Lead Specialist, Sustainable Infrastructure

South Pole is a key partner in high-profile initiatives, including the European Commission’s Net Zero Cities  (NZC) mandate. We work with European cities to develop, action, and finance their Net Zero Investment Plans to reach carbon neutrality.

As our portfolio in Sustainable Infrastructure and Cities evolves, we are expanding our technical assistance and advisory offerings. In this role, you will not only provide technical assistance to cities but also play a key role in identifying new opportunities to scale our impact through both public funding schemes and direct advisory mandates for city-related infrastructure projects.

The main objective of this role is to take on responsibility for selected technical assistance (technical and financial project preparation support, business case development and financial modelling, financial structuring and investment advisory, as well as capacity building) provision to cities for their sustainable infrastructure projects to support them towards access to finance.

Depending on your expertise and the demand you will be working with a focus on climate adaptation & NbS, energy efficiency, built environment or carbon removal sector.

Thereby, you will collaborate with a broad range of public and private partners, clients, and stakeholders from the financial, infrastructure, public administration, and private sector.

This is a mid-to-senior professional role, with the potential to grow depending on mandate scope growth and follow-on mandates. You will be part of an international team of infrastructure, climate finance, and technical assistance experts within South Pole and work with a variety of consortium partners across the EU in a European flagship program to reduce emissions and increase the quality of livelihood in Cities.

Your work location must be in Switzerland till Q1/2027, with the option and interest to travel within Europe.

• Provide technical and financial project preparation support for urban infrastructure projects, including business case development, financial modelling, and financial structuring to support cities in reaching asset bankability and transaction readiness.
• Coordinate small teams of internal and external experts to provide expertise and prepare deliverables for the technical assistance provision to municipal sustainable infrastructure projects along the project preparation process.
• Perform high-level scoping of engineering work and assessment of deliverables from technical consultancies or engineering companies.
• Support development and standardisation of methodologies for selected thematic areas (e.g., Project Finance, Negative Emissions, or Climate Adaptation), to increase our long-term value and expertise.
• Proactively identify and lead the development of high-quality proposals for direct advisory mandates or public grants, driving the growth of our project pipeline.
• Collaborate with a broad range of public and private partners, including engineering firms and financial institutions, to ensure South Pole is the preferred technical partner for complex urban infrastructure consortia.
• Work closely with South Pole’s internal Centers of Excellence (e.g., Sustainable Finance and Climate Risk) to integrate specialized technical expertise into city-level offerings.
• Contribute to the capacity building of the team at South Pole and in the NZC consortium through your sector-specific expertise in infrastructure project preparation and investor engagement;

• Master in economics, business administration, international affairs or engineering
• Min. 3-5 years of hands-on experience in infrastructure project planning and/or financing with strong focus on climate mitigation and adaptation, impact investments, financial structuring and/or project finance. Alternatively, technical experience in energy efficiency/built-environment, district heating & cooling renewable energy or negative emissions is also desirable, preferably in a European context;
• Proven track record in contributing to or leading successful proposals for public tenders and/or private sector consultancy mandates in the urban environment.
• Prior…