--- title: Climate & Infrastructure Capital Senior Associate, Portfolio canonical: https://csrjobs.club/jobs/aib-climate-infrastructure-capital-senior-associate-portfolio-s9ke locale: en description: AIB is hiring a Climate & Infrastructure Capital Senior Associate, Portfolio on CSR Jobs. Discover this in-house sustainability role and apply today. updated: 2026-10-07 company: AIB country: Ireland contract: Full time seniority: Senior missions: ESG reporting, Corporate Carbon Footprint, Stakeholders engagement job_type: ESG/Sustainability Reporting Manager, Sustainability Manager posted: 2026-10-07 valid_through: 2026-12-07 apply: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4476795923 source: CSR Jobs --- # Climate & Infrastructure Capital Senior Associate, Portfolio This role sits at the heart of AIB's climate action agenda, managing the performance, risk and credit health of a portfolio of large-scale renewable energy and infrastructure transactions. Day to day, you'll prepare annual reviews, waivers and consents, scrutinise financial models and covenant compliance, and monitor the operational and technical performance of projects financed across Ireland, the UK and beyond. It matters because AIB has committed to making 70% of its lending green or transition by 2030 through a €30 billion climate action fund, and this team is central to delivering that. By helping fund renewables, circular-economy projects and social infrastructure, you'd be directly shaping how capital flows toward decarbonisation at scale. This suits someone with strong project finance or specialised lending experience, sharp credit and modelling skills, and a genuine drive to put their analytical toolkit to work on climate. If you want your deal sheets to read like climate policy in action, this is that role. ## Job FAQs ### What are the main missions and responsibilities of this role? The core of this role is portfolio stewardship of Climate & Infrastructure Capital's growing book of renewable energy and infrastructure transactions across Ireland, the UK and other international markets. In practice, you would be preparing annual credit reviews, waiver and consent requests, and analysing risks and mitigants for presentation to AIB's credit authorities. **Diligent monitoring of financial and operational performance** is central: reviewing financial statements, running financial models, testing covenant compliance and digesting technical reports on construction and operational progress. Beyond the transaction-level work, you would contribute to the evolution of AIB's credit risk models, support internal audit and credit review engagements, and maintain current knowledge of the renewables, infrastructure and circular-economy sectors. There is also a people dimension, the role explicitly involves **managing and developing more junior staff members**, which suggests a player-coach dynamic within a lean, high-performing team. At a higher altitude, the mission is to enable AIB to deploy its €30 billion climate action fund responsibly, making sure that the bank's ambition to make 70% of lending green or transition by 2030 is underpinned by rigorous risk assessment rather than rhetoric. Every review, model and waiver is ultimately a gate through which climate-positive capital flows. ### Key learning opportunities for this job Because this team lends across Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America, the exposure to different regulatory regimes, project structures and sponsor types is unusually broad for a role at this level. You would deepen your **project finance and specialised lending** expertise substantially, particularly in renewable energy (wind, solar, grid infrastructure) and social infrastructure, where deal structures tend to be complex and long-tenured. The role also offers a rare blend of credit risk and sustainability. You would likely gain hands-on exposure to **sustainable lending frameworks**, green loan principles and the internal mechanics of how a major bank operationalises its climate commitments. The mention of contributing to credit risk model development is significant: it suggests exposure to regulatory capital and ECL modelling, skills that are in high demand across banking. Soft skills should develop too: you would be negotiating with sponsors, presenting to credit committees and mentoring juniors. For someone targeting a future in green finance leadership, this is a chance to build the technical, sectoral and stakeholder credentials simultaneously, under the banner of one of Ireland's most visible climate-finance platforms. ### How does the ideal candidate look like (experience, skills)? AIB is looking for someone with a minimum of three years in project finance, specialised lending or a closely related advisory or industry role, backed by a relevant third-level qualification, likely in finance, economics, engineering or a quantitative discipline. **Strong financial analysis and credit skills** are non-negotiable, as is proficiency in financial modelling, including the ability to run sensitivity analyses and interrogate sponsor models rather than simply accept them. The ideal candidate would also bring a proven