Community-led Finance Global Advisor

Benefits

Additional Information

What We Can Achieve Together: Within TNC's Office of Equitable Conservation, which sits in the Chief Conservation Office, the Community-led Economies & Finance (CLEF) team works to ensure that Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and smallholders are at the center of the economic and financial systems that affect their lands, waters, and livelihoods. Grounded in TNC's Voice, Choice, and Action (VCA) Framework and Human Rights Guide, the team operates across two integrated orientations: building community-led value through enterprises and markets, and enabling community-led resources through reformed and inclusive financial mechanisms. These orientations are inseparable, and both rest on a foundation of self-determination. This role serves as the team's senior technical strategist for community-led finance. Reporting to the Director of Community-led Economies & Finance, it shapes how financial systems can serve Indigenous Peoples and local communities rather than bypassing them. The position designs and advances a portfolio of work spanning direct access to finance for IP&LC organizations, financial inclusion for communities and community enterprises, and the reform of conservation finance instruments to embed equity, participation, and community governance. This is not a desk-based strategy role. It requires close collaboration with regional, local, and global teams who drive implementation and manage relationships on the ground, with deference to local leadership. The relationship is deeply bidirectional and anchored in trust-building and right relations: regional and local teams bring place-based innovation and context, while the global role identifies patterns across geographies, co-develops frameworks with regional teams, facilitates cross-regional learning, and connects regional innovations to global policy and funding opportunities. While finance is the primary domain, this position also contributes to the team's markets and economies work where financial expertise is needed - for example, developing investment pathways for community enterprises or analyzing the financial viability of value chains. This cross-pollination is by design: the team does not separate economic and financial work into silos. The position is globally remote within countries where TNC has an established office. It requires a flexible schedule to collaborate across time zones (Pacific through East Africa) and a willingness to travel internationally (approximately 20-25%). We're Looking for You: CLEF sits at the intersection of conservation, community rights, and financial systems - working to ensure that the financial architecture surrounding natural climate solutions, biodiversity, and climate action actually reaches and is governed by the people who steward the world's most critical ecosystems. We need someone who can think across financial instruments with rigor and creativity, while keeping community self-determination at the center of every design choice. You bring deep expertise in conservation or development finance and have worked directly with or in service to Indigenous Peoples and local communities. You understand mechanisms like PES, conservation trust funds, IP&LC-led funds, green finance, and social protection instruments - and you know how to reform them so communities aren't just beneficiaries but decision-makers. You're comfortable managing a distributed portfolio across multiple geographies, coordinating with partners you don't supervise, and translating technical finance into language that moves people to action. Key responsibilities include: Strategy & Technical Leadership Advance and co-develop the team's strategic approach to community-led finance in collaboration with regional, local, and global teams - grounded in Indigenous rights, self-determination, and equitable governance principles. Provide thought partnership on how financial mechanisms - including PES, conservation trust funds, IP&LC-led funds, green and blended finance, and social protection instruments - can be reformed or redesigned to center community voice and decision-making. Identify emerging opportunities in global conservation finance (e.g., biodiversity funds, debt-for-nature mechanisms, climate finance facilities), evaluate the enabling conditions required for these mechanisms to work for IP&LCs, and advise on how to ensure access, governance roles, and benefit-sharing. Advance financial inclusion strategies that connect community enterprises to savings, credit, and banking instruments, including village savings and loan models and sustainable lending partnerships. Portfolio Management Shape and prioritize a portfolio of finance initiatives across multiple regions and conservation activity stages, in collaboration with regional, local, and global teams. Develop terms of reference, manage contracts, review deliverables, and advise on consultancy design for priority initiatives. Coordinate with responsible teams to define