Head of IBAT

About IBAT

The Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) is the world’s most authoritative biodiversity data platform, providing trusted data to assess biodiversity-related risks and opportunities. It is an innovative solution for providing biodiversity information to decision makers that channels critical funding into datasets and the conservation organisations that maintain them.

IBAT integrates data from core global biodiversity datasets – the World Database on Protected Areas, the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species– into a single portal to support decision-makers from across industry and finance. With consistent double-digit year-on-year growth of both revenue and users, IBAT now serves over 30,000 users worldwide who rely on IBAT to integrate biodiversity considerations into strategic decisions that shape our planet’s future.

IBAT is the product of the IBAT Alliance – a ground-breaking collaboration between four of the world’s largest and most influential conservation organisations: BirdLife International, Conservation International, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).

The IBAT Secretariat is a dynamic, passionate and business-oriented team of specialists in technical development, user support, business development, communications, and finance. Split across Engagement, Technical and Operations teams, the IBAT Secretariat is a rapidly growing team of 16 staff drawn from across the IBAT Alliance partners. The team is further strengthened by the scientific, conservation, and policy expertise of its Alliance Partners. The Head of IBAT leads the IBAT Secretariat and is the key focal point between the IBAT Alliance partners. IBAT is headquartered in the David Attenborough Building in Cambridge, within the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI)—a globally renowned partnership that brings together the University of Cambridge and leading international biodiversity conservation organisations, such as the Alliance partners. The staff of the IBAT Secretariat are each hosted by one of the IBAT Alliance Partners. This role is hosted by UNEP-WCMC.

Job Summary

As Head of IBAT, you will lead across all operational areas—business development, product innovation, marketing and communications, and finance—bringing cohesion and ambition to a complex and growing initiative. You’ll cultivate strong partnerships across the IBAT Alliance and with IBAT’s Governance Committee, harnessing the partner’s combined expertise to ensure biodiversity intelligence directly informs private sector decision-making. You will leverage and expand your networks in the corporate and financial sectors to embed biodiversity at the heart of business strategies. You’ll serve as a visible and influential advocate for IBAT and its Alliance partners, representing IBAT and the globally important data it provides on the global stage and building new pathways for impact and collaboration.

You will also lead the dynamic IBAT Secretariat—a cross-functional, international team hosted across partner organisations—fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture where innovation thrives and each member is empowered to excel.

Strategic Vision and Leadership

• Shape and drive the strategic direction of IBAT, ensuring alignment with the vision of both IBAT and the IBAT Alliance partners.
• Identify emerging opportunities, anticipate market shifts and harness technical innovation to position IBAT at the forefront of the biodiversity data landscape.
• Drive the business development of IBAT, growing IBAT’s market share and subsequent investment into biodiversity data.

Partnership Management

• Safeguard and deepen relationships with the IBAT Alliance partners, ensuring IBAT harnesses the science, knowledge and expertise of the partners and enabling IBAT to remain aligned with the conservation objectives of each organisation.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Engage confidently with a diverse spectrum of stakeholders – from scientists and policymakers to CEOs and investors – to forge relationships across sectors.
• Represent IBAT as its primary ambassador, elevating its profile, influence, and credibility on the global stage.

Operational Management

• Oversee the day-to-day operations of IBAT, ensuring IBAT’s operational model is robust, agile and responsive to user needs.
• Guide cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact work across business development, technical delivery, marketing, communications, and finance.

Financial Stewardship

• Oversee financial planning, management, and reporting, ensuring accountability and transparency.
• Oversee IBAT’s multi-million pound budget, and collaborate with the IBAT Alliance to align IBAT’s financial strategy with long-term impact and sustainability.

Team Leadership and Organisational Growth

• Lead and nurture the IBAT Secretariat, a talented and interdisciplinary team hosted across multiple global institutions. Inspire a culture of collaboration, innovation, and excellence.
• Recruit, develop, and scale the team in line with IBAT’s ambition and expansion

IBAT is seeking a bold, visionary leader – someone who brings energy, creativity, and a deep sense of purpose to the challenge of transforming how biodiversity is valued and integrated into global decision-making. The ideal candidate will be a strategic and innovative thinker, passionate about advancing the global biodiversity agenda, while deeply attuned to the culture, pace, and priorities of the private and financial sectors.

The successful candidate will thrive at the intersection of science, business, and technology, bringing a practical, solutions-oriented mindset to complex challenges. A natural leader and relationship-builder, you will demonstrate outstanding interpersonal and communication skills, capable of influencing and inspiring at every level – from colleagues to C suite executives.

Entrepreneurial by nature, you will be driven to seek out and seize new opportunities, with the resilience and adaptability to navigate a dynamic, start-up-style environment. You will possess a strong track record in delivering high-impact initiatives, with expertise in project and partnership management and a sharp focus on quality and results. You will empower teams, ensuring that IBAT remains focused on providing practical support and solutions to address real-world challenges.

You will manage time, resources and competing priorities with confidence, demonstrating leadership across a wide-ranging technical field. With a flexible, forward-looking approach to planning, you will position IBAT to respond quickly to emerging trends, partnerships, and innovations. Above all, you will be driven by a belief in the power of collaboration, data, and leadership to secure a more sustainable future for nature and people alike. International travel will be required to fulfil the responsibilities of this position.

If you are a bold, strategic thinker with a passion for driving systems-level change and a deep commitment to biodiversity conservation, we invite you to lead IBAT into its next chapter enabling organisations to take positive action for nature while delivering critical funding to support biodiversity datasets.

Skills and Experience

Essential

• Degree level qualification in a relevant field such as biodiversity, environmental sustainability, economics or international business
• Demonstrated track record in strategic leadership, including the implementation of organisational strategy, stakeholder engagement, relationship management and the delivery of complex, cross-sector projects
• Minimum 15 years relevant experience, including significant time in a commercial or private sector environment, with a proven ability to drive organisational growth
• Experience working within a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) or data-driven service environment, particularly in relation to decision support tools
• Proven experience in building, managing and scaling high-performing and interdisciplinary teams, including leadership in recruitment and capacity development
• Demonstrated experience working collaboratively with diverse partners across the private sector, civil society and international organisations
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, tailored to a range of audiences and technical levels, through a variety of media
• Demonstrated commitment to sustainability, with a history of working in mission-driven roles that create tangible environmental or societal impact

Desirable

• MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification in business, sustainability leadership, or a related field
• Robust knowledge of biodiversity and conservation principles, and of biodiversity related datasets
• Expertise on the fast-evolving topic of state of nature metrics and associated tools and frameworks, with a deep understanding of how companies are and should be reporting their impacts and dependencies on nature
• Prior experience in one or more of the IBAT Alliance organisations or similar institutional experience 5 Skills Excellent leadership, influencing and negotiating skills
• An understanding of the needs of the private sector and the context in which companies operate to make development decisions, and the ability to translate biodiversity data into actionable insights for corporate audiences
• Ability to think strategically and innovatively to translate the needs of the users of biodiversity data into practical, workable web-enabled tools and reports
• Ability to develop and maintain effective collaborative relationships
• Ability to credibly represent the organisation to senior individuals and at key external fora
• Excellent people, project, contracting and budgetary management skills, with demonstrated ability to handle large, complex, multi-workstream projects
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including distilling complex scientific and technical content into compelling narratives tailored to different audiences
• A self-starter with the ability to work effectively under pressure and time constraints
• Fluency in written and spoken English, with proficiency in other UN languages desirable

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