Senior Program Manager – China

About GBPN 

The Global Buildings Performance Network (GBPN) is a globally and regionally focused non government not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide policy expertise and technical assistance to advance building energy performance and realize sustainable built environments for all. With team members located around the World in India, Indonesia, Australia, and Europe, GBPN brings over 10 years of knowledge and innovation to sustainable building policy reform. With every project, governments leverage our intellectual capital, our experience, analysis, evidence and our network. 

GBPN goal is to contribute to the building sector achieving its full energy savings and CO2 mitigation potential of more than 2.1 Gt by 2030. To do that, GBPN assists governments and industry to implement climate change actions in their building sectors that help achieve their commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). 

Background

China has an organized and motivated policy environment in decarbonizing its building sector. Our scoping study demonstrated that the national peaking strategy ‘1+N’ had influenced provincial and municipal policy setting. Local think-tanks in each of the regions were also highly aware of the progress made to date, and the challenges they faced in being able to achieve their peaking strategies. There is also strong political will and technical ability to set and achieve more ambitious goals during the 15th FYP (2026-2030). Our research identified alignment between stakeholders in Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan, and Guangdong on a common objective towards zero carbon buildings, i.e., ensuring new buildings to be “zero-carbon from 2030”. The key to achieving this is demonstrating how to practically and economically implement policy reforms that enable them to propose a zero-carbon building target in the 15th Five Year Plan (FYP). 

Between January and October 2023, the Global Buildings Performance Network (GBPN) and the Energy Foundation China (EFC) collaborated on a research and stakeholder engagement project to understand what is driving this context and how to accelerate decarbonization. The outcome is a policy reform and implementation strategy designed to support the inclusion of targets towards zero carbon buildings in the 15th FYP and achieve China’s carbon peaking strategy through and a concerted effort to build capacity and accelerate the implementation of the necessary policy reforms at the sub-national level. 

GBPN therefore is looking to hire a Senior Program Manager for China. 

We are looking for a professional based in China with 10-15yrs of experience in implementing international building sector projects, and will have strong technical literacy in building design, performance, and policy development in China.

Objectives and Key Results 2025-2026 

In 2023 GBPN and Energy Foundation China engaged with government, industry and expert stakeholders in Beijing, Guangdong, Hainan and Shanghai to identify and prioritize objectives. This informed a ‘Policy Reform and Implementation Strategy for Decarbonizing Buildings in China. By applying GBPN’s strategy development process the provinces identified the key priorities for enabling zero-carbon building codes and achieving zero-emissions targets. These include: 

• Achieving ‘ultra-low energy’ building regulations 
• Running on electricity with no direct emissions and/or connected with low-carbon district heat in cold and dense urban area 
• Integrates renewable energy with capability of grid-interoperability 
• Capacity on demand side response, and 
• Is designed and constructed to minimize life-cycle embodied emissions. 

Each region also proposed very ambitious goals for decarbonizing existing buildings that respond to their local climates and the profile of their existing building stock, representing nearly 8 billion m2floor space, 12% of China’s total building stock. 

The program is intended to commence in 2025 in the Province of Hainan. Over the next two years the Senior Program Manager for China will engage and collaborate with key Chinese organizations including Energy Foundation China to: 

1 – Support inclusion of a zero-carbon buildings target in the 15th Five Year Plan. In 2025-2026 we intend to contribute to supporting the inclusion of zero-carbon buildings targets in China’s next Five-Year Plan by piloting the implementation of a policy implementation strategy with the Province of Hainan and then expand and adapt the strategy to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangdong as funding allows. Our program will be implemented in collaboration with Energy Foundation China and will be led by a new Senior Program Lead for China which will be recruited by Q4 2024. 

2 – Build capacity and support implementation of policy reforms at the sub-national level. In at least one of the Provinces listed above, wIth potential commencement in Hainan, the Senior Program Manager will: 

• Support establishment of a solutions center will be established in an existing Institute.
• Manage our collaboration with Energy Foundation China and other Chinese stakeholders to convene a local coalition of experts, public and private sector  stakeholders, provide research, manage dissemination of data and information.
• Facilitate sub-national, regional and global knowledge and best-practice sharing to support the implementation of the following policy priorities.

Key Results: 

• Establish a provincial solutions center in one province 
• Provide platforms for sub-national knowledge exchange and coordination of policy implementation and private sector engagement. 
• Facilitate peer-peer and international knowledge exchange. 
• Contribute to fundraising and further development of GBPN Global and China strategy and program development. 

Scope of Work

Program Development: 

• Development of in-country presence for GBPN, including investigating establishing a legal entity, bank account and GBPN office. 
• Represent GBPN strategic and programmatic objectives in China 
• Lead and develop the GBPN a China-Based team and assist in building GBPN capabilities in the country by ensuring that GBPN has the expertise and capacity to achieve its strategic objectives. 

