Head of External Affairs

BURN is looking for a Head of External Affairs, reporting to the Global Director of External Affairs. This role executes and helps deliver BURN's government relations, policy, and partnerships agenda across its African markets, translating the Director's strategy into disciplined, on-the-ground delivery. This individual will be responsible for directly managing and leading a team of 7 or more people. The successful candidate will be measured against two outcomes, delivered in support of the Global Director of External Affairs:

• Carbon market access: helping secure and protect the host-country authorisations, regulatory approvals, and bilateral arrangements (LoAs, Article 6.2 bilaterals, Article 6.4 host approvals, CORSIA eligibility, voluntary market authorisations) that allow BURN to issue and sell carbon credits from every country of operation.
  
• Fiscal competitiveness: supporting the negotiation and defence of the tax, duty, VAT, and incentive environment in each country so that BURN maximises revenue and product accessibility after statutory requirements.
  

To deliver these outcomes, the Head of External Affairs will help coordinate, develop, and support a high-performing in-country external affairs team across Africa. This is fundamentally an execution and coordination role: strengthening country presences, maintaining consistent standards, and keeping the function running as a coordinated unit day to day, while the Global Director sets overall strategy and owns the most senior relationships.

Core Objectives

• Support the strategy and lead day-to-day execution for securing and renewing host-country approvals required for BURN's carbon projects across voluntary and compliance markets (Article 6.2, Article 6.4, CORSIA, Gold Standard, Verra), escalating complex or contested negotiations to the Global Director.
  
• Support the negotiation, securing, and defence of tax exemptions, duty waivers, VAT treatment, and other fiscal incentives for clean cooking stoves, components, and carbon-related revenue streams, coordinating with Finance and Tax teams on exposure data.
  
• Coordinate and support a regional government relations, policy, and partnerships team, working closely with Country Government Relations & Policy Leads to keep delivery consistent across markets.
  
• Act as a credible, well-organised day-to-day counterpart to African governments on clean cooking, carbon markets, and Article 6 cooperation, at the technical and senior-official level.