At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), we work at the highest levels of government to help leaders go further and faster to make their citizens’ lives better. Moving the dial on the great global challenges of our time requires engaged, incentivised, focused, and motivated leaders. When political leadership is relentlessly deployed, at the highest levels, incredible things can be achieved.

Using our distinctive expertise and global outlook and guided by the unique insights and perspective of our Executive Chairman Sir Tony Blair, our dedicated experts and embedded teams advise governments all over the world in strategy, policy, and delivery, underpinned by technology.

Job Introduction

Our new Global Client Solutions team is at the heart of how we define “what we do” and then distribute the best of the Institute and our networks to global leaders through our country advisory teams. As a centre of excellence, Global Client Solutions is comprised of our centrally situated global and regional experts – functional and sectoral. Our experts provide valuable counsel, technical support, thought partnership, strategy, and surge capacity and lead the development and evolution of our solutions, methods, and offers in the service of our partner governments.

Developing sustainable energy systems and mitigating and adapting to climate change are priorities for many of the leaders we support. We are strengthening the Energy and Climate pillar and anchor team within Global Client Solutions and hiring a Senior Advisor, Energy Transitions, to contribute to our Energy and Climate offer and provide practical support to our client governments across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East to understand the opportunities and risks that the energy transition presents, and put in place and deliver on practical policies and plans to deliver on these opportunities

We are also recruiting senior advisors in Climate Policy and Delivery, and Carbon Markets and Climate Finance such that we can present a comprehensive climate offer to our government partners. You will work closely with the Country and Regional Directors, report to the Energy and Climate Director, and lead the further development of our growing Energy Transitions offer. Key aspects will include practical support to governments to:

• Understand the opportunities and risks the global energy transition poses including advances in renewable technologies, green commodity markets and the commitment to limit global warming
• Develop national and regional strategies, policies and investment plans in sectors such as power, hydrocarbons and transportation informed by an understanding of these opportunities and risks
• Engage with stakeholders globally to refine, finance and deliver on these strategies, policies and plans. Stakeholders are likely to include multilateral institutions, financiers, developers, industry, technologists and academic institutions
• Influence global energy policy in line with their strategic objectives in areas such as the development of markets for carbon mitigation or green comodities and products

Working across the wider energy and climate community of practice and the Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives team, you will put in place partnerships with organisations that can complement our offer to Governments and help us scale our work such as technology providers, researchers, financiers, philanthropies and development partners. You will also lead on the development of analysis, methodologies and tools which, along with “policy success stories”, can act as a platform for scaling this work across multiple countries, recognising that the energy transition needs and priorities of different countries (developed/ developing, energy importer / exporter) vary.

Please note, that if you are applying for Athens or Nairobi it is essential to have an existing right to work.

Key Responsibilities

This is a senior role within TBI and will be held by an exceptional candidate with deep and extensive experience in supporting governments across the world to deliver energy transitions and engagement at senior political levels of government.

Key responsibilities will include:

Offer development and thought leadership

• Lead the development and evolution of TBI’s Energy Transitions offer
• Identify opportunities for our partner Governments to enter into effective coalitions with other Governments to advance mutual energy objectives
• Develop frameworks, guides, tools, playbooks, and documents which effectively capture our offer and solutions

Technical leadership and expert support

• Be TBI advisory’s focal person on Energy Transitions
• Generate cohesion across our Energy Transitions advisory work, capture lessons learned, and develop best practices to inform future efforts, working closely with the other Global Client Solutions experts and sectoral leads
• Provide hands-on technical input and thought partnership to country teams in the scoping, design and delivery of their support to energy transitions, generating creative solutions, and framing them in a compelling way
• Support country directors and teams to understand energy transitions opportunities and incorporate into TBI country strategies in response to government demand
• Quality assure, support and troubleshoot the implementation of our energy transitions work, engaging collaboratively to ensure impact and that country teams can access the best of the Institute to support their work
• Develop, and quality assure high-calibre external facing proposal documents and deliverables working with country teams
• Support country teams to maintain effective and trusted government relationships, essential to effectively channeling our support
• Provide expert input to country teams as needed with government counterparts, e.g., joining and leading workshops as an expert. Provide ongoing support to resolve strategic questions as they emerge during implementation

External engagement and partnerships

• Develop and enhance our network, relationships, and partnership with partners who can complement our energy transitions offer to governments
• Support TBI to engage with Global Fora such as the G20 on issues related to energy transition
• Represent TBI at a senior level in external conversations, forums, and partnerships
• Lead engagements with existing and future strategic partners on energy transitions
• With Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives team, support joint strategy and partnership governance, escalating challenges when needed
• Support joint opportunity development across the institute for example with our finance teams
• Engage with relevant external stakeholders such as other not-for-profit organisations, donors, media, suppliers, and agencies

Person Specification

As a senior advisor we are looking for a global expert who can engage with and support governments at the highest level. We are looking for an experienced candidate:

Significant experience operating at a senior level in the areas below:

• Working with governments to develop strategies, policies and investment plans within the energy sector
• Engaging on geopolitical aspects of energy and the energy transition
• Supporting energy projects through the investment cycle
• Engaging governments at the highest level including with middle and lower income countries and supporting their engagement with external partners to advance energy investments
• With expertise undertaking analysis and developing relevant models to inform strategic decision making (e.g. investment decisions)
• Deep understanding of the global factors that drive opportunities and risks within the energy sector such as energy markets, supply chains and evolving climate policy
• Knowledge of lessons learned from key “policy success stories” in emerging markets that have successfully delivered on energy transition aims in other countries (e.g. EV adoption, driving renewables deployment, fuel switching, etc.)
• Who is considered an expert and thought leader in energy transitions with an extensive network of relationships with relevant policy makers
• Who is strategic, entrepreneurial, pragmatically optimistic and can challenge the status-quo and develop plans for successful delivery of challenging, ambitious objectives
• With outstanding management and strategy skills – able to set strategic direction, inspire teams to collaboratively achieve exceptional objectives, and not afraid to be hands-on to achieve results
• With a strong consulting toolkit enabling you to explain complex topics in simple terms, develop polished client-facing deliverables, and helpful frameworks and tools to bring scale to your expert advice to teams
• Who has a record of accomplishment cultivating and maintaining strategic alliances and partnerships across public, social, and private sector organisations
• Who is a skilled communicator and influencer, from executive office level through to technical level, is adept at speaking to senior leadership
• Adept at navigating ambiguous environments and is comfortable in a rapid growth environment and at managing up and beyond hierarchy
• Who is comfortable speaking in public forums and representing the institute on the global stage
• Who has worked or consulted in a range developing and emerging economies and is sensitive to a diverse range of cultural and regional norms, and fosters a positive spirit of collaboration
• Who commits to business objectives and pulls out the stops to make sure they are always met
• Comfortable to travel about 20- 30% of the time to global locations
• Fluency in English is required

Nice to have but not essential:

• Proficiency in additional languages, particularly French or other languages core to TBI’s footprint
• Experience in international Energy trading (power / hydrocarbons)
• Experience developing Nationally Determined Contributions and related financing plans