Global Program Lead, Installer Voices (Contract)

Job Description

New Energy Nexus (NEX) is an international NGO that supports climate solutions and builds a more equitable clean energy economy. Our laser focus is on clean energy entrepreneurs: providing them with funds, accelerators, and networks to thrive. They are our main audience and our agent of change.

We started in California in 2004 and now operate across China, India, Southeast Asia, East and West Africa, and Australia. We have leveraged US$5.4 billion in investment and supported more than 11,000 entrepreneurs.

About the Role & Opportunity

This is a founding role, and a rare one. You will build a brand-new global initiative from the ground up, in a corner of clean energy advocacy that has barely been attempted anywhere in the world.

Hundreds of thousands of solar and battery "micro" installers now earn their living from the energy transition. They have a personal stake in clean energy policies and how effectively they are implemented - but these installers are almost entirely absent from the policy processes and media narrative that shape those conditions. Installer Voices is a new initiative that sets out to change that: to identify, train, and connect the most influential installers across five markets so they become a constituency that policymakers and media cannot ignore. Very few organisations have tried to organise this workforce into a credible political voice. You get to work out how it's done.

Philanthropic funders who know this field well have backed NEX to design the model, with much larger investments ready to follow if it proves out. Phase 1 is a focused six-month scoping and design phase across Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Nigeria, and Pakistan. You will lead it. You map the constituency and the policy landscape in each market, coordinate lean national teams and in-country partners, test the first program components, and produce the costed, evidenced blueprint that Phase 2 is built on. You are part policy researcher, part campaigner, part network coordinator. This role will involve extensive outreach and networking with national and international allies, from solar trade associations, to think tanks and global campaign partners.

This is scoped as six months of scoping and design work, which means you'll need to hit the ground running. If we successfully build the case and secure funding for phase 2, this role becomes the leadership seat for the initiative, growing into a role running delivery across markets.

You will not carry it alone. You work directly with the Chief Communications Officer (CCO) who'll be accountable for the initiative, for fundraising and reporting, and will be your thought partner on overall strategy.

Working at New Energy Nexus

You will join a small, global team standing up something new inside a forward-thinking international NGO. NEX operates in 14 countries, with deep installer and SME relationships in every one of the five pilot markets. Your manager will respect your work-life balance and support you in bringing your whole self to work. This role is remote. You'll need strong wifi and the flexibility to work across time zones.

A Typical Day

You start by reviewing interview notes from a batch of installer conversations in the Philippines and pulling out what they change about your Phase 2 assumptions. Mid-morning, you're on a call with a policy research partner in Indonesia, pressure-testing which net metering reforms are actually winnable inside 12 to 24 months. After lunch, you work through a power map of a target market with a national coordinator, marking where the network is already organised and where it isn't. Late in the day, you trade notes with a global alliance contact on where installer voices could plug into a campaign already in motion, and you check in with the Chief Communications Officer on what you learned this week and what support you need.

Core Responsibilities

Program design

• Develop the strategic thesis with the CCO: how installers move from a trained workforce into real policy influence - a tipping point - and the pathway that gets them there, and the case for why it works
• Advise on the hard prioritisation calls: which markets and tactics to back in Phase 2, what to drop, and how the initiative is positioned so funders and partners back it over the long term
• Synthesise research and findings into a sequenced Phase 2 blueprint: validated assumptions, per-country cost models, and honest reads on where the strategy is strongest and weakest

Constituency scoping and research

• Design and drive structured research across five markets: installer and SME interviews, channel audits, skills-gap assessments, and power analysis of where networks are strong and where they need building
• Work with chapters and in-country partners to name one to two winnable near-term reforms per market, at national and local levels, tied to installer economics and deployment
• Audit each market's ecosystem, trade associations, training networks, think tanks, journalists, and aligned funders, and identify which partnerships are worth formalising in Phase 2

Coordination across markets

• Coordinate lean national teams and delivery partners in five countries, keeping local engagement moving while holding a coherent global picture
• Broker the relationships that move the initiative, from provincial installer associations to national policy bodies to global alliances such as the Global Renewables Alliance and Global Solar Alliance, and partners in the Global Clean Energy Network

Impact measurement

• Oversee the design and early testing of the core Phase 2 components, a curriculum and training plan, a story and messaging desk prototype, and a community-of-practice pilot, with the Curriculum & Capacity-Building Lead
• Define success for Phase 1 and Phase 2: the theory of change, the indicators, and the logframe funders can hold the initiative to, including the near-term policy targets each market is aiming at
• Build the impact measurement approach, with baselines set in Phase 1 and a credible way to evidence the link from installer capacity and voice through to policy influence

Requirements

Required Skills

• 7+ years in advocacy, campaigns, policy, public affairs, or program strategy, with clear proof you've built something rather than run an existing machine
• A strategist who also does the work: you can hold the big picture and personally run the interviews, the power maps, and the synthesis
• Knowledge of the clean energy space (especially solar) and the policy levers that move deployment (net metering, grid connection, storage rules, import duties)
• Strong research and analytical instincts: stakeholder mapping, power analysis, landscape assessment, and turning messy field input into clear decisions
• Genuine comfort with ambiguity and a fast start. This is a six-month clock and you will hit the ground running
• Experience working across cultures, countries, and time zones, ideally in emerging markets
• Exceptional English writing: you can turn analysis into clear, concise story a funder or partner will act on
• You use AI tools thoughtfully to work faster while keeping strong judgment and high standards

Bonus Skills

• Experience working with and influencing coalitions, networks, or trade associations
• Deep experience in one or more of the five pilot markets
• A regional language (Bahasa Indonesia, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Urdu, Hausa, or others)
• Familiarity with behavioural science or social-movement research

Benefits

How to Apply

Hit the apply button and attach your CV and a one-page cover letter answering:

1. What makes you a unique candidate for this role,
2. A time you built or scoped something new out of ambiguity, a programme, a campaign, or a coalition, and what you learned, and
3. An advocacy or policy assumption you've watched fail in practice, and what it taught you.

Cover letters and CVs that are not tailored to this specific role will be immediately disqualified.

New Energy Nexus is an equal employment opportunity employer and does not discriminate against applicants or employees because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, citizenship status, disability status, genetic information, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression of an otherwise qualified individual, or membership in any other class protected by applicable law. New Energy Nexus hires and promotes individuals on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled. We strongly encourage applicants from under-represented and marginalized communities to apply.