Community-led Economies & Markets Global Advisor

The Nature Conservancy•Copenhagen, VA

6d•$83,760 - $124,200•Remote

About The Position

Within TNC’s Office of Equitable Conservation, the Community-led Economies & Finance (CLEF) team works to ensure that Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and smallholders are at the center of the economic and financial systems that affect their lands, waters, and livelihoods. This role serves as the team’s senior technical strategist for community-led economies, enterprises, and market systems. Reporting to the Director of Community-led Economies & Finance, it shapes the team’s approach to growing regenerative, community-controlled economic activity — bringing both the analytical rigor of an economist and the practical expertise of someone who has worked on enterprise development, value chains, and market linkages. This is not a desk-based strategy role. It requires close collaboration with regional, local, and global teams who drive implementation and manage relationships on the ground, with deference to local leadership. The global role identifies replicable models across geographies, co-develops frameworks with regional teams, facilitates cross-regional learning, and connects regional innovations to global platforms and partnerships. While economies and markets are the primary domain, this position also contributes to the team’s finance work where economic and enterprise expertise is needed. The position is globally remote within countries where TNC has an established office. It requires a flexible schedule to collaborate across time zones and a willingness to travel internationally (approximately 20–25%).

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in economics, international development, business administration, environmental management, or a related field, and a minimum of 6 years of related experience — gained through formal training, professional practice, and/or lived experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Experience in community economic development, market systems development, enterprise support, value chain analysis, or related practice areas, with demonstrated depth in one or more of: landscape-level enterprise development, sociobioeconomy or sustainable livelihood approaches, market linkage and buyer engagement, community-led business model design, economic systems analysis, incentive design, or regenerative economic systems.
Experience working directly with or in service to Indigenous Peoples, local communities, smallholders, or community-based enterprises — not solely in advisory roles external to those communities.
Demonstrated commitment to equity, Indigenous rights, self-determination, and community governance in both process and outcomes of economic development work.
Strong analytical skills, including the ability to apply economic and systems-level thinking (cost-benefit analysis, incentive mapping, macro framing) to conservation and community development challenges.
Strong analytical, quantitative, and communication skills, including the ability to translate technical finance concepts into language accessible to non-specialist audiences
Experience managing complex projects across multiple geographies and coordinating with partners and teams over whom there is no direct supervisory authority.
Cross-cultural work experience, including in low- and middle-income countries.
Written and oral fluency in English.
Willingness to travel internationally approximately 20–25%, including occasional evenings or weekends to accommodate field visits and cross-time-zone collaboration.
Candidates must reside in a location where TNC is a registered entity with the ability to work in that location.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (Master’s or equivalent) in a relevant field.
Experience working for or with grassroots IP&LC organizations, community-led enterprises, cooperatives, or producer associations.
Experience designing landscape-level enterprise support ecosystems — coordinating across communities, buyers, investors, BDS providers, and government to remove systemic barriers to community-led economic development.
Familiarity with conservation-linked economic models such as sustainable forest products, community-based natural resource management, ecotourism, payments for ecosystem services, and carbon-linked livelihoods.
Experience with Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and rights-based approaches to economic engagement.
Experience with incubators, accelerators, blended finance platforms, or similar enterprise support mechanisms that bridge community-led development with market and investment systems.
Multisectoral experience spanning private, public, and non-profit sectors, including engagement with corporate or market actors.
Proficiency in Spanish and/or Portuguese; additional languages spoken in TNC focal geographies (French, Bahasa Indonesia, Swahili) are valued.
Entrepreneurial mindset and comfort working in an evolving, unstructured environment where approaches are being co-created with partners.

Responsibilities

Advance and co-develop the team’s strategic approach to community-led economies in collaboration with regional, local, and global teams — grounded in Indigenous rights, self-determination, community ownership, and equitable market relations.
Bring economic analysis to the team’s work: diagnosing why economic systems produce the outcomes they do for communities and ecosystems, analyzing incentive structures and enabling conditions, conducting cost-benefit and feasibility analyses, and applying macro-level framing to inform where and how the team intervenes.
Design landscape-level enterprise support ecosystems in collaboration with regional leads: mapping the actors needed to unlock change (communities, buyers, investors, business development service providers, government), conducting value chain analyses and livelihood diagnostics, identifying nature-positive value chains, and co-developing market strategies that move from analysis through to deployment with the communities and partners who will sustain them.
Shape and prioritize a portfolio of economies and markets initiatives across multiple regions and conservation activity stages, in collaboration with regional, local, and global teams.
Develop terms of reference, manage contracts, review deliverables, and advise on consultancy design for priority initiatives.
Coordinate with responsible teams to define how the portfolio measures results and success, linking initiatives to TNC’s 2030 Goals and the institution-wide project portfolio.
Coordinate across Equitable Conservation to ensure coherence and embed community-led economies perspectives into broader divisional strategy.
Co-develop with local, regional, and global teams best-practice publications, training materials, and advocacy resources that capture place-based innovation, and facilitate cross-regional learning — ensuring that models developed in one geography inform and strengthen approaches elsewhere.
Collaborate with adjacent TNC teams — including Impact Finance & Markets, Tackle Climate Change, corporate engagement, and regional economies leads — to embed community-led economies approaches into broader organizational strategies so that natural climate solutions and conservation outcomes are supported by market systems that center community ownership.
Contribute economic and enterprise expertise to the team’s finance work, including financial viability analysis, investment pathway design, and advising on how enterprise support connects to financial inclusion strategies.
Build and manage partnerships with external organizations — including enterprise development partners, business development service providers, market actors, research institutions, and IP&LC-led networks — ensuring enterprise support draws on deep practitioner knowledge and advances shared objectives.
Represent the team’s work at multilateral events and policy platforms (e.g., COP, Climate Week, regional forums) where community-led economies perspectives can influence conservation and climate agendas.
Support fundraising and donor cultivation by co-designing fundable platforms, shaping narratives grounded in evidence and community voice, and contributing technical content to proposals.