Director, Registry Operations

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Position Description: Leadership of team implementing next generation carbon credit registries

Position Title: Director, Registry Operations

Location: Arlington, VA Office, US Hybrid, or US Remote

Department: Environmental Resources Trust (ERT)

Reports To: ACR Managing Director

GENERAL

The Environmental Resources Trust (ERT) is a wholly owned nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International and was founded in 1996 to offer trusted solutions to environmental markets to catalyze transformational climate impacts. ERT ensures the integrity of environmental assets, including carbon credits, by developing science-based, peer reviewed accounting standards, overseeing independent third-party verification of emission reductions and carbon removals and providing transparency throughout the process including the issuance, transactions, and retirement of serialized offset credits on public registry systems. ERT operates three carbon crediting programs:

ACR is an internationally recognized carbon crediting program that operates in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets. ACR was the first private greenhouse gas registry in the world and brings three decades of unparalleled experience and innovation to is operation as an independent carbon credit standards body and registry. ACR is also an approved Offset Project Registry for the California and Washington State Cap-and-Invest Programs (administered by the California Air Resources Board, or CARB and the Washington State Department of Ecology, or Ecology, respectively).

The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) was established in 2018 as the first market-based initiative to incentivize the protection and restoration of tropical forests at scale, also known as jurisdictional REDD+. ART is the leading global carbon market initiative for jurisdictional REDD+, ensuring the social and environmental integrity of climate results from protecting and restoring forests at scale. ART’s growing pipeline of participating jurisdictions currently includes over two dozen governments on five continents covering over 1 billion acres – 25% of the world’s tropical forests.

ERT is also developing the Standard for the Transformation of the Electric Power Sector (STEPS), a first of a kind sectoral carbon crediting standard to incentivize steeper and more rapid electric sector decarbonization.

ACR and ART are approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to supply emission reduction and removals credits to airlines for use towards their obligations under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) pilot phase (complete), phase 1 (2024-2026) and phase 2 (2027-2029). The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has assessed ACR and ART against the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) and approved both as a CCP-Eligible programs. Both also have an MoU with Singapore to supply credits for use towards national carbon tax obligations and are positioned for roles in new compliance offset markets and under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, as well as increased prominence in the global voluntary carbon market.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Registry Director is a senior role, leading the Registry Operations team focused on registry infrastructure and operations, including client services. The Director will join the team as we launch ACR and ART on a re-envisioned registry platform with a new registry technology service provider, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). At this juncture the team will be developing support resources and training staff and partners in their use of our registries as well as working with ICE to enhance functionality and features as part of a phased deployment to deliver a quantum leap forward in infrastructure to enable the scaling and integration of global carbon markets.

The role directly contributes to, and manages a team dedicated to, all aspects of registry services. This includes, but is not limited to, the registry functionality, carbon credit issuance process, onboarding of new registry participants, and maintaining accurate registry data and billing services. The Registry Director will develop a strong functional understanding of relevant aspects of the ACR Standard, California and Washington regulations, and CORSIA and ICVCM requirements to ensure that projects move through the registry process efficiently, while upholding our program policies, regulatory compliance, technical rigor, quality and transparency. The Director will lead the Registry Operations team in engaging program staff and registry participants in registry operating procedures and functionality to facilitate their use of the registries.

