Tradewater

Director of Verification and Logistics

Location Flexible                                         

About Tradewater

Tradewater’s mission is to improve the environment and create economic opportunity through the collection, control, and destruction of potent, high-impact greenhouse gases. Tradewater is a deeply mission-driven company that believes that a company committed to cleaning up the environment can be just as successful – if not more so – than a company that achieves its goals without regard to environmental impact.

                                                                                                                 
To date, Tradewater has prevented nearly 5.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from being released into the atmosphere, a key measure in the approach to fight climate change. Now, Tradewater is scaling its operation and gearing up to prevent 3 million+ tons from being released to the atmosphere annually.  Achieving this goal involves identifying, controlling, and destroying potent greenhouse gases around the world and building a diversified market that values the climate benefits Tradewater creates. Equally important is building a dedicated staff of professionals to expand Tradewater’s impact globally. 

The Opportunity

As it continues on its growth trajectory and looks to the future, Tradewater is seeking a Director of Verification and Logistics. The position links key components of Tradewater’s work – a mastery of carbon offset protocols, management of the movement and destruction of greenhouse gases globally, and project documentation and quality control to ensure that all of Tradewater’s work meets the requirements of carbon offset protocols in a manner that can be successfully verified by third-parties.  The position reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer.

Key responsibilities include:

• Work as a part of a team of professionals that is building a pipeline of projects that will identify, collect, and destroy harmful refrigerants, and prevent the release of methane, all over the world.
• Manage and lead a small team of trained professionals responsible for the validation and verification of Tradewater’s carbon offset projects.
• Build systems and processes to ensure that all of Tradewater’s carbon offset projects are timely and successfully validated and verified according to recognized protocols and established methodologies. This includes managing the preparation of appropriate evidence and documentation for each project, leading meetings with third-party verifiers and external stakeholders, as well as coordinating the development and submission of validation and verification reports. 
• Build and manage a network of third-parties, including logistics companies, transboundary movement partners, refrigerant and methane laboratories, hazardous waste management facilities, verifiers and registries, to support the verification and logistics needs of Tradewater.
• Develop Tradewater’s internal capacities to effectively move Tradewater’s refrigerant gases around the world.
• Ensure that the transportation of greenhouse gases in Tradewater’s projects is done safely, efficiently, and consistently with governing laws and regulations. This includes contracting with logistics firms and freight forwarders to plan, coordinate, and supervise the domestic and transboundary movement of hazardous materials, lab samples, and HVAC equipment under different regulatory regimes, including the Basel Convention.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure that projects are developed and implemented in ways that ensure successful validation and verification of the work. This includes developing standard operating procedures for certain activities, coordinating research and analysis on government permits, licenses, and other processes in different countries around the world, and deeply understanding and interpreting relevant carbon offset protocols and methodologies.
• Ensure that Tradewater develops and uses document management systems, databases, and forms that make the validation and verification process as efficient and effective as possible.
• Support the engineering teams at Tradewater as needed to confirm that destruction facilities and methane abatement processes meet international protocols and the standards of all applicable carbon offset registries.
• Lead company efforts to revise existing carbon offset protocols and develop new methodologies as regulations change and science dictates.
• Ensure data integrity and quality is maintained within Tradewater’s data management systems.

Candidate Profile

The Director of Verification and Logistics must have at least a bachelor’s degree in a related field, which could include Industrial or Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, or Sustainability. Degrees related to policy, government, or law are also desirable.

The Director must also have excellent written and oral communication skills and be comfortable communicating about very technical subject matter. An exceptional ability to pay attention to details is essential as well.

Strong candidates will have experience working in other countries or working on projects or teams that span multiple countries. They will also be fluent or proficient in at least one language other than English, with a preference for Spanish, French, Arabic, or Thai.

Candidates must have at least five years of relevant work experience in environmental project management, carbon offset protocol validation and verification processes, or working within carbon offset registries. Experience and knowledge in logistics and operations is highly desirable.

Other qualifications include:

• A demonstrated ability to work independently in a professional environment
• Strong interpersonal skills and a desire to work collaboratively and proactively with multiple stakeholders
• Excellent organizational skills
• Exceptional problem-solving skills and strong analytical skills
• Comfort negotiating contracts and speaking persuasively on behalf of a client or company
• A process-oriented approach to all work
• The patience to tolerate bureaucratic processes
• The ability to manage a wide-variety of activities in multiple countries at the same time
• Resiliency and flexibility to evolving conditions and a dynamic work environment
• Ability to strictly follow protocols and rules
• Data and metrics oriented
• Availability to travel as required to countries
• Commitment to Tradewater's mission