Director, Coal Mine Methane (climate change)

We are looking for a leader for Ember’s global Coal Mine Methane (CMM) programme to take our existing impact on this neglected and important source of greenhouse gas emissions to the next level.  

Coal mine methane is a hugely neglected area in climate change - bigger than methane release from the gas industry, and almost as big as from oil. Solutions range from capturing the methane to closing mines, and tackling CMM effectively could deliver large and fast reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. However, it remains a little-known and under-appreciated topic, and monitoring and verification of emissions is patchy at best. 

The team’s mission is to raise the profile of coal mine methane as an important and under-recognised contributor to climate change, highlight the feasibility of solutions, and contribute to policy and investment decisions that reduce emissions.

Ember has already made a major impact in drawing attention to the methane crisis in several areas of the world, and of creating policy changes. The successful candidate will need to show they are the right person to take our impact to the next level. 

You will have a demonstrable track record as an impactful advocate, ideally in the climate change field. You will be comfortable with scientific thinking and with using data to create stories with traction. You will have some experience of working on either coal or methane, and demonstrate a willingness to develop expertise across the team’s subject specialism. You will come with a global and multicultural mindset, you will be an effective and sympathetic manager of people with a proven record of building and managing teams, and an inspiring leader.

You will lead on managing the existing team, which includes analysts working in Asia, Europe and Australia. Working with the rest of Ember’s management, you will expand the funding portfolio, grow the team and increase the impact.

Key responsibilities

• Lead on strategy and delivery for Ember’s coal mine methane work, achieving both short-term impact and progressive, strategic development of the CMM programme
• Ensure that the CMM programme’s output is in line with Ember’s strategy and theory of change, and meets guidelines and quality standards
• Line-manage the CMM team, including objective setting, performance review, agreeing leave and other absences, workload monitoring and facilitating staff development, and provide inspiring and cohesive leadership to a team spread across multiple time-zones
• Be a ‘public face’ of Ember to media and stakeholders.
• Liaise effectively and efficiently with other Ember team directors, and ensure that CMM analysts are also liaising as necessary
• Play a central role in maintaining funder relationships key to the work of the CMM team, and in developing new funding opportunities
• Establish and maintain effective relationships with stakeholder networks key to delivering CMM and Ember outcomes such as UNEP, UNECE and the Global Methane Hub 
• Support the development of Ember policy positions and advocacy strategies.

Requirements

Essential:

• A demonstrable track record of effective advocacy, ideally in climate change but possibly in a related field
• Demonstrable leadership skills
• A minimum of five years in a management role in an organisation such as a think-tank, government agency or academic department, ideally in an international, multicultural setting
• Experience and expertise in the mitigation side of climate science, ideally involving prior work on either coal or methane (and ideally both)
• An effective networker, with a track record of building and maintaining impactful stakeholder networks
• Ability to use data, data visualisation and other visual ingredients to build engaging narratives
• Passionate about the global energy transition, including the benefits it brings
• An open, cooperative working style
• High level of competence in spoken and written English

Nice to have

• Previous contact with the coal industry
• Experience of developing policy or campaigning in the climate change field
• Proven experience in applying for, winning and managing funding bids
• An established global network in energy transition/climate change civil society organisations 
• Experience of conceiving and taking part in communications campaigns, supported by a network in the media field
• Dynamic public speaking skills

• Other languages (especially in countries where CMM is a significant issue)

We are an equal opportunities employer committed to diversity and treating all employees with dignity and respect regardless of background.

Benefits

Salary: £60,032 - £85,814, dependent on experience and on local cost-of-living. Salaries are adjusted depending on local cost-of-living, which will be shared with interview invitations..  Salaries may be adjusted depending on a location cost of living formula, but will not be below 75% of advertised figure.

Contract:  Full time (but only working 9 days every fortnight with no reduction in pay), permanent subject to a 3 month probationary period.  For employees based outside of the UK, a local payroll contract is available, dependent on the country.

Remote culture and diverse team: Ember is a remote-first organisation, with talents of diverse backgrounds from 15+ countries over the world.

Further benefits: We offer a competitive benefits package, including:

• We operate a nine-day fortnight meaning our full-time staff are given every other Friday off work with no reduction in pay
• A minimum of 25 days holiday, plus public holidays and Christmas week-off
• For each year that you're part of the team at Ember you'll receive an additional day of holiday, up to a maximum of 5 additional days.  
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave
• Flexible working conditions, including the opportunity for part-time work and home working.
• Access to a local working space can be arranged
• In-person meet-ups (on average 2 meet-ups per year)
• Allowance for home office equipment
• Free annual eye tests
• Access to a counselling service
• Funding and allocated time for your training and development
• Paid volunteer day
• Four paid days off to enable low carbon travel
• Time off to donate blood

About Ember

Ember is an independent, not-for-profit energy think tank that aims to accelerate the clean energy transition with data and policy. We gather, curate and analyse data on the power sector and coal mine methane emissions, and use our findings to improve energy and climate policy.

See our work at https://ember-energy.org/ and https://x.com/ember_energy