The Strategic Programs Lead will lead the development and delivery of MPP’s work in the EU at a pivotal moment for European industrial policy. The role focuses on accelerating credible demand for clean commodities and technologies by engaging the full value chain and translating that into practical tools, such as a market mechanism, that helps projects reach FID.
This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced climate and industry practitioner to coordinate across corporates, financiers, governments, and technical experts, building bottom-up “ground truth” from live project and value-chain engagement, and shaping implementable solutions in Europe’s fast-moving clean industry environment.
Key Responsibilities
Program Delivery:
- Lead delivery of one flagship value chain workstream (e.g., sectoral buyers club initiative, product passport for clean materials). Translating strategy into practical workable deliverables that can be operationalised in Europe.
- Own the workplan, milestones, and outputs for that workstream, from scoping to a minimum viable product (MVP) and external launch.
- Ensure alignment with MPP’s broader Industrial Transition Accelerator and EU Lead Markets narrative and contribute to cross-sector synthesis across materials and chemicals/fuels.
Stakeholder Engagement:
- Lead corporate engagement across the value chain (producers, midstream, OEMs, buyers) developing an appropriate tailored business case and engagement strategy to build consensus
- Design and convene a suitable value chain coalition to enable bankable off-take signals (e.g., common policy asks, design of a market mechanism).
- Build trusted working relationships with EU institutions and key Member States for feasibility-testing, adovcacy and implementation of the concept. Coordinate and deepen relationships with financial institutions and ecosystem allies (industry associations, NGOs, standards bodies).
Technical Insight:
- Bring strong technical/sector grounding: credible understanding of industrial value chains and underlying decarbonisation levers; ability to brief, review, and engage effectively with technical stakeholders. Track and interpret policy & standards implications into recommendations and plans.
- Stress-test FOAK economics and bankability constraints for relevant projects and value chains; identify what needs to change (commercial terms, demand certainty, risk allocation, policy supports).
- Design or help shape an enabling tool, drawing on existing approaches where relevant (e.g., dual-sided auctions / contracts, CfD-style support, demand-side incentives, blended finance structures) to make projects financeable.
Leadership:
- Coordinate external agency support e.g. Comms, Public Affairs and manage thought-partner relationships to keep delivery moving, politically realistic, and aligned with the broader EU ecosystem.
- Represent MPP in high-profile settings (roundtables, workshops, bilateral engagements) with senior industry, finance, and policy stakeholders.
- Manage consultants and partner organisations supporting the workstream, ensuring delivery excellence, quality control, and timely execution.
Position Requirements
- Mid-career professional with experience in a high-caliber environment (corporate strategy/commercial, government, finance, or top-tier strategy consulting).
- Strong working knowledge of climate and industrial decarbonisation, particularly heavy industry, energy, and key demand-side value chains (e.g., steel/automotive, fertilisers/agri-food, chemicals).
- Demonstrated familiarity with commercial projects in heavy industry, energy, or enabling infrastructure (renewables, grids, hydrogen, CCUS) – ideally with exposure to FID barriers, offtake, or project finance.
- Proven stakeholder engagement and coalition-building: ability to bring together corporates across the value chain, policymakers (EU + Member States), financiers, and technical experts to design and advance practical solutions.
- Proactive, self-starter with an appetite for working autonomously in a fast-paced Brussels/EU policy environment.
- Excellent programme/project management and coordination skills – ability to deliver a complex workstream with a lean team, maintaining direction while adapting to shifting policy and stakeholder dynamics.
- Strong analytical skills, including comfort reviewing or steering techno-economic assessments and translating evidence into strategy and policy-ready recommendations.
- Clear, high-quality communication (verbal, written, presentations): ability to craft compelling narratives from quantitative + qualitative inputs, and write concise, well-structured materials with precise (and sometimes subtle) messaging.
- Collaborative team player with strong interpersonal skills and strong judgement in managing senior relationships.
- Ability to build trust with senior executives and partners across different organisational cultures and geographies.
- Outstanding organisation and time management, strong digital skills, and comfort working across multiple parallel threads.
- Thrives in dynamic, entrepreneurial, intellectually rigorous environments; flexible and solutions-oriented.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
Additional Desirable Requirements
- EU policy and market design familiarity, e.g. industrial policy, procurement/state aid, standards/MRV, or sectoral regulation affecting clean demand and competitiveness.
- Experience designing or working with market de-risking mechanisms (e.g., CfDs, auctions/tenders, advance market commitments, book-and-claim, blended finance) and understanding of what makes projects bankable.
- Commercial deal experience, particularly offtake, procurement, contracting, or financing structures relevant to clean commodities/energy.
- Experience working across corporate, NGO, and policy worlds, including multi-stakeholder initiatives or membership-based coalitions.
- Cultural sensitivity and diplomacy: ability to adapt communication and convening approaches across European institutional, corporate, and national contexts.
About Mission Possible Partnership
Mission Possible Partnership (MPP) is an independent non-profit organisation advancing global clean industry transformation. Since 2019, we have been working with some of the most energy-intensive industries: aluminium, aviation, cement, chemicals, shipping and steel, to cut their global GHG emissions.
We mobilise business, finance, government and civil society leaders to speed up the shift to clean materials, chemicals and fuels. Having charted sectoral pathways to net-zero, we continue to forge new territory, lifting the barriers to enable a critical mass of clean industrial projects to break ground by 2030.
Mission Possible Partnership has people and partners on the ground in North America, Brazil, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Australia.
To apply
If you are interested in joining our team, please send your resume and cover letter to our HR team at recruitment@missionpossiblepartnership.org.
Compensation
MPP compensates based on the level and requirements of the role. Salary within our ranges may also be determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as required by the role, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.
