Product Specialist II, Outcome-based Finance, Global Restoration Initiative

This is a hybrid position that requires 8 days per month in the office. You can be based in our office in Washington DC. Existing work authorization is required at the time of application submission as WRI is unable to sponsor any visa work sponsorship for this position. To be eligible for this position, you must be a resident of DC, Maryland or Virginia at the start of employment.

About the Program:

WRI's Global Restoration Initiative informs in people restoring degraded land, with its flagship TerraFund program supporting over 200 enterprises and community nonprofits across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. The Restore Local initiative advances this work through a $60M+ portfolio of locally led projects across priority landscapes in Africa, Brazil, and India. Built through the TerraMatch platform, the portfolio spans grant funding, and debt and equity investments in SMEs and blended finance structures. In its next phase, WRI's Restoration team is leveraging technology. The team is also leveraging its growing network of local partners. This collaboration will develop scalable finance solutions. These solutions will mobilize greater public and private capital, delivering measurable outcomes for people, nature, and climate.

Job Highlight:

WRI's Global Restoration Initiative is at an exciting moment in our strategy. Your team will focus on defining, measuring, and scaling finance for restoration outcomes. We are making investment in our software products and analytical services to support our dramatically increase (from millions to billions of dollars) our ability to bring money to the ground for local restoration. This is an exciting opportunity for someone passionate about applying data improvement and software solutions to mobilize finance for nature-positive solutions and sustainable economic development.

Our team's focus on outcome-based finance necessitates a dedicated Product Specialist to translate outcome data analyses to product requirements for delivery. You'll spend your first months building deep domain expertise in outcome-based finance economics, which positions you to lead the product requirements and feature delivery for OBF tools starting in 2027. The first 18 months will look like this:

• Phase 1 (2026): ~70% restoration finance research & analysis, ~30% product analytics foundation-building. You will contribute to data-driven economic analyses and develop evidence-based economic cases that demonstrate the value of restoration and inform the design of outcome-based finance models linking ecological outcomes to financial performance. You will also support the product team in analytics systems and research work.

• Phase 2 (2027 onward): ~30% ongoing analytical support and ad hoc research projects as interest and time allows, ~70% product management of OBF features. Your focus will shift to operationalizing these models in software, building your expertise in the product development cycle to deliver analytics and interfaces to investors, champions, and project managers on the ground. You will continue to provide analytical support to the economics team, but your primary accountability will be product delivery.

The Restoration Invest Team and Product Team will support you. You will report to the Senior Investment Manager for Blended and Outcome Finance in 2026, and the Senior Product Manager in 2027. You will also work with the Head of Restoration Economics.

What you will do:

Research and Analysis (50% time)

[These analytical tasks build the domain expertise required to define OBF product features. Analytical findings will directly inform product feature prioritization and the OBF module roadmap.]

• Collect, clean, and analyze economic, financial, and environmental datasets to assess the costs, benefits, risks, and investment performance of forest and landscape restoration initiatives.

• Develop analytical models, statistical analyses, and visualizations to support economic assessments, data backed economic cases, investment strategies, and outcome-based finance design.

• Contribute analytical inputs to the design and evaluation of outcome-based finance models. These models link ecological outcomes and ecosystem service improvements to financial performance and investment structures. Additionally, deepen understanding of the data needs of potential outcome payers.

Product Development & Ownership (50%)

• It is expected that in 2026, the Product focus of the role will primarily be in the Product Analytics & User Research Foundation bucket. In 2027, it will transition to Product Management & Delivery bucket. The role will involve building scripts, workflows, and tools, such as Python, R, and SQL, to automate data processing, analysis, and visualization.

• Contribute to research outputs, market studies, and the development of impact metrics (e.g., jobs, livelihoods, avoided costs, revenue generation).

• Translate analytical results into decision-support materials, dashboards, and visualizations that provide relevant insights for policymakers, investors, and project developers.

Product Analytics & User Research Foundation

• Establish qualitative and quantitative user analytics systems (such as Google Analytics and Hotjar) and research synthesis processes to inform data-driven product decision-making

• Create recommendations for the product analytics working group to action based on usage data and insights

• Build automations, tools, and processes to streamline analytics collection from a variety of sources and easily action insights.

• Develop, version, and maintain OBF user personas in close collaboration with the OBF team. This involves translating OBF team research, stakeholder interviews, and indicator data into structured, actionable persona documentation. The documentation should reflect the diversity of programmes, geographies, and user types across our products.

Product Management & Delivery

Backlog Ownership & Requirements

• Oversee and maintain the OBF portion of the product backlog, ensuring it is up to date with changing requirements and reflects the prioritized order for development.

• Work with the product, engineering, and invest teams to create clear product requirements for development to support outcome-buyer user personas.

• Articulate why each feature matters, for whom, and what behavior change is expected, linking product requirements to the core use case.

• Ensure data quality for product handoff and ingestion as it relates to outcome indicators.

Feature Delivery & Stakeholder Liaison

• Guide the delivery of OBF-related product features in close coordination with design and development teams and the invest team.

• Act as the primary liaison between the invest teams and the product/engineering teams, translating domain insights into feasible, high-impact features.

• Communicate product progress, priorities, and trade-offs to internal stakeholders including the invest team, program leadership, and funders.

Testing & Validation

• Test components to validate functionality and usability based on strategies outlined by the product team, ensuring OBF features meet user needs.

• Support user acceptance testing and usability validation for OBF features, incorporating feedback into backlog refinement.

What you will need:

• Education: A Master’s degree in Environmental Economics, Sustainable Finance, Data Science, or a related field is required
• Experience:
  • You have a minimum of 3 years full-time relevant work experience in economics, finance, or data analysis, ideally with exposure to restoration, environmental, or sustainability sectors.
  • Strong quantitative and data science skills, including experience in econometric modeling, data analysis, and data automation using tools such as Python, R, SQL, or similar.
  • Proven experience working with large or complex datasets and translating analytical results into clear, actionable insights for policymakers, investors, or project teams.
  • Prior experience in technical research, financial modeling, or applied analytics in relevant industries is highly valued.
  • Ability to support robust user research and user needs assessments to ensure that proposed features and tools respond to clearly articulated demands from users
  • Ability to learn how to manage the technical delivery of the product, including ensuring both internal and external resources are working to the prioritized backlog.
  • High degree of comfort with web technologies, with the ability to work with both technical and non-technical colleagues and partners
  • Exposure to product development processes, Agile methodologