Senior Climate Change Specialist

Role Overview

Senior Climate Change Specialist with the Islamic Development Bank, Operations Complex – Global Practices and Partnerships Directorate, Climate Change and Environment Division, based at IsDB Headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This is a fixed-term position at Job Grade E3, closing 30 October 2026.

Role Purpose

To provide senior-level technical and professional expertise in delivering IsDB's climate action, green growth and sustainability agenda across mitigation, adaptation, resilience and nature-based solutions. Support the Bank in raising the development impact of its operations through project identification, preparation, appraisal and implementation, while mainstreaming climate and environmental considerations across Bank systems, policies and standards.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic and Operational Planning

• Contribute to development of strategic plans, analytics, guidance notes and other products related to climate mitigation, adaptation and environmental sustainability within the Climate Change and Environment Division and jointly with other Global Practices and Regional Hubs.
• Participate in project identification, appraisal, design, processing and approval as a team member with relevant Regional Hubs.
• Lead provision of input on climate change aspects, including physical and transition climate risk screening, GHG accounting, identification of adaptation and mitigation measures, alignment with Just Transition Framework, and climate co-benefit and climate finance qualification.
• Support the Bank's alignment with the Paris Agreement in line with the joint MDB Paris Alignment framework, particularly Building Blocks 1 (mitigation alignment) and 2 (adaptation and climate-resilient operations).
• Support consistent application of agreed assessment methods by project teams.

Environmental and Social Standards

• Support the interface between the climate agenda and the Bank's Environmental and Social Standards (ESS1–ESS10), including climate-related aspects of environmental and social risk screening, resource efficiency, pollution prevention, and biodiversity and nature-based solutions.
• Contribute to roll-out, benchmarking and capacity building of the Environmental and Social Framework.

Communities of Practice and Engagement

• Co-lead Communities of Practice in selected sectors on climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Provide technical leadership on positioning the Global Practice internally and externally in relation to climate change and environment, including participation in MDB Working Groups.
• Contribute to delivery of selected global engagement products on climate mitigation and adaptation.
• Directly lead and participate in country dialogues and deliverables, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) and Long-Term Strategy (LTS) support, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), national drought resilience plans, and capacity building workshops in Member Countries.

Climate Finance and Sustainable Finance

• Support achievement of the Bank's corporate climate finance target, including its adaptation finance ambition, across Global Practices and Regional Hubs.
• Track commitments and report to and advise the Bank on progress in meeting the target, on portfolio composition and on required adjustments.
• Apply joint MDB methodologies for tracking climate change mitigation and adaptation finance.
• Ensure consistent, defensible and well-documented classification of climate finance in Bank operations.
• Support operationalization and management of the Physical Climate Risk Management System (PCRMS) for various sectors.
• Ensure implementation of best practice in climate adaptation and resilience measures in projects across sectors, including nature-based solutions.
• Support development and use of operational guidance notes for project teams to incorporate appropriate adaptation and resilience measures.
• Contribute to articulating the Bank's distinctive Islamic finance offer for climate action, including blended and Shari'ah-compliant instruments, Takaful-based risk transfer and Maqasid al-Shari'ah framing, in operations, knowledge products and external engagement.

Capacity Development

• Contribute to identifying, assessing and monitoring capacity development needs of internal stakeholders across the IsDB Group and Regional Hubs, as well as relevant external partners.
• Design and administer relevant capacity development interventions.
• Support development and administration of technical assistance grants, training programmes and learning content for climate capacity development within the Bank and in Member Countries.

Resource Mobilization and Strategic Partnership

• Contribute to the Division's engagement with international bilateral and multilateral climate finance institutions, such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the International Climate Initiative (IKI), the Climate Investment Funds, the Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) and the NDC Partnership.
• Coordinate fundraising for relevant IsDB climate-tagged projects.
• Prepare and quality-assure concept notes, funding proposals, project preparation facility applications, budgets, procurement plans and terms of reference for submission to vertical or bilateral climate funds.
• Include the case for concessionality and delineation between Bank and fund financing on a baseline versus incremental transformational basis.
• Prepare approach papers, reports and statements on the rationale and activities to be supported by donor funds.
• Work with academia, multilateral development banks, UN agencies, think tanks and other key partners outside IsDB on relevant research and analysis, events and outreach.
• Support flagship partnerships and the Bank's engagement with the UNFCCC, UNCBD and UNCCD processes.

Knowledge Sharing and Innovation

• Track external issues and processes relevant to best practice in climate mitigation and adaptation in various sectors.
• Keep abreast of external developments and provide technical support to Management on engagement in key external processes on climate change and sustainability.
• Support IsDB partnership with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention for Biodiversity (UNCBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), other specialized UN agencies, multilateral development banks and bilateral finance institutions.
• Contribute to knowledge products, guidance notes, policy briefs and case studies that capture lessons from the Bank's climate portfolio, including on Islamic climate finance, nature-based solutions, drought and land degradation resilience, and just transition.

Results, Reporting and Communication

• Contribute to preparation of progress reports on all project cycle-related activities in compliance with Bank rules and procedures.
• Ensure climate-relevant core results indicators are included at design stage so results can be aggregated.
• Support quality and completeness of climate, green and social tagging in the Bank's operational systems.
• Contribute to divisional and departmental results and KPI reporting, including quarterly reporting into the corporate results architecture.
• Support evidence base for Management and Board reporting on the climate portfolio.
• Contribute to the Bank's external climate reporting commitments, including joint MDB climate finance reporting and impact reporting associated with sustainable finance issuances.

Team Coordination

• Coordinate the work of consultants and less experienced team members.
• Review their deliverables.

Qualifications & Experience

• Master's degree in Climate Change, Sustainability, Environmental Studies, Environmental Engineering, Water Engineering, Energy Engineering, Natural Resource Management, Economics or any related field.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in design and implementation of climate change and environmental projects.
• At least 4 years of experience related to climate change adaptation and resilience in a developing country context.
• Demonstrated experience with climate risk screening tools, GHG accounting methodologies, climate finance tracking and Paris alignment assessment.
• Experience in preparing and processing proposals for vertical climate funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF) or Adaptation Fund, or bilateral climate finance providers.
• Familiarity with environmental and social safeguard frameworks of multilateral development banks and results-based management is an advantage.
• Experience working with IFIs, Development Agencies or Multilateral Development Banks is preferred.
• Languages: English is mandatory; Arabic and French are preferred.

Skills & Competencies

• Sound knowledge of international climate negotiations (Conference of the Parties), climate policy and the current state of best practice among International Finance Institutions and UN organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead or contribute to high-level analytical work and policy dialogue in IsDB Member Countries.
• Sound knowledge of Environment, Climate and Carbon Finance, including carbon market mechanisms under Article 6.
• Working knowledge of MDB environmental and social standards, results-based management and reporting.
• Familiarity with Islamic finance instruments and their application to climate and sustainable finance is an advantage.
• Planning and organizing and project management skills.
• Analytical thinking and problem solving.
• Presentation skills.
• MS Office skills and familiarity with data, screening and reporting tools.

Additional Information

Contract Type

Fixed Term

Application Requirements

Applicants must submit the following documents

• Resume/CV
• Copy of passport
• Academic certificate

Important Notice

If you are currently an IsDB Regular staff member applying for this role and are selected through the competitive selection process, your current contract type and other terms and conditions will remain unchanged.

The Islamic Development Bank does not request payments of any kind from applicants at any stage of the recruitment process (job application, CV review, interview, or final processing). The Bank does not request information on applicants' bank accounts. The Bank