awareness of sustainable lending, which distinguishes this role from a conventional credit position. An** analytical, results-focused mindset** and the ability to communicate risk clearly to senior stakeholders are flagged explicitly, along with influencing skills and a collaborative disposition, important given the matrix of internal credit authorities, relationship teams and external sponsors. Experience with credit risk models used for regulatory capital or ECL calculations would be a differentiator. So would evidence of having managed or mentored juniors, since the role carries a development responsibility. AIB is also clear about cultural fit: they want someone who owns outcomes, eliminates complexity and treats colleagues and customers with fairness and respect. In practice, that means candidates should be able to point to concrete examples of initiative and cross-functional collaboration, not just technical deal experience. ### Advice to stand out and make a successful application Given that AIB explicitly encourages candidates who are unsure about suitability to contact the recruiter, Emma Creane, before applying, doing so is a smart first move: it signals initiative and gives you valuable insight into how the team is structured. When tailoring your CV, foreground **project finance transactions you have actually worked on**: deal size, sector (renewables especially), your specific role in credit analysis, modelling and covenant monitoring. Generic banking language will not differentiate you here. Your cover letter should connect your technical experience directly to AIB's stated purpose. The bank is trying to make 70% of its lending green or transition by 2030, showing that you understand what that means operationally, and why portfolio discipline is essential to achieving it credibly, will resonate more than enthusiasm alone. If you have exposure to green loan principles, sustainability-linked structures or climate-related financial disclosures, make it visible. In interviews, prepare for a blend of technical and values-based questions. AIB's stated values (Customer First, Own the Outcome, Eliminate Complexity, Show Respect, Be One Team) are likely to be tested through behavioural examples. Be ready to discuss a time you caught a material risk in a portfolio, or managed a difficult sponsor relationship. Also prepare thoughtful questions about how the ROI & UK Team interacts with the wider international platform; curiosity about the team's growth trajectory will signal genuine interest. ### What aspects of the company's sustainability is this role likely to focus on? The sustainability throughline in this role is the deployment and stewardship of AIB's **€30 billion climate action fund**, with the explicit ambition that 70% of lending be green or transition by 2030. The portfolio you would manage consists of large-scale renewables and infrastructure assets (wind farms, solar projects, grid investments) alongside circular-economy and social infrastructure projects. Your work directly enables those assets to be financed and maintained. On the environmental side, the focus is on ensuring that financed projects genuinely contribute to decarbonisation while meeting the bank's risk standards. On the governance side, the role sits within credit risk, meaning you are part of the mechanism that ensures AIB's green lending claims are backed by real, monitored assets rather than unverified commitments. That intersection, between sustainability ambition and credit rigour, is precisely where greenwashing risk gets managed. The social dimension appears through the mention of **key social projects** and strategic lending to sustainable businesses, meaning the portfolio likely spans more than pure renewables. In a bank of AIB's scale, this role could touch on community infrastructure, circular-economy ventures and transition lending to carbon-intensive sectors. The breadth means the sustainability focus is not narrow: it is about how a systemic bank redirects its balance sheet. ### What are the main challenges someone in this role might face? The most immediate challenge is the **breadth of portfolio exposure** across multiple jurisdictions (Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America) each with different regulatory frameworks, market conditions and sponsor expectations. Staying on top of covenant compliance, operational performance and credit quality for a diverse book, while maintaining the depth of analysis expected at senior associate level, requires strong prioritisation and time management. A second challenge lies in the inherent tension between climate ambition and credit discipline. AIB wants to grow its green lending rapidly, but the role exists precisely to ensure that growth does not come at the cost of risk quality. Navigating that tension, being the person who can say 'this project carries more risk than the sponsor acknowledges' while remaining a constructive partner to deal teams, demands both technical credibility and diplomatic skill. **Sponsor relationships** can be demanding, particularly when waivers or consents are needed and timelines are tight. The evolving nature of sustainable lending adds