South Pole
Associate Director, Global Carbon Projects, Legal
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Associate Director, Global Carbon Projects, Legal
Job Summary
The Legal Associate Director - Global Carbon Projects will lead the legal architecture of our global project portfolio while supporting the leadership and policy team in our public affairs presence in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) and emerging compliance markets in Australia, CORSIA and Article 6 among others. Operating as the primary legal partner to South Pole's global Origination, Regulatory Intelligence and Projects team, this role will be part of the legal leadership team reporting to the General Counsel.
In this role, you will provide strategic legal guidance across the full lifecycle of carbon projects, from origination and due diligence through implementation, issuance, commercialization, incident management, disputes, project restructuring, and termination. You will be responsible for developing and embedding project-related legal policies, risk management frameworks, contracting standards, and governance processes across the group.
You will take primary responsibility for drafting and negotiating contractual arrangements for new high-impact sourcing projects with support from regional legal teams. You will lead the development of project legal playbooks, support complex and high-risk project situations, and help translate lessons learned from project incidents into practical legal and operational guidance.
In respect of public affairs, you will take policy forecasts and market updates and translate them directly into robust contractual frameworks, transaction structures, and risk allocation strategies (e.g., insurance, contract risk allocation frameworks, investment treaty protection, ERPA playbooks, government contracts, etc.). Externally, you will use these practical structuring insights to shape our public affairs positioning, ensuring that our market advocacy is deeply informed by, and aligned with, the evolving legal realities of voluntary and compliance markets.
As a member of the Legal Leadership Team, you will act as a strategic advisor to senior business stakeholders, drive cross-functional initiatives, and help shape South Pole's approach to project governance, risk management, and integrity.
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Main Tasks & Responsibilities
Strategic Business Partnership
- Serve as the primary legal point of contact and trusted advisor for the global Projects team (Origination, Performance Management, and Carbon).
- Support project leadership in identifying, assessing, and mitigating legal, regulatory, integrity, and operational risks throughout the project lifecycle.
- Provide pragmatic legal advice that balances commercial objectives with risk management and market integrity considerations.
Project Legal Oversight
- Advise on project development agreements, service agreements, ERPAs, commercialization arrangements, community agreements, benefit-sharing arrangements, and other project-related contracts.
- Support project structuring across voluntary and compliance markets, including Article 6 mechanisms and corresponding adjustment frameworks.
- Advise on land tenure, carbon rights, community rights, benefit-sharing arrangements, authorization structures, and project ownership matters.
- Support project issuance, transfer, and commercialization structures, including interactions with standards, registries, and government authorities.
Project Governance & Risk Management
- Lead legal review of high-risk and strategic projects and support escalation processes for critical project issues.
- Develop and maintain project legal risk frameworks, risk matrices, and escalation criteria.
- Support investigations, disputes, project incidents, stakeholder complaints, and integrity-related matters.
- Conduct legal root cause analyses following project incidents and translate lessons learned into improved policies and controls.
- Advise management and governance committees on significant project-related legal risks.
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Policy, Playbooks & Process Development
- Own and maintain project-related legal policies, guidance documents, templates, and playbooks.
- Lead the design and implementation of legal due diligence frameworks relating to land tenure, carbon rights, community engagement, benefit sharing, project ownership, permanence, and other project risks.
- Drive consistency across regions through standardized legal processes.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Coordinate with Risk, Communications, and Executive teams on project-related matters.
- Support training initiatives and build legal awareness across teams globally.
Market Integrity & Strategic Initiatives
- Support company-wide initiatives relating to market integrity, project quality, safeguards, and risk management.
- Monitor legal and regulatory developments affecting project development activities globally to feed into the Regulatory Intelligence group in conjunction with the Global Head of Regulatory (Legal).
- Represent the Legal team in cross-functional working groups addressing project quality, operational excellence, and business transformation initiatives.
Other Responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities outlined above are not exhaustive and may evolve based on business needs. The manager may assign additional tasks, projects, or responsibilities that align with the role’s scope and the organization’s objectives.
Key Success Factors
- Strong understanding of carbon project development, implementation, and commercialization.
- Ability to translate complex legal issues into practical operational guidance.
- Strong stakeholder management skills and ability to influence across functions and seniority levels.
- Experience managing high-risk project situations and balancing legal, commercial, reputational, and operational considerations.
- Demonstrated ability to build governance frameworks, policies, and scalable legal processes.
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