Head of Corporate Engagement

Head of Corporate Engagement 

Location:  UK, Germany or Netherlands (remote)

Closing Date: 30th June 2025 

A new and exciting opportunity has been created at Gold Standard. We are looking to hire a Head of Corporate Engagement whose role will be to lead and expanding our partnerships with forward-thinking corporations committed to meaningful climate action. This individual will develop strategic alliances, design innovative engagement models, and drive corporate investment high-integrity climate action that delivers impact for people and nature. The role requires a deep understanding of corporate sustainability, value chain decarbonization, carbon markets and climate finance, along with a strong track record of building high-value partnerships. 

WHO WE ARE: 

Gold Standard is a not-for-profit organization that helps companies understand the role they should play in creating a net-zero, sustainable nature future and provides tangible ways for them to contribute. This includes investments in their value chains, carbon credits, and other mechanisms for high-integrity climate action that delivers real impact for people and nature.      

The Gold Standard Foundation was established in 2003 by WWF and other international NGOs as a best practice standard to ensure projects that reduced carbon emissions under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) also delivered sustainable development benefits.

Today, our standard, ‘Gold Standard for the Global Goals’, allows climate and development initiatives within carbon markets, corporate supply chains, and sustainable finance to manage, measure and maximise their impacts toward the Net Zero ambition of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.   

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING: 

• Strategic Corporate Engagement: Develop and execute a strategy to engage major corporations, aligning their climate ambitions with Gold Standard’s best practice recommendations and encouraging adoption of high-impact, high-integrity climate solutions that deliver impact for people and nature.  
• Partnership Development: Cultivate and manage relationships with senior corporate leaders, sustainability executives, and industry influencers, including key NGOs and membership organisations and consultancies. 
• Program and Product Development: Recruit for and facilitate working groups with companies to co-design, pilot and refine investment strategies, programs and products that support decarbonization and deliver tangible benefits for communities and ecosystems, leading to new product offerings for Gold Standard. 
• Best Practice Advocacy: Provide strategic guidance to corporate partners on meeting science-based targets, particularly solving value chain issues, as well as on the use of high-integrity carbon markets, environmental attribute certificates, and other investments and interventions. 
• Thought Leadership: Represent Gold Standard at high-level forums, conferences, and working groups to advocate for ambitious corporate climate action. 
• Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a high-performing, cross-functional team. Promote a culture of innovation, responsiveness and collaboration within the Corporate Engagement unit.  

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR: 

• Minimum 8 years of experience in corporate sustainability, corporate partnerships, ESG strategy, climate finance, or a related field.  

• Proven track record of developing and managing high-value corporate partnerships, particularly in climate action and sustainability.  

• Strong understanding of corporate decarbonization strategies, Scope 3 emissions reductions, and value chain transformation.  

• Expertise in carbon markets, environmental attribute certificates, climate finance, and nature-based solutions is highly desirable.  

• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.  

• Experience working in or with the private sector on sustainability initiatives is a plus.  

• Passion for climate action and a commitment to creating equitable and nature-positive solutions.  
• Experience in managing and leading a cross-functional team. 

WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU: 

• All Employees are entitled to 30 days of holiday, pro-rated for part-time Employees. 
• Remote Working Contribution for remote workers 
• Home office set up allowance  
• A mission-driven organisation working at the leading edge of climate and sustainability. 
• Rewarding work in a dynamic non-profit environment. 
• A collaborative workplace within a multicultural team. 
• An ambitious, agile and flexible environment. 
• We are unable to sponsor VISAs and only candidates with the correct right to work documents will be considered. 

OUR VALUES: 

• Pioneering - We focus on those that have the most promise to contribute to our vision and mission, bringing them to market with the requisite planning and resources.  
• Rigorous - We build on our reputation for quality and rigor with more robust measurement of outcomes, stronger safeguards and greater impact across the Sustainable Development Goals. Our objective is to make rigor simpler and more achievable at scale.  
• Collaborative - We work with key partners who share our goals and complement our strengths. Our partnership strategy aims to move beyond working opportunistically as a delivery partner in favour of collaborating in long-term strategic synergy.  
• Transparent - We were established to bring confidence, trust, and accountability to carbon markets. We will continue to take strides to improve transparency in our own processes, in the broader market and in non-market mechanisms  

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES 

Gold Standard provides equal opportunity for all job applicants and employees and is committed to providing a work environment free of discrimination. We are dedicated to an inclusive culture, and we strive to create a workplace where teams of people with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, perspectives, ideas and experiences work together.