complexity. Standards, taxonomies and regulatory expectations around green finance are still maturing, so you may find yourself working with frameworks that are not yet fully settled. Add to that the mentorship responsibility for junior staff and the contribution to credit model development, and the role clearly expects someone who can operate at multiple levels simultaneously without dropping the analytical ball. ### How could a typical day look like for someone in this position? A typical day would likely begin with reviewing updates from sponsors or advisors, construction progress reports, operational data, financial statements. You might spend the morning deep in a financial model, running sensitivities to test whether a project's cash flows still support its covenants, or drafting an annual review for a transaction approaching its credit anniversary. Interspersed would be **check-ins with junior team members**, reviewing their analyses or guiding their understanding of a complex deal structure. Afternoons could involve internal meetings with relationship managers, credit risk colleagues or the wider Climate & Infrastructure Capital leadership, discussing portfolio-level themes or preparing materials for credit committee. You might have a call with a sponsor to discuss a waiver request, requiring you to balance the client relationship against the bank's risk appetite. There would also be time for sector reading, keeping abreast of energy market developments, policy shifts or competitor activity. The rhythm is likely cyclical, with intense periods around credit review deadlines, waivers or audit engagements, and quieter stretches for proactive portfolio analysis and model development work. **Hybrid working** is available, but the office-centric policy suggests meaningful in-person collaboration, particularly for mentoring and spontaneous problem-solving. Variability will come from deal flow, a new transaction closing or a portfolio company hitting turbulence can reshape the week entirely. ### What are the opportunities for professional growth and development in this role? The most obvious path leads toward a more senior portfolio management or credit leadership position within Climate & Infrastructure Capital, particularly as the team builds out its international platform. Given that AIB is scaling this business across multiple geographies, **early joiners tend to grow with the platform**, taking on larger or more complex portfolios and potentially leading sub-teams or sector verticals. Laterally, the skills developed here (project finance, credit risk, sustainable lending) are highly portable. Within AIB, that could mean moves into structured finance, corporate banking, risk strategy or the bank's broader sustainability function. Externally, green finance expertise is in strong demand across development banks, infrastructure funds, advisory firms and other lenders building climate-aligned portfolios. The exposure to credit model development and regulatory capital adds a quantitative dimension that further widens options. The role's explicit mentoring responsibility is itself a growth signal: it suggests the team views this as a position from which people step up, not a terminal grade. High-visibility transactions and direct interaction with credit authorities also provide the kind of exposure that **accelerates promotion** for those who perform. For someone with ambitions in climate finance leadership, this is a credible launchpad, not a back-office credit role. ### The main stakeholders you might be interacting with Internally, you would work closely with the ROI & UK Team within Climate & Infrastructure Capital, including senior portfolio managers and analysts you may help develop. Beyond the immediate team, key relationships would include **AIB's credit authorities and risk functions**, whose approval you would be seeking for reviews, waivers and consents, as well as relationship managers and originators who own the client-facing side of each transaction. Internal audit and credit review teams would also be regular touchpoints, particularly during formal review cycles. Externally, the most significant stakeholders are the **sponsors and borrowers** behind each project, typically infrastructure funds, renewable energy developers or large corporates. Your interactions with them would centre on performance monitoring, covenant discussions and the negotiation of waivers, requiring a balance of firmness and commercial pragmatism. Technical advisors, construction monitors and financial advisors may also provide reports you rely on for operational and financial assessments. There is also a cross-border dimension: given the portfolio spans Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America, you might interact with colleagues in other AIB offices or with international counterparties. The role sits at a junction between the bank, its clients and the broader climate finance ecosystem, meaning your stakeholder map is wide and your ability to translate between technical, financial and relationship perspectives would be tested daily. --- Source: https://csrjobs.club/jobs/aib-climate-infrastructure-capital-senior-associate-portfolio-s9ke