Southeast Asia Lead

Description

Ember is recruiting a Southeast Asia Regional Lead to build on our established, successful team – deepening our influence with regional policymakers and ensuring our analysis lands where decisions are made. You will set the vision, strategy and delivery of our policy programme across the region, leading a team of analysts and researchers, working within Ember’s organisational strategy and the quality standards set by the team director. .

You will shape Ember’s strategy for the region, ensure high-quality delivery of the team’s outputs and champion Ember’s work directly with Southeast Asian policymakers, funders and media. You will also collaborate with our Comms and Data teams to collectively ensure our work lands with real reach and impact.In your first months, you’ll work with the Deputy CEO through a defined process to shape how work and roles are organised within the team

This role reports to the Deputy CEO on an interim basis and will report to the team director once that role is in place. You will lead a team with direct line management of up to 4 staff. The team’s internal structure is expected to evolve, and you’ll play a central role in shaping it during your first months, with support from the Deputy CEO.

Key details

Salary: £54,880 per year, based on our standard local cost-of-living adjustment. The salary may be adjusted upwards for candidates based in higher cost-of-living locations in Asia; the applicable salary will be confirmed based on the candidate’s location.

Location: Remote, based in Southeast Asia. Must have the right to work in your country of residence and be able to attend periodic in-person team meet-ups.

Closing date: 25 September 2026

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications.

Application Pack

Applications have now closed. Successful candidates will be contacted in due course.

 Job description

Location

Remote, based in Southeast Asia. Must have the right to work in your country of residence and be able to attend periodic in-person team meet-ups.

Key responsibilities

Develop and drive Southeast Asia’s programme strategy, translating Ember’s overall direction into a compelling plan for the region, agreed with the team director.
Own delivery of the team’s outputs, ensuring high-quality, timely work in line with regional priorities and funder KPIs, acting as the point of quality sign-off for regional outputs within standards agreed across regions
Champion and represent the team’s work externally with Southeast Asian policymakers, media and partners
Build and maintain strong, trusted relationships with Ember’s network partners across Southeast Asia, positioning Ember as a reliable, collaborative partner in the region
Support funder relationships and grant reporting for the team, working with senior leadership on new fundraising opportunities with fundraising strategy and budget planning led by the team director, with the CEO and Deputy CEO.
Mentor and develop the Southeast Asia team, giving clear direction, setting objectives and supporting their growth
Co-create a close, day-to-day working relationship with Comms and Data team colleagues, so the three function as one delivery team
Coordinate with other Regional Leads to share learnings and align on cross-cutting issues

Must have

Significant experience in a policy, research, or programme leadership role in Southeast Asia, with a track record of setting direction and delivering outputs that lead to real policy impact
Solid technical understanding of clean energy transition issues relevant to Southeast Asian countries and experience of influencing the clean energy narrative
Line management experience, including managing experienced staff and a track record of developing others with evidence of readiness to grow into managing managers, for example through leading senior colleagues, deputising, or coordinating work across multiple workstreams
Confidence representing an organisation’s work internally, and externally with policymakers, media and funders
A track record of making sound decisions within their remit without needing constant consensus
Strong relationships with, or a credible path to building relationships with, Asian funders, policymakers, and media
Experience managing distributed or remote teams

Nice to have

Existing network of Southeast Asian policymakers, funders, and media contacts
Fundraising or grant management experience
Experience helping shape or restructure a growing team

Salary & hours

Salary: £54,880 per year, based on our standard local cost-of-living adjustment. The salary may be adjusted upwards for candidates based in higher cost-of-living locations in Asia; the applicable salary will be confirmed based on the candidate’s location.
Contract: Full time (but only working 9 days every fortnight with no reduction in pay), permanent subject to a 3 month probationary period. For employees based outside of the UK, a local payroll contract is available, dependent on the country.
Remote culture and diverse team: Ember is a remote-first organisation, with talents of diverse backgrounds from 20+ countries over the world

Further Benefits

We operate a nine-day fortnight meaning our full-time staff are given every other Friday off work with no reduction in pay.
25 days holiday. For each year that you’re part of the team at Ember you’ll receive an additional day of holiday, up to a maximum of 5 additional days.
Generous paid maternity and paternity leave.
Flexible working conditions, including the opportunity for part-time work and home working.
Access to a local working space can be arranged.
In-person meet-ups (on average 2 meet-ups per year)
Allowance for home office equipment
Free annual eye tests.
Access to a counselling service.
Funding and allocated time for your training and development.
Paid volunteer day.
Four paid days off to enable low carbon travel.
Time off to donate blood.

About us

Ember is an independent energy think tank that aims to accelerate the clean energy transition with data and policy. We gather, curate and analyse data on the power sector and coal mine methane emissions, publishing this openly and accessibly. We use our data-driven insights to shift the conversation towards high-impact policies and empower other advocates to do the same.

See our work Working at Ember