Gold Standard Foundation is looking for a Chief Finance Officer (French-speaking)

Chief Finance Officer

Closing Date: Monday 26th January 2026

Location: Geneva (office based)

Are you a visionary finance leader with a passion for impact? Gold Standard Foundation invites you to step into the role of Chief Financial Officer, where your strategic expertise will drive financial innovation and sustainability for a world-renowned climate non-profit. As CFO, you’ll join the executive team at a pivotal moment, empowering our mission, shaping our financial future, and influencing the global agenda for climate and sustainable development.

This is a rare opportunity for a senior finance professional to make a lasting difference, leveraging your experience to lead transformation, manage complex funding landscapes, and build high-performing teams in a dynamic, international environment.

Please note that we can only consider those who have the right to work in Geneva, Switzerland.

WHO WE ARE:

Gold Standard is a not-for-profit organization that helps companies understand the role they should play in creating a net-zero, sustainable nature future and provides tangible ways for them to contribute. This includes investments in their value chains, carbon credits, and other mechanisms for high-integrity climate action that delivers real impact for people and nature.

The Gold Standard Foundation was established in 2003 by WWF and other international NGOs as a best practice standard to ensure projects that reduced carbon emissions under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) also delivered sustainable development benefits. Today, our standard, ‘Gold Standard for the Global Goals’, allows climate and development initiatives within carbon markets, corporate supply chains, and sustainable finance to manage, measure and maximise their impacts toward the Net Zero ambition of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING:

As CFO, you will play a critical leadership role in shaping our financial future, ensuring long-term sustainability, fiscal responsibility, and alignment with our mission. You will:

• Lead and implement the organization’s financial strategy, providing guidance to the CEO and Board.
• Oversee financial operations, reporting, audits, and compliance (IFRS, GAAP).
• Drive transformation across finance systems, risk frameworks, and donor-facing models.
• Manage budgeting, forecasting, financial planning, and investment portfolios.
• Lead procurement strategy and digital transformation of finance systems.
• Guide enterprise risk management, fiduciary oversight, and donor engagement.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR:

• A strategic mindset with the ability to translate complexity into clear decisions.
• Proven success in leading transformation, digitization, and finance innovation.
• Political savvy and communication skills to influence stakeholders.
• Strong judgment in balancing opportunity and risk.
• A track record in building and leading diverse, high-performing finance teams.
• Deep commitment to mission-driven work, impact accountability, and inclusivity.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or related field.
• CPA or equivalent professional certification preferred.
• Minimum 15 years of financial management experience, including 5+ years as CFO or equivalent.
• Prior experience in international NGOs or global foundations strongly preferred.
• Fluency in English essential; proficiency in French highly desirable.
• You must be a Swiss national or an EU citizen that is able to work daily in the office in Geneva.

WHAT WE CAN OFFER YOU:

• All Employees are entitled to 30 days of holiday, pro-rated for part-time Employees.
• Remote Working Contribution for remote workers
• Home office set up allowance
• A mission-driven organisation working at the leading edge of climate and sustainability.
• Rewarding work in a dynamic non-profit environment.
• A collaborative workplace within a multicultural team.
• An ambitious, agile and flexible environment.
• We are unable to sponsor VISAs and only candidates with the correct right to work documents will be considered.

OUR VALUES:

• Pioneering - We focus on those that have the most promise to contribute to our vision and mission, bringing them to market with the requisite planning and resources.
• Rigorous - We build on our reputation for quality and rigor with more robust measurement of outcomes, stronger safeguards and greater impact across the Sustainable Development Goals. Our objective is to make rigor simpler and more achievable at scale.
• Collaborative - We work with key partners who share our goals and complement our strengths. Our partnership strategy aims to move beyond working opportunistically as a delivery partner in favor of collaborating in long-term strategic synergy.
• Transparent - We were established to bring confidence, trust, and accountability to carbon markets. We will continue to take strides to improve transparency in our own processes, in the broader market and in non-market mechanisms.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

Gold Standard provides equal opportunity for all job applicants and employees and is committed to providing a work environment free of discrimination. We are dedicated to an inclusive culture, and we strive to create a workplace where teams of people with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, perspectives, ideas and experiences work together.

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