--- title: "Senior Research Officer (Sustainable Finance)" canonical: https://csrjobs.club/jobs/odi-global-senior-research-officer-sustainable-finance-lwrv locale: en description: "ODI Global is hiring a Senior Research Officer (Sustainable Finance) on CSR Jobs. Discover this in-house sustainability role and apply today." updated: 2026-10-21 company: ODI Global country: United Kingdom contract: Full time seniority: Senior missions: Strategic planning, Stakeholders engagement, ESG reporting job_type: Climate & Biodiversity Manager posted: 2026-10-21 valid_through: 2026-11-20 apply: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4479433258 source: CSR Jobs --- # Senior Research Officer (Sustainable Finance) This role sits in ODI Global's Climate and Environment Group, where you will produce policy research on how climate action gets financed. Day to day that means literature reviews, data work, interviews and workshops, then turning the findings into reports, policy briefs and advice for decision-makers. What makes it matter is the audience. ODI advises countries inside UNFCCC climate finance negotiations, supports multilateral development banks and climate funds on reform, and works on debt sustainability and private finance mobilisation. Your research can shape how money actually reaches climate goals, not just how it is discussed. This suits someone who combines a postgraduate background in environmental economics or sustainable finance with real exposure to public or private climate finance, and who can write quickly for both technical and policy audiences while travelling and juggling several projects. ## Job FAQs ### What are the main missions and responsibilities of this role? The core of this role is producing policy-relevant research on financing climate action, from literature reviews and data collection to interviews, workshops and written outputs. You would support or lead parts of research projects under a Research Fellow, and author or co-author reports and policy briefs for publication. **Managing budgets, donors and consultants** sits alongside the analytical work, as does supervising interns and short-term staff. A second strand is business development: contributing to expressions of interest and full project proposals, which means shaping how ODI wins and scopes its climate finance portfolio. You would also help turn research into communications products and present findings to decision-makers at events and meetings. Longer term, the goal is to keep ODI's work visible and useful in climate finance negotiations, multilateral reform debates and country-level finance mobilisation, while building your own reputation as a specialist in at least one of those areas. ### Key learning opportunities for this job You would likely deepen your technical grasp of at least one climate finance specialism, whether that is UNFCCC negotiations, debt sustainability or private finance mobilisation, because the person specification asks for substantive knowledge in one and the role puts you close to all three. Exposure to **multilateral development banks, climate funds, credit rating agencies and finance ministries** is built into the stakeholder map, so you could learn how these institutions actually make decisions rather than only how they are described in literature. Field work and overseas travel add first-hand country context. On the project side, you would gain fundraising and proposal-writing experience, budget and consultant management, and practice at supervising junior staff, all of which are the usual stepping stones from research officer to fellow. ### How does the ideal candidate look like (experience, skills)? The specification points to a postgraduate degree in a field such as environmental economics or sustainable finance, plus active knowledge of the international institutions working on climate finance. More than a general interest, they want depth in one issue: negotiations, debt sustainability or private finance mobilisation. Experience matters in two directions. Some time inside an international financial institution, multilateral climate fund, UNFCCC process, asset manager or credit ratings agency is valued, as is a track record of policy-oriented research shown through publications and reports. **Writing quickly for different audiences** is explicitly required. On the softer side, expect emphasis on collaboration across cultures, presentation and networking skills, and the ability to multitask. Willingness to travel internationally often, occasionally over weekends, is a practical requirement. A second language is a plus rather than a hurdle. ### Advice to stand out and make a successful application Because ODI reviews applications on a rolling basis and may close the advert early, submitting sooner rather than near the deadline is a real advantage. Tailor your materials to the Climate and Environment Group's portfolio rather than sending a generic research CV. Use your cover letter to name the one climate finance issue you know deeply, whether that is negotiations, debt sustainability or private finance mobilisation, and connect it to concrete outputs: reports, briefs, proposals or negotiation support you contributed to. Evidence of writing to short deadlines will matter more than a long publication list. If you have worked inside