About Tara Climate Foundation

Tara Climate Foundation is a new philanthropic initiative in Asia. Tara’s vision is a just and thriving Asia powered by renewable energy. Our mission is to support a diverse group of partners to accelerate Asia’s energy transformation. Tara funds think tanks, civil society, research organisations and other non-state actors, and our mandate includes Southeast Asia, East Asia excluding China, and South Asia excluding India and China. 

Tara Climate plays three main roles in the region: (1) providing grants to a diverse group of partners in the region, (2) constantly developing and assessing strategy, and (3) convening partners within and across borders.

Tara was previously hosted by the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and 
continues to have the strong backing of the ECF and other philanthropic 
foundations. 
Over the last 2 years, Tara has significantly increased its funding base and 
currently has more than a dozen philanthropic funders supporting our work and providing grants to hundreds of partners. In the next 3 years, we are looking to double our funding and grantmaking to combat climate change in this decisive decade.

About the Role 

The Program Director Southeast Asia’s main areas of responsibility are:
1. As one of the three senior program leadership members of Tara, in effect 
being responsible for the strategic development and execution of programs 
across entire Tara program, ensuring a vibrant ecosystem of climate action 
actors across Tara region
2. Lead a dynamic and strong program team in Southeast Asia sub-region that ensures Tara achieves our mission
3. Supporting CEO in other organisational leadership matters

Key responsibilities

Key responsibilities of the Program Director Southeast Asia include:

• In collaboration with the Regional Program Director and Program Director, East Asia, responsible for the strategic development and execution of programs across Tara’s programs, ensuring a vibrant ecosystem of climate action actors in the Tara region, by:
• Working with the program team to design a cutting-edge Tara strategy 
that identifies and addresses the critical issues in the energy transformation in Asia
• Ensuring that Tara’s programs are in line with our overall strategic plan
and constantly assessing and evaluating program effectiveness,
• Track external developments regionally and globally to look for new 
strategic opportunities and work with program teams to adapt strategy to 
align with external context shifts
• Ensuring the annual budget allocation of programs for the respective
region is aligned with the overall strategic direction.
• Lead a dynamic and strong program delivery in Southeast Asia sub-region that ensures Tara achieves our mission by:
• Fostering strategic collaboration between countries and regional program 
teams to ensure strategic alignment and to develop strong sub-regional 
and country strategies;
• Fostering collaborative relations between country leads and operational 
teams to address organisational or operational issues while delivering 
Tara’s wider strategy;
• Supporting country-leads in sub-region to help achieve our mission, 
doubling down on strengths while identifying gaps;
• Ensuring that Tara in the sub-region is effective in grantmaking, 
convening and strategy development, whilst we also ensure we are 
strengthening partner organisations and the overarching ecosystem. 
• Supporting CEO in other organisational leadership matters, including:
• Developing and maintaining strong networks with donors, governments, 
decision makers, partners and other key stakeholders within the subregion, to achieve objectives and strengthen the profile and credibility of 
Tara including proactively engaging in fundraising
• Working with respective Tara Team members to ensure legal, risk,
compliance, safety and security issues are properly identified and 
managed at a country and sub-regional level through developing and maintaining efficient and effective operational systems, and ensuring
compliance with local legal requirements and Tara policies, procedures 
and standards
• Optimising the potential of Tara’s objectives with a particular focus on 
recruiting the best staff, leadership development and talent management 
within the region
• Creating an environment and culture of “go big or go home” and 
continuous learning where team members are encouraged and supported 
to grow and develop and are held accountable for their commitments.
• Acting as a member of Tara’s Senior Management Team and taking 
collective responsibility for the overall financial and organisational health 
of the organisation.

Person Specification

Excited by the prospect of working for a dynamic and fast-growing international 
organisation with a mission to solve the climate crisis, the ideal candidate will 
have demonstrable skills and experience of:
• Leveraging 15+ years of experience with a strong track record in addressing
the climate crisis
• Successfully leading large teams, including line managing diverse teams
encompassing different backgrounds and expertise
• Successfully leading a complex regional organisation or department,
delivering significant results for the organisation and its stakeholders
• Exhibiting strong security management and crisis response experience in
complex environments, with a commitment to ensuring staff and
organisational safety
• Establishing a solid track record in innovation in achieving programmatic 
impact 
• Having a strong understanding of program, financial and operational
management processes
• Serving as a spokesperson and representing an organisation to a diverse
range of external stakeholders
• Possessing strong and active Asian networks, including governments,
regional bodies, civil society and other key partners
• Exhibiting excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and a
relevant Asian language.
• Demonstrating flexibility in working at a fast pace in remote settings with
multi-cultural teams across multiple time-zones and availability to travel
nationally and internationally as and when required
• Demonstrating commitment to Tara’s mission and living Tara’s values

Education 

• Master’s degree qualification or relevant expertise in a relevant field such as 
renewable energy, environmental management, business administration, 
economics, or sustainable development.

What Tara Climate can offer

• The unique opportunity to work as part of a highly dynamic, international team who combine their passion to make a difference with a rigorous and results-oriented approach to work
• A flexible work environment
• Opportunities for career develop and challenge yourself
• Competitive compensation and benefits
• A collaborative, fun and thriving team, driven by our mission and live our 
  value

Tara Climate is partnering with Perrett Laver in this recruitment.  

To apply, please submit a CV and cover letter, detailing how you fulfill the role description and specification to this link: https://plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetail/3b4ba8a6-5f58-e03a-4cb3-3a1e131cff77

The reference number for this role is 8045.

The deadline for applications is Friday 16th January 2026 at 12:00PM Singapore Time. 

The salary is commensurate with the seniority of the appointment. The successful candidate can be based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Longlisted candidates will be invited to first conversations in February, and the Selection Panel will subsequently meet to decide upon a shortlist for the post, following which interviews with Tara Climate Foundation will take place thereafter.