or landscape management is desirable
• Knowledge of national AFOLU regulations and policies in sub-Saharan African countries is a plus

Why KAYA?

• Offer of a job with purpose
• Opportunity to work for the planet and people
• Opportunity to learn about climate change mitigation and adaptation from first-hand experience
• Global exposure through international colleagues and intercontinental work
• Possibility to become part of an organisation in its developmental phase
• Chance to experience life in Berlin

How to apply

Please send us your latest CV along with a summary on why you would like to work at KAYA.  In case of any questions to aid your application process, please write to us at [email protected]

For further questions, please contact us to – [email protected]