Associate Director - Cooling & Energy Efficiency
Job Description
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Location: New Delhi, India
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Reports To:Director of Programs
Amount of Travel Required: 30-40%
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On-site Requirement: Hybrid
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About NRDC India:
NRDC India Private Limited is an independent organization based in New Delhi founded to build a healthier and more prosperous future for all Indians.
To attain a healthier and more prosperous future, NRDC India and its partners work with governments and stakeholders at all levels to deliver transformative solutions across the organization’s focus areas. The approach is to collaborate on pilot projects that offer the potential for tangible environmental and public health benefits. NRDC India undertakes strong proof of concept to bring solutions to scale at the state level – with the goal of informing national policies and unlocking the public investments needed to implement them.
NRDC India also partners alongside Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the United States, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. NRDC was founded in 1970, and their people helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and many of the implementing regulations. NRDC uses law, science, and the support of 3.1 million members to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. In India for over 10 years now, NRDC has been a thought leader and trusted adviser to the partners within the country to tackle climate change and implement energy solution. Since 2009, the India Initiative has combined scientific research and policy acumen to produce game-changing results.
NRDC India is hiring an Associate Director, Cooling & Energy Efficiency who will play an active role in advancing our work on sustainable cooling and energy efficiency in India. This position is responsible for overseeing and managing the day-to-day operations of a dedicated Cooling and Energy Efficiency team, focused on scaling sustainable cooling solutions at national, state and city level.
Key responsibilities include managing and guiding staff, helping to shape policy in the cooling and energy efficiency sector, working with national, state, and local partners within India and globally. This role also requires strategic thinking and the ability to navigate complex challenges, while also inspiring and motivating a diverse team to achieve their goals. A commitment to sustainability and a passion for advancing sustainable cooling solutions are essential.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the following essential functions:
- Provide day-to-day management to a team responsible for execution of cooling and energy efficiency projects
- Develop cooling and energy efficiency yearly workplans in close coordination with other senior members of the team
- Leads on ground execution of projects, partner management, stakeholder engagement and dissemination of the program work
- Works with senior members of the team on strategic prioritization to achieve department goals, mutually developed and planned
- Guides and contributes to policy and technical research, qualitative and quantitative analysis, writing on climate friendly cooling, efficient appliances, low GWP refrigerants
- Coordinate closely with national, state, and international partners on overall strategy and implementation to deliver policy and technical assistance on issues related to cooling and energy efficiency
- Actively participates and leads roundtables/workshops, meetings, and analysis, involving deep engagement with diverse stakeholders active nationally and locally as well as the media involved in the cooling space.
- Provide direct on-call, quick turnaround policy and technical assistance to our partners, participating in weekly calls, in person meetings and partner visits.
- Communicate and liaison internally through daily communication by phone, email and in-person to partners and colleagues internationally.
- International and domestic travel for meetings, conferences, and roundtables.
The above list of duties is not comprehensive but generally demonstrates the types of matters under the position’s responsibility. Other duties may be assigned.
Requirements:
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study such as energy systems, engineering, economics, environmental studies, public policy and other related fields. A master’s degree in the related field is preferred.
- 5+ years of experience in climate/energy/environmental or other policy work in India.
- 1-3 years of previous supervisory experience is required.
- Knowledge on climate and energy issues including – sustainable cooling, energy efficiency, demand side management, urban resilience, green hydrogen, extreme heat, clean energy and relevant policy, training and capacity building, financial, technological and communication and outreach issues.
Skills, Abilities, Competencies:
- Ability to take initiative, manage complex workloads and deliver outputs to agreed deadlines.
- Have a high level of drive and energy and a commitment to excellence.
- Demonstrated innovative problem solving and conflict resolution skills.
- Ability to manage multiple projects spread across various geographies and interacting with multiple stakeholders.
- Knowledge of extreme heat risks, heat-health impacts, climate induced disaster risks, nature based solutions and broader adaptation strategies.
- Forward-looking, and strategic thinker with strong interpersonal and active listening skills.
- Team player with a proven ability to develop cross-disciplinary strategies to advance NRDC India’s priorities and collaborate in a complex/matrixed organizational structure.
- Exceptional research, writing, communication,?organization, and analytical skills
- Experience and demonstrated success working with city government along with a knowledge of the Indian political system, economic structures, and socio-cultural landscape.
- Experience with public speaking on technical and non-technical topics, with an ability to communicate with a wide variety of audiences.
- Ability to communicate methods, results and recommendations from complex qualitative and quantitative analysis to expert and non-technical audiences.
- Demonstrated leadership experience and ability to forge strong working relationships as a people manager.
- Competence with and commitment to diversity and inclusion; ability to be an effective partner with diverse colleagues, leaders and partners.
- Excellent external representational skills with the aptitude to articulate effectively with senior stakeholders.
- Have excellent influencing and convincing abilities.
- Ability to communicate methods, results and recommendations from complex qualitative and quantitative analysis to expert and non-technical audiences.
- Proficiency in English as well as one additional Indian language is preferred.
- Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills.
Travel: Willingness to travel as per requirement within India with occasional international travel.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to perform the essential functions of this position successfully. The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position within the described work environment.
Frequently: Perform desk-based computer tasks
Frequently: Ability to interact and communicate with employees and others as necessary
Frequently: Attend planned meetings and collaborate with management and coworkers
Occasionally: Ability to attend events and activities in the office or offsite
Work is sometimes performed primarily in the office. The noise level in the work environment is usually quiet in office settings and moderate in other situations. Hours of employment may sometimes require working flexible and/or longer hours, including nights and weekends, when necessitated by projects. The job includes work-related situations such as those involving challenging, important, urgent, time-sensitive, or multiple matters.
This job description is intended to provide guidelines for job expectations and the employee's ability to perform the position described. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, skills, and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate. This document does not represent a contract of employment, and NRDC India expressly reserves the right to change this position description and/or assign tasks for the employee to perform, as NRDC India may deem appropriate.
Please send your latest curriculum vitae and a cover letter explaining your interest in the position and working with NRDC India to adcoolingenergy@gmail.com and recruitment@nrdcindia.org . Kindly send your application by June 16, 2026. Please include ‘Application for position of Associate Director, Cooling & Energy Efficiency’ in the subject line of the email.