Climate Analyst

The core mission revolves around providing rigorous analytical, economic, and policy research to support Ocean Conservancy's climate mitigation and ocean protection strategies. The role entails modeling greenhouse gas emissions, evaluating decarbonization pathways, and tracking developments across federal, state, and international climate finance mechanisms. Operationally, the candidate will build dashboards, analytical models, and white papers to synthesize complex data into actionable insights. You will also directly support specific conservation initiatives such as marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR), offshore wind deployment, and clean shipping decarbonization. Additionally, the analyst coordinates cross-functionally with science, legal, communications, and development teams to craft board briefings, donor proposals, and public-facing reports, ensuring high methodological integrity across all climate-related outputs.

This position offers extensive exposure to the advanced nexus of ocean-climate policy and finance. You will likely develop deep domain expertise in emerging marine carbon dioxide removal technologies, clean shipping corridors, and sustainable blue economy financing. Working directly under the Vice President of Climate provides unique mentorship in executive-level decision making, strategic campaign design, and coalition management. You will also refine advanced quantitative methods, including economic modeling and emissions scenario accounting. Furthermore, the role offers valuable insights into philanthropic fundraising, legislative policy cycles, and international climate negotiations, significantly broadening your strategic perspective beyond pure technical analysis.

The ideal candidate combines strong quantitative capabilities with exceptional written communication skills. They typically hold a degree in environmental science, economics, public policy, data science, or engineering, complemented by 2 to 3 years of hands-on experience in climate policy, carbon accounting, or sustainable finance. Technically, proficiency in advanced Excel modeling, emissions scenario analysis, and data synthesis is essential. Experience with carbon markets, ESG disclosure frameworks, or economic policy modeling will make a candidate stand out. Interpersonally, the role requires an agile critical thinker who can distill dense technical datasets into accessible briefs for non-specialists, manage concurrent deadlines, and thrive in an interdisciplinary non-profit setting.

Ensure your resume clearly highlights quantitative achievements and tangible policy or research outputs rather than generic responsibilities. Emphasize any experience handling emissions datasets, economic models, or climate finance mechanisms. Your cover letter should articulate a genuine understanding of the ocean-climate nexus. Rather than speaking broadly about conservation, discuss specific challenges in areas like offshore wind integration, maritime decarbonization, or carbon removal governance. Prepare a writing sample or portfolio that demonstrates your ability to communicate complex data clearly to executive or policy audiences, showing both analytical depth and executive readability.

The primary focus is advancing external, systemic sustainability by accelerating ocean-based climate solutions and international mitigation strategies. The role focuses heavily on decarbonization pathways and policies that curb planetary warming. Key thematic areas include offshore renewable energy development, maritime shipping emissions reduction, phasing out offshore fossil fuel reliance, and responsibly exploring marine carbon dioxide removal. From a governance and finance lens, the position analyzes public and private climate finance flows to ensure capital is directed effectively toward equitable and ecologically sound ocean-climate interventions.

Navigating rapidly evolving science and regulatory frameworks around ocean climate interventions, especially controversial topics like marine carbon removal, presents a steep analytical challenge. Balancing technical rigor with fast-paced advocacy demands can also be challenging, as the team often requires rapid-response briefings for breaking policy or media opportunities. Additionally, aligning diverse stakeholder expectations across industry, government, grassroots communities, and scientific bodies requires high diplomatic sensitivity and clarity in data presentation.

A typical day might start by tracking legislative updates and reviewing new literature on clean shipping standards or marine carbon removal technologies. You could then spend the morning in Excel refining a scenario model on maritime emissions projections. Midday might involve a cross-functional alignment call with the government affairs and communications teams to review a forthcoming policy memo aimed at federal regulators. In the afternoon, you would likely draft briefing slides for the Vice President of Climate ahead of an upcoming donor meeting or external coalition convening, finishing the day by answering data requests from regional conservation leads.

Given the high visibility of this role alongside organizational leadership, there is significant potential for upward trajectory into Senior Analyst or Policy Manager roles within the climate program. The position also serves as a strong springboard toward specialized careers in sustainable finance, international climate diplomacy, or environmental philanthropy. By building relationships with external partners, academic researchers, and philanthropic foundations, the analyst establishes an influential professional network across the broader global sustainability ecosystem.

Internally, your most frequent collaborator will be the Vice President of Climate, along with specialists across conservation, government relations, science, and communications programs. Externally, you will engage regularly with peer analysts at partner NGOs, academic researchers, and think tanks collaborating on joint climate policy initiatives. You may also interact with philanthropic funders, corporate sustainability leaders, and government agency staff seeking technical data to inform ocean-climate policy decisions.