Program Management: 

• Manage a local country team to ensure projects, plans and operations are executed smoothly and are aligned with the executive team and stakeholder’s priorities and are implemented within budget. 
• Ensure that Donors are very satisfied with the work outputs and country strategy ensuring a high standard of technical quality, engaging with communications to develop donor facing content and compliance with donor requirements. 
• Collect, monitor and report on performance data and the overall resulting impact produced by GBPN’s projects in achieving GBPN’s country objectives in China.
• Lead the end to end development of programs, including design, budgets, activity planning and execution, utilizing GBPN tools and processes. 
• Develop, implement, communicate and enforce GBPN policies and procedures that meet the requirements of GBPN donors and sound management practice. 
• Ensure appropriate financial, administrative and team management of GBPN in China operations including all functional areas (Operations, Finance/Admin, HR, Research, M&E)
• Provide support, oversight and act as a mentor, a guide and develop all country team members. 

Stakeholder Engagement: 

• Support the CEO to effectively develop and manage the relationship with the key national and international stakeholders including: 
  • Specifically develop and maintain strong relationships with GBPN’s local partners and program stakeholders
  •  Develop and manage the relationship with donors, government entities, GBPN local partners and stakeholders, and other potential contact in the public and private sectors in China
  • Building strong and long-term relationships with the Government and Stakeholders

Fundraising: 

• Support CEO and Global Management Group to identify and participate in program and donor development and/or grant opportunities within China 
• Identify opportunities, contribute to innovation, support ambition of funders.
• Assist in strategic planning, Grant proposal writing and Design of Grant programs and assist in design and implementation of new projects in China. 

Global Leadership: 

• Contribute to global coordination as a member of the GBPN Global Management Group.
• Communicate and coordinate with stakeholders and CEO, Head of Finance and Admin, Head of Operations, Communications and Project Managers in resolving questions and issues. 

GBPN Values & Culture: 

• Contribute to and participate in GBPNs values driven culture, including internal peer to peer knowledge exchanges, our monthly huddle, our well-being initiatives and other ad hoc gatherings. 

Selection Criteria

Experience: 

• At least 10 years’ experience in developing, empowering and managing teams in internationally funded climate-mitigation and adaptation projects in China. Experience in the built-environment sector at national and subnational levels is an advantage. 
• Proven track record of success in developing and representing an organization with partners, government agencies, private sector organizations, media, and donors at senior level: nationally and globally. 

Relationships and Communication: 

• Ability to build trust and strong relations with the Government, donors and key stakeholders in China 
• A proven track-record of success in facilitating collaboration between partners such as governmental agencies, NGOs, political affiliations, donors and communities.
• Proven track-record as a positive contributor to senior or executive management teams, with excellent presentation skills. 
• Excellent communication in written and verbal form with a successful track-record in engaging with a diversity of people with various cultural backgrounds to achieve positive outcomes. 
• Fluency in Mandarin and English and ability to work in an international environment.

Leadership: 

• People and team focused, results driven leadership with a successful track-record in empowering people and teams to develop and implement innovative solutions which can accelerate climate action; 
• Demonstrated ability for strategic, creative and entrepreneurial thinking, perseverance and agility. 
• Diverse experience in strategic and operational prioritization and decision-making.

Management: 

• Proven track-record of success in managing projects and initiatives involving multiple stakeholders such as research partners, project managers, expert consultants as well as the various country offices, divisions and departments of local government or network partners; 
• Proven track-record in managing the design and implementation of organizational, program and project budgets, activity planning, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Excellent computer skills including familiarity with data-bases, spreadsheets, project management and collaboration software. 

Values and Competencies: 

• Works with integrity and builds trust within teams, the organization, and among partners, stakeholders and broader network. 
• Ability to handle conflict and be productive under pressure individually and in leading teams, showing a high degree of emotional intelligence. 
• Ability to work autonomously and deliver timely results. 
• High degree of cross-cultural awareness and empathy 

Education: 

• Minimum of a master’s degree in business administration, Public Policy, International Relations, Economics, Architecture, or similar degree/qualification.

Working Conditions

• This position is available for immediate commencement and is offered as a fixed-term fee for service under a consulting contract full-time over a 12-month-period with possibility for extension based on performance. 
• Travel within China 
• Possible travel internationally (to Europe/Indonesia/ Australia and across South-East Asia) 
• GBPN requires the consultant to work from their normal place of work.
• Communication with GBPN team members around the world is largely online (Zoom), and may require working outside normal working hours to overlap with other time-zones. 

Direct report 

• In this role you will be reporting to the Executive Director/CEO who is responsible for global organizational development, fundraising, strategic planning, program implementation, the financial and ESG performance of GBPN. 

How to apply 

Email your application by 15th January 2025 to: careers@gbpn.org, cc: peter.graham@gbpn.org (include China Senior Program Manager in the email subject line). 

Please provide: 

1. 1. Your CV and a cover letter detailing your motivation for applying, your qualifications to perform the role, including relevant experience, and description and/or links to similar assignments. The letter should also indicate your preferred start date. 
   2. A proposal detailing your approach for the services and work described, including number of days per week, your daily rate (USD rate per 8h-day) and total fee for services in $US Dollars including all applicable taxes and charges.