an MDB, climate fund, finance ministry, asset manager or rating agency, make that institutional experience legible, since it maps directly onto the external stakeholder list. Showing that you understand ODI's advisory model, evidence turned into policy influence, will read better than restating the job duties. ### What aspects of the company's sustainability is this role likely to focus on? The role sits squarely in climate finance rather than broad corporate sustainability. ODI's stated work covers advising countries in UNFCCC climate finance negotiations, supporting multilateral development banks and climate funds on reform, and helping countries at all income levels with debt sustainability and private finance mobilisation. Within that, the Senior Research Officer would contribute to **country platforms and public finance reform** questions, where the sustainability angle is about how finance is structured, priced and governed so that climate goals become fundable. Private capital mobilisation is a recurring theme, as is the link between sovereign debt positions and the ability to invest in climate action. Governance and equity themes run through the portfolio too, since ODI frames its work around a just and equitable future, so expect attention to how climate finance reaches lower-income countries rather than only how much is pledged. ### What are the main challenges someone in this role might face? Climate finance is a politically contested field, and research that feeds into UNFCCC negotiations or MDB reform debates can move slowly or be overtaken by political events. Keeping outputs both rigorous and timely, as the specification demands, is a genuine tension. Juggling several projects at once, with field work, donor reporting, budgets and communications products on top of analysis, will test prioritisation. The international travel requirement, occasionally over weekends, adds a personal logistics dimension that not every researcher welcomes. There is also the challenge of writing for multiple audiences at once: donors, negotiators, civil servants and civil society each want different levels of detail, and translating the same evidence into several formats without losing accuracy is a recurring skill demand. ### How could a typical day look like for someone in this position? A day could start with writing time on a policy brief or report section, since authoring outputs is a constant. That might be interrupted by a project meeting with a Research Fellow to review data collection or interview plans, or by a check-in on a budget or consultant contract you manage. External contact is likely most days: a call with a counterpart at a multilateral climate fund, a finance ministry official or a partner institute, followed by a short meeting summary circulated to the team. If a proposal deadline is near, part of the day shifts to drafting an expression of interest or costing a work plan. Around events and dissemination periods, the rhythm changes: preparing presentations, attending conferences or workshops, and briefing colleagues before meetings. Overseas trips for field work or negotiations would replace the London routine entirely for stretches of time. ### What are the opportunities for professional growth and development in this role? The natural progression is towards Research Fellow, and the role is structured to build the evidence for that: leading parts of projects, publishing under your own name and managing budgets and people under senior supervision. Proposal and fundraising experience is often what separates a research officer from a fellow in think tank career paths. Specialising further in one climate finance issue could open doors to advisory roles in multilateral institutions, climate funds or national finance ministries, given how central those relationships are to the job. High-visibility work around UNFCCC negotiations or MDB reform could also raise your profile externally. Internally, ODI's collegiate structure, with working groups, research away days and cross-group collaboration on sustainable finance, provides lateral exposure to adjacent policy areas beyond the Climate and Environment Group. ### The main stakeholders you might be interacting with Internally, you would work closely with colleagues in the Climate and Environment Group, researchers on sustainable finance in other groups, the Public Affairs and Communications team, and the project management cadre who support budgets and contracts. A Research Fellow or Group Director would provide day-to-day direction and supervision. Externally, the mix depends on your specialism but is unusually broad: climate finance negotiators in the UNFCCC, staff at bilateral and international financial institutions including MDBs and climate funds, people in asset managers and credit rating agencies, and civil servants in finance ministries, environment ministries and central banks. You would also engage research institutes and universities in the UK and internationally, and environmental NGOs, often as collaborators on projects or as audiences for research findings. The nature of these interactions ranges from formal donor reporting and negotiation support to networking at conferences and events. --- Source: https://csrjobs.club/jobs/odi-global-senior-research-officer-sustainable-finance-lwrv