Senior Strategic Partnerships Manager – Climate Finance (Based Remotely, Mercy Corps office locations - Africa, Europe, Middle East & Asia)

Location: Remote (Europe, Africa, Middle East or Asia where Mercy Corps has operations)

Position Status: Full time

Salary Level: HQ6, Role will be benchmarked on local scale

Reports to: Vice President, Institutional Donor Engagement

Travel: approximately 10%

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Institutional Donor Engagement

The Institutional Donor Engagement department leads Mercy Corps’ work in identifying, building relationships with and developing and submitting fundraising proposals to potential institutional donors from governments and multilateral donors around the world. It comprises the Business Development team, which leads on large and complex proposals, and the Strategic Institutional Partnerships team, which leads on research and relationship management.

Position Summary

This position leads Mercy Corps’ efforts to secure grants and investments in Mercy Corps’ climate-focused work, primarily from the Green Climate Fund. Mercy Corps expects to become GCF accredited in late 2026, and now seeks to expand its funding pipeline and build internal capacity to successfully acquire GCF and other climate-focused investments.

This is very much an external-facing position and Mercy Corps is looking for a candidate who can both bring deep knowledge of individuals, policies and practices within GCF, and who can represent Mercy Corps externally, as well as support others in doing so. The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal skills, excel at networking and building long-term relationships and will be proactive and creative in their work. They will work in partnerships with a range of teams across the agency, in particular our Climate Solutions team to ensure technical quality of proposal pipelines, develop and operationalize an influence strategy, and generally working together to ensure adequate institutional capacity to lead GCF programs is strengthened.

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY

• Develop a strategic vision for engagement with climate finance institutions, with an initial emphasis on the GCF.
• Establish internal structures, functions and protocols for communication and engagement to ensure strengthen our representation and competitiveness, while ensuring clarity and transparency internally.
• Conduct ongoing research on trends in climate financing, and the priorities for financing institutions.

DONOR RELATIONS AND REPRESENTATION

• Develop and manage relationships with relevant GCF and other climate finance representatives and serve as the primary donor liaison.
• Represent Mercy Corps and/or facilitate participation of other Mercy Corps team members in key climate finance events and meetings.
• Support country teams and regional teams in establishing and building relationships with GCF regional and program teams, and with Nationally Designated Authorities and Direct Access Entities in our priority countries.
• Engage with peer organizations and other potential partners and identify key areas of potential cooperation.
• In coordination with relevant Headquarters functions, support country teams in problem solving related engagement with donors both in country and in Europe.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

• Develop a priority list of countries and programs which are candidates to secure GCF and other climate finance, and in partnership with relevant programs and technical teams, develop joint action plans for pipeline development.
• Develop guidelines and tools which support business development processes, finance and compliance colleagues to develop successful proposals to GCF and other climate finance.
• Provide GCF related advice to, and where needed, project mange the proposal development process for GCF and other climate finance proposals to ensure the delivery of viable and competitive proposals.

DEVELOPING CLIMATE FINANCE LITERACY ACROSS THE AGENCY

• Track GCF and other climate funders funding priorities, trends, regulations and other information relevant to Mercy Corps, and ensure they are summarized and disseminated to relevant colleagues
• Establish systems for knowledge management of institutional climate finance partnerships and engagement, and coordinate and/or lead knowledge sharing efforts (webinars, workshops, etc) to improve understanding of climate finance institutions, their priorities and methods of engagement.

GENERAL

• Take responsibility for own administration, devise and implement appropriate processes and procedures to achieve agreed targets;
• Undertake additional work as required and respond to organizational priorities.
• Contribute to the development of HQ, regional and country strategies.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: VP Institutional Donor Engagement

Works Directly With:

• Institutional Donor Engagement Colleagues
• Technical teams, especially the Director of Climate Change on the global Climate Solutions team.
• Policy and Advocacy
• Awards Management
• Compliance
• Finance
• Legal

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

Qualifications and Experience

Essential

• Significant experience within Green Climate Fund, or within an organization receiving Green Climate Fund investment;
• Experience of making climate finance investment decisions or of securing grants or investments exceeding $10m within/from GCF or similar organizations;
• At least seven years of practical work experience in climate and energy and/or international development;
• Deep knowledge of GCF financing mechanisms and priorities;
• Experience in external representation and network building:
• Fluent in English in speaking and writing.

Desirable

• Experience working with loans, impact investment or blended finance instruments, especially within non-profit or international organizations.
• Experience working in or with fragile and conflict affected countries
• At least seven years of practical work experience in climate and energy and/or international development;

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position can be located flexibly in a country in Europe, Africa, the Middle East or Asia where Mercy Corps has operations. It will require some travel to program countries and donor capitals. This may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Team Engagement and Effectiveness

Achieving our mission starts with how we build our team and collaborate. By bringing together individuals with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, we strengthen our ability to solve complex challenges and drive innovation. We foster a culture of trust and respect, where every team member is valued for their contributions, empowered to reach their full potential, and motivated to do their best work.

We recognize that building a strong and effective team is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to learning, improving, and growing together.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact. We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, programs participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.