Senior Technical Manager, Nature Markets

Senior Technical Manager, Nature Markets

Conservation International protects nature for the benefit of humanity. Through science, policy, fieldwork, and finance, we spotlight and secure the most important places in nature for the climate, biodiversity, and for people. With offices in 30 countries and projects in more than 100 countries, Conservation International partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous peoples, and local communities to help people and nature thrive together.

POSITION SUMMARY - Preferred location for this role is Cape Town or Johannesburg, South Africa, or Nairobi, Kenya; however, candidates based in any of our other CI Africa locations, including Botswana, Liberia, Angola, and Madagascar, will also be considered.

Conservation International (CI) is working to mobilize new finance for conservation and sustainable development through high-integrity nature markets. Through the Keystone Protected Area Financing (KPAF) initiative, the Nature Markets Accelerator (NMA), and other strategic initiatives, CI supports the development of nature-market opportunities across Africa in partnership with governments, conservation organizations, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and private sector stakeholders.

The Senior Technical Manager, Nature Markets, will provide technical leadership in assessing, designing and developing high-integrity nature-market projects across Africa. The role requires deep expertise in ecology and conservation science, with the ability to critically evaluate ecological evidence, assess the credibility of proposed conservation outcomes, to inform methodologies, and enable improvements to on the ground conservation management.

The successful candidate will have the technical depth to independently assess ecological baselines, additionality, durability, nature measurement and monitoring methodologies, and other factors affecting nature-market integrity. They will translate scientific analysis into practical recommendations for project development, working with CI country programs, technical consultants and project partners to ensure that projects are scientifically robust and aligned with CI's conservation objectives.

The role will also coordinate technical assessments, consultants, and project development activities across CI's nature-market portfolio. This position reports to the Director, Nature Markets and does not directly supervise staff.
RESPONSIBILITIES

Ecology and Scientific Integrity

• Lead technical assessments of proposed nature-market projects, evaluating their rationale, feasibility and expected conservation outcomes.
• Critically assess ecological baselines, additionality, durability, conservation management attribution, and the credibility of claimed nature outcomes.
• Evaluate indicators, ecological surveys, sampling designs, monitoring frameworks and verification approaches to determine whether they can reliably demonstrate conservation outcomes.
• Review ecological assessments, biodiversity datasets, technical studies and applicable methodologies, identifying evidence gaps, scientific weaknesses, uncertainty and risks to project integrity.
• Determine whether proposed metrics and monitoring frameworks are appropriate to the ecological and conservation context and capable of demonstrating meaningful conservation outcomes over time, recognizing the limitations of aggregating or comparing biodiversity across different locations and ecosystems.
• Provide evidence-based recommendations to strengthen project designs, methodologies and monitoring approaches. 

Nature-Market Project Development

• Guide the technical development of nature-market opportunities from initial scoping and feasibility through project design and implementation.
• Assess the suitability of nature credits, payments for ecosystem services (PES), biodiversity offsets, water markets and other nature-market mechanisms in different contexts.
• Provide technical oversight of feasibility studies, project documentation, ecological assessments and monitoring plans, including the work of external consultants. 
• Identify technical and implementation risks and recommend practical solutions to improve project quality and long-term conservation outcomes. 
• Contribute to the development of technical guidance, assessment tools and quality assurance approaches across CI's Nature Markets portfolio. 
• Support the development and integration of safeguards, governance arrangements and benefit-sharing approaches into project development.
• Coordinate technical consultants, multidisciplinary teams, workplans, budgets, risks and reporting to ensure effective project delivery.

Project Delivery 

• Coordinate technical consultants, multidisciplinary teams, workplans, budgets, risks and reporting to ensure effective project delivery.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Normal office environment.
• This is a full-time position.
• Frequent travel (~30%) within the Africa region will be required; often this will entail travel to remote locations with rustic conditions.
• Flexibility in work schedule is required to accommodate collaboration across multiple time zones with global, regional, and country teams
• Guidance on flexible work arrangements will be shared during the interview process.
• Work Authorization: Candidates must be legally eligible to work in one of the African countries where CI operates, without requiring work authorization or visa sponsorship. 

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Bachelor's degree in ecology, conservation science, biodiversity science, wildlife biology, or a closely related discipline.
• At least 5 to 7 years of relevant professional experience in applied ecology, conservation management, or ecological assessment.
• Demonstrated expertise in evaluating ecological evidence, biodiversity assessments, and conservation outcomes, to inform and enable improvements to on the ground conservation management.
• Experience developing, assessing or implementing conservation, nature-market, carbon-market or conservation finance projects.
• Ability to design and implement conservation monitoring programs, identify scientific and methodological weaknesses, assess uncertainty and translate complex technical findings into practical recommendations.
• Experience engaging with conservation partners, governments, research institutions, communities, or other relevant stakeholders.
• Experience with safeguard development and implementation.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, written and verbal communication skills in English.

Core Competencies:

• Deep ecological expertise.
• Scientific rigor and critical evaluation of methodologies.
• Independent technical judgement and evidence-based problem-solving.
• Understanding of nature-market integrity and conservation outcomes.
• Technical oversight, project management and stakeholder engagement.

Preferred

• Master's degree in ecology, conservation science, biodiversity science, wildlife biology, or a closely related discipline.
• Specialized expertise in biodiversity assessment, ecological monitoring, conservation science or the development and evaluation of environmental-market methodologies.
• Strong understanding of additionality, durability, leakage, ecological measurement and monitoring, and their implications for the integrity of nature-market projects.
• Experience with nature credits, biodiversity offsets, PES or other nature-market mechanisms.
• Experience reviewing biodiversity-crediting methodologies, ecological baselines, biodiversity monitoring frameworks or environmental-market standards.
• Experience using quantitative ecological analysis, statistics, GIS or remote sensing to assess biodiversity and conservation outcomes.
• Experience working across African landscapes with protected area authorities, community conservancies and Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 

To apply for this position, please submit a resume and cover letter.

Application Deadline: November 20, 2026  (11:49 PM EST) *Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis; early submission is encouraged.

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Conservation International is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. We believe in hiring based on merit and qualifications, ensuring a fair and inclusive hiring process for everyone.