EFM is seeking to hire an individual to provide technical expertise to support the development of forest carbon projects and evaluate investments into nature-based climate solutions. This individual will lead the technical development and implementation of Improved Forest Management (IFM) carbon projects on EFM’s FSC certified forestlands in the U.S. They will also be involved in evaluating the credit generation potential of investments into nature-based solutions like reforestation, avoided deforestation, blue carbon across the Americas. As a result, the individual will need to be comfortable working with data at different scales and levels of certainty to produce estimates of environmental commodity/credit generation. International experience and working across temperate and tropical forest types is a plus.

EFM is open to applications from individuals with varying years of experience and expect that there will be considerable growth opportunities in this role with exposure to investment underwriting, investment management, and investor engagement. Role offers flexibility of location with a strong preference for a presence in the pacific northwest region. The individual will be a contributor to an inter-disciplinary investment team that invests in natural ecosystems and working landscapes across the Americas. They will work closely with the Manager of Forest Information Systems (see posted Job Description at www.efmi.com).

Responsibilities    

Carbon Offset Project Development

• Conduct carbon feasibility analyses at various levels of detail that supports decision making around acquiring new forestland acquisitions and carbon project development.
• Work with our inter-disciplinary team of foresters and biometricians to develop in-house tools, credit generation models, and use geo-spatial data sets that help identify carbon stocks associated with different ecosystems across different spatial resolutions.
• Technical lead for forest carbon projects during the project development life cycle, including researching protocols & methodologies, managing quantification models, authoring technical project documentation, and managing the verification process.

• Build and maintain credit generation worksheets that calculate available offsets under varying scenarios for improved forest management projects, avoided deforestation projects, reforestation projects under different third-party standards like ACR, VCS and ARB.

• Resource to the Manager of Forest Information Systems to ensure the project baselines, project scenarios, carbon cruises, and stratification requirements meet the required standard and methodology guidelines.
• Responsible for overall project management to ensure that issuance timelines are met. This will require working with colleagues and external consultants, verifiers, and contractors.
• Support RFPs and offset marketing efforts.
• Keep up to date on new methodologies, standards, tools, and remote-sensing technologies that influence carbon and ecosystem markets.

Natural Climate Solutions Investments

• Support EFM original research and landscape analysis of natural climate solution investment opportunities across the Americas.
• Support due diligence and recommendations on investments spanning reforestation/afforestation, blue carbon, regenerative ag, avoided deforestation and IFM strategies.
• Review proposed project designs and evaluate relative climate, environmental and social impacts while comparing against best practices and regulatory or policy requirements.
• Develop understanding of relevant regulatory policies in project regions and trends in voluntary and compliance carbon markets related to nature-based carbon removal.
• Lead technical analysis on carbon or environmental credit generation potential of land-use based strategies and maintain library of carbon ‘efficiency’ factors across various sectors.

Desired Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Natural Sciences or Natural Resource management. Business or Economics ideal.
• 3 to 5+ years working in forestry, land-use management, ecosystem modeling, carbon project development or verification context. More senior candidates are invited to apply.

• Experience working with forest carbon or ecosystem modeling and quantification is highly desirable.
• Understanding of carbon accounting standards and methodologies in a technical capacity or within an investment or project development context.
• Familiarity with the carbon project development process, including quantification, monitoring, and/or verification.
• Strong scientific and technical skills that include a mixture of financial modeling, statistical analysis, remote sensing, GIS, carbon modeling, and/or forest biometrics.
• Familiarity with forest growth and yield systems, including FPS or FVS is preferred.
• Strong communication (presentation and written) skills, including communicating to non-technical audiences.
• Experience with Microsoft Excel, GIS and database management are required.
• Ability to travel and to perform occasional field work in remote, steep rugged terrain, and inclement weather.

Terms

• Competitive salary and benefits
• Full‐time 40 hours per week with flexible scheduling
• 401(k) retirement plan with generous company match on contributions
• Dog-friendly workplace, supportive of a hybrid work-from-home preference
• Paid vacation and holidays
• Position based in Portland, OR; can be partly or fully remote for the right candidate

Application                                               

Candidates should submit the following to jobs@efmi.com. Applications are considered on a rolling basis.

• Short cover letter describing your interest in the position and corresponding experience.
• Resume or CV

EFM is committed to Equal Employment Opportunity without regard for race, color, national or ethnic origin, protected veteran status, disability, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, or religion. People of color, people with disabilities, women, and LGBTQIA+ candidates are encouraged to apply.

About EFM

EFM is a real asset investment manager that invests in natural climate solutions in the Americas. Our investments in forests, farms, and ecosystems use climate-smart management approaches to create carbon sinks, protect biodiversity, improve water quality, and support rural livelihoods.

EFM stewards 120,000 acres across the western U.S. and has ~$215M in private capital (under management and advisement). Since 2004, we have been pioneering impact investment strategies that use blended capital and conservation finance to create long-term financial value and enduring social and environmental impact.