The Registry Director will track policy developments and technological advancements to lead the continued growth and innovation of the system in ways that continue to ensure integrity of the credits that are issued and transacted. Such innovations include the integration of increased functionality of application programming interfaces (APIs) to promote interconnectivity and digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV), and the evaluation and utilization of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) artificial intelligence (AI). This Director will also enhance organizational growth by participating in outreach activities in target markets and collaborations with strategic partners.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead registry services for ERT’s global  carbon market business, including ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Develop deep expertise in the registry platform functionality and its relationship to processes for project listing, reporting, validation/verification, issuance, transaction, and billing to lead staff and partners in their training and use of the registries.
• Initially contribute to and then lead registry infrastructure enhancement projects and upgrades to ensure an intuitive user experience that is fit for purpose in terms of program alignment and regulatory compliance, responsive to new market trends, and promoting transparency and scalability for markets. This process includes performing needs assessments, writing and reviewing design specifications for front-end components, performing and overseeing rigorous testing in the user acceptance testing environment, providing feedback to the registry technology service provider to enable fixes to the back-end components, and facilitating timely rollout to production.
• Manage engagement with our registry technology service provider(s) and any linked platforms with the objective of being best in class. Participate in regularly scheduled meetings and other forms of communication to present development needs, track outcomes, and address issues and questions that arise.
• Support and manage the Registry Operations team in day-to-day operations ensuring accuracy and excellency in client service. This includes management of the general ACR inbox to answer registry participant questions regarding use of the registry and invoicing, and responding to general stakeholder inquiries.
• Oversee development and streamlining of standard operating procedures as they relate to the review of projects prior to carbon credit issuance; new participant applications, know your customer (KYC) processes, and onboarding assistance; oversight of carbon credit retirement data, and the use and communication of registry data.
• Oversee and contribute to the creation of reports for regulatory bodies including CARB, Ecology, and ICAO as well as ICVCM.
• Recruit, hire, train, support, and manage staff within the Registry Operations team.
• Collaborate with the CEO, Managing Director, and other senior team members to identify strategic partnerships and innovations, product and service offerings, and other new business opportunities that will further the organization’s mission.
• Represent the organization and constructively engage with key stakeholders and partners to directly support ACR’s success in all markets. Develop analyses, presentations, outreach materials to support operations with existing partners and strategic business development opportunities related to registry technology and market linkages.

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Bachelor’s degree required. Degrees in Business Administration, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Information Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, Environmental Sciences/Policy, GHG Accounting, or related field preferred.

Experience: Minimum of 12 years of relevant business experience, including in the direct operation and management of registries or other digital database systems is required. Experience with carbon crediting or other environmental or financial assets is strongly preferred. Minimum of 5 years of experience managing teams required. Candidate must also have directly relevant experience managing service providers, contractors, or vendors, as well as client engagement experience.

Computer/Technical Skills: Proficiency in the full MS Office suite required. Candidates should also have experience developing software requirement specifications and conducting user acceptance testing.

Communication Skills: Strong technical writing skills required.

Language: Fluency in spoken and written English is required.

Required Travel: Must be available to travel for short-term assignments.

Position-Specific Skills:

• Strong project planning and management skills, including the ability to identify and manage critical dependencies, allocate resources, and track performance for multiple tasks and initiatives.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and systems thinking skills complemented by a solutions oriented mindset and ability to constructively engage with staff, partners, and stakeholders.
• Quick learner with an ability to synthesize technical information for a variety of audiences.
• Effective leadership and managerial skills with a demonstrated ability to mentor and motivate staff and foster a positive team culture – ideally within a flexible, fast-paced, remote work environment.
• Ability to delegate assignments, set priorities, clearly communicate expectations, and provide background information and resources, and provide constructive feedback.
• Change management skills to strategically and effectively communicate with and educate registry users about system changes to maximize adoption and minimize disruption.
• Strong interpersonal skills, impeccable integrity and trustworthiness, and ability to consistently interact with others in a professional, courteous, and tactful manner, maintain a positive attitude and good working relationships, and work effectively in a team setting.

Physical Demands: Typical office environment with continual sitting or standing required.

Other: Must be authorized to work in the United States. Commitment to Winrock’s mission and interest in market-based approaches to reducing GHG emissions required.

Salary Range: $150,000–$200,000. Final compensation will be based on experience, skills, and internal equity. Winrock benefits highlights are available here: benefits package.

Winrock is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by law.

At Winrock we have a clear mission: Empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity and sustain natural resources through unwavering dedication to accountability, equity, innovation, integrity and transformation.