Job Description:

Third Derivative Overview: Third Derivative is seeking a Senior Associate to join our Research team. Founded by RMI and New Energy Nexus, Third Derivative ("D3") is the Rocky Mountain Institute's climate technology innovation engine, accelerating the rate of climate innovation through our inclusive ecosystem approach, which rapidly finds, funds, and scales promising climate tech solutions globally, with a particular focus on hard to abate sectors and a focus on staying ahead of emissions globally.

By uniting and aligning committed investors, large corporates, and market and policy experts with the world's most promising climate tech startups, D3 bridges finance and resource gaps to increase speed to market. Our flexible and highly curated accelerator program enables startups to focus on their unique needs and opportunities.

Since founding in 2020, today D3's collaborative ecosystem has grown to include corporate partners with a combined $4T in market capitalization, VC funds and equity investors with a combined total of >$7B AUM (across five continents), and a network of >150 mentors with deep functional and sector expertise. Since 2020, D3 has supported nearly 200 startups addressing climate challenges across all major emissions sectors. Together, we are moving markets to achieve a brighter, more equitable climate future.

Now, our high-performance team of climate enthusiasts is growing, and we're seeking a highly motivated Senior Associate to join us in our mission.

This role provides flexibility in employment options and can be filled either as an RMI employee globally or as an India-based contractor, based on the candidate's location and employment eligibility. Kindly indicate your preference in your application based on your geography.

Position Overview: As a Senior Associate on the Research team, your work will center around (a) building a knowledge base and investment theses in impactful climate-tech innovation areas (b) undertaking a robust due diligence process to select startups for our program that is also aligned with interests of our capital and asset partners and (c) championing our startups to our partner ecosystem of corporates and VCs.

You will gain broad experience with a wide range of new technologies and business models as well as use your research to publish insights that are relevant to our partners and broader climate-tech ecosystem. In this position, you will be an independent contributor and work closely with colleagues under the direction of more senior staff.

Responsibilities:

Leading and supporting research on impactful climate-tech within heavy industry (e.g., hydrogen, steel, industrial heat), buildings (e.g., cooling, insulation, heat pumps), electricity (e.g., power electronics, energy storage), and/or transportation (e.g., electric mobility, charging infrastructure, motors). The outputs for this research typically take the form of detailed investment theses guiding D3's work and public facing perspectives on important climate innovation areas,

Conducting due diligence of startups that apply to the D3 program from technical, business/commercialization, organizational, financial and climate impact perspectives

Collaboratively write blogs, articles, reports, and thought leadership collaterals on the research to help the investment community and climate tech commercialize impactful climate technologies

Identifying and sourcing promising startups from around the world to apply to the D3 program

Representing D3 and championing our startups to stakeholders in our ecosystem and beyond as an expert in your area(s) of focus

Supporting the preparation of proposals and pitch decks for specific business development opportunities

Supporting the development and program delivery of focused cohorts - which brings together the required industry members, asset/ capital partners, technical, business, and po icy experts, and other key actors from across the value chain to support a specific innovation area (e.g., clean mobile power or direct air capture). Activities include stakeholder relations, coalition development, and creation of performance criteria for the targeted innovation area

Minimum Qualifications:

Undergraduate or graduate degreein an applicable field such as science and engineering with some focus on/interest in energy and sustainability related fields

3+ years of relevant work experience

Ability and willingness to engage with technical material and deep dives into new technology areas, and provide qualitative and quantitative evaluation/assessment

Outstanding quantitative and qualitative analytical skills, detail-oriented, organized, proactive, and self-motivated

Outstanding communication skills for working effectively on teams and clearly communicating results and key takeaways.