Climate Finance Research Associate

About Climate Arc 

Climate Arc (Arc) is a philanthropic organization working to accelerate corporate climate action by unlocking the trillions of dollars of private capital required to meet global climate targets. We ensure that financial decision makers have the tools, data and skillsets needed to direct capital to the right solutions at speed and scale. Arc implements its strategy through grantmaking and through a range of research and tools delivered by our in-house analysts and researchers.  

Arc’s Research  

Arc believes that every financing decision must be aligned with climate goals, and equally every climate action has a financing dimension. 

For financial institutions to adequately fund, lend and insure the decarbonization and transition of corporates at scale, they need dynamic, trustworthy data and analysis anchored to climate science. To support this, Arc’s Research and Program team is developing a series of tools - built for the public good - which aim to bring together science-aligned data and analysis on corporate climate transitions.  

The tools Arc will build are anchored in our mapping work, which continuously monitor the evolving ecosystem of climate and finance - the relevant organizations, initiatives, data flows and capacity needs. These outputs will present a common baseline that stakeholders and practitioners can use to identify gaps and solutions and will show how the specific areas they are working on is contributing to the big picture. 

All of these tools will be supplemented by research and analysis carried out by in-house analysts with solid backgrounds and expertise in financial decision making. The team will support all other areas of Arc’s activities to ensure our work is anchored in research and evidence. 

What you will be doing 

• Develop, manage and implement research assignments and analytical projects 

• Produce high-quality materials such as quantitative and qualitative analysis, written documents and presentations  

• Engage in analysis to understand and communicate technical needs and requirements to technical teams, such as Arc’s Data Solutions team 

• Facilitate collaboration between non-technical and technical stakeholders to ensure alignment and effective solution development 

• Create and maintain collaborative relationships with our partners and grantees – engaging and advising on research and analysis findings 

• Build and maintain a range of relevant sectoral knowledge and information resources  

• Identify trends and developments in global climate finance and net zero transition finance in and across asset classes and industry sectors 

• Co-author, review and contribute to the development of reports, issue briefs and articles 

• Define, structure, and implement new processes to improve efficiency and effectiveness across projects and the Research & Program team as a whole 

A day in the life 

As a Climate Finance Research Associate at Arc, your day may start with a quick team sync, where you'll discuss the progress of ongoing research projects, set priorities for the day, and align with colleagues from other departments, such as the Data Solutions team. Afterward, you'll dive into your research tasks, analyzing climate-related financial data, reviewing ESG reports, or drafting sections of an upcoming issue brief on trends in global climate finance. 

Mid-morning, you may join a meeting with a partner organization to present your latest findings on decarbonization finance trends in a particular industry, ensuring your analysis is both clear and actionable. Post-lunch, you’ll shift focus to collaborative work—perhaps refining quantitative models or data visualizations that will inform Arc’s decision-making tools. You’ll spend time reviewing technical documentation and working closely with Engineers to ensure analytical insights are correctly incorporated into our tools. 

As the afternoon progresses, you may switch gears to co-authoring a report or preparing a presentation for an upcoming stakeholder meeting. Throughout the day, you’ll interact with both technical and non-technical colleagues, acting as a bridge to ensure complex financial insights from the Research team are communicated effectively across the wider Research & Program team and broader organization. You will also interpret and translate needs from our Data Solutions team, comprised of Data Engineers, an API Programmer, a DevOps Engineer and a Data Scientist. 

By the end of the day, you’ll assess your progress, respond to any outstanding communications, and prepare for the following day's priorities, possibly identifying new trends or areas for deeper analysis in the global climate finance and corporate transition ecosystems. 

About you 

You will have the following skills, knowledge and attributes to be successful: 

• A commitment to Climate Arc’s vision and mission 

• Outstanding English writing and presentation skills 

• Significant experience writing research-based reports with a focus on analytical research 

• Solid technical literacy with knowledge of quantitative modelling, statistical analysis, and programming  

• Knowledge of and experience in the finance (private and/or public/developmental) sector 

• Understanding of how ESG data is used in investment (e.g. impact, risk) and across various asset classes (fixed income, equity, sovereign, real estate) 

• Understanding of data science including statistics and data visualisation, including the ability to analyse complex data 

• Ability to communicate methods, results and recommendations from complex qualitative and quantitative analysis to expert and non-technical audiences 

• Knowledge of and experience in business analysis, including the ability to effectively communicate needs to technical teams 

• Significant experience in project management and / or process development, with the ability to define and structure new processes, across various projects or workstreams   

Desirable: 

• Intermediate or expert knowledge of MS Excel. Experience in other technologies such as Python, SQL, R, Stata and cloud-based databases is advantageous 

• An understanding of key scientific, policy, and market developments related to climate that shape corporate action and investment decisions 

• Ability to manage priorities to competing deadlines, thriving on diversity in the role and the opportunity to contribute to the development of a start-up organisation 

Climate Arc currently offers the following for UK staff:

• 36 days' holiday including public holidays (fully flexible)
• Private medical & dental cover for you and your dependents
• Life assurance 4x basic salary (where available)
• 9% company pension contribution
• Enhanced family pay and leave policies
• Professional development program
• Professional membership paid (if applicable)
• Nomad working policy including allowance up to €250/year
  

As well as the tangible items above, we are building a culture of trust and collaboration where we have confidence our team members will get the job done and meet the deadlines and expectations of their roles.

Location

For this role we can offer a remote first working option and are open to locations across the UK, Europe and the USA. Candidates in the US will need to be based on the East Coast due to the need to collaborate closely with employees in UK/European timezones.

Remuneration

Depending on experience and demonstrated capability, the salary range for this role is £50,000-£70,000 (or local equivalent if not based in the UK).

To apply

Please complete the Application Form including attaching an up-to-date CV as well as a Cover Letter (both in English) outlining how your skills and experience align with the above requirements and what motivates you to work with Climate Arc in this particular role.

We intend to close the advert for this role on Friday 11th October at 5pm UK time but depending on the level of response we may close it prior, so we encourage you to submit your application sooner than later.

The application and assessment process will involve the following:

• Application review (applications that do not include a full cover letter will not be considered)
• 1st round interview: Recruiting Manager (30 to 45 minute MS Teams video call)
• Offline task (2-3 hours)
• Formal interview (in person or MS Teams) with the Hiring Manager and panel (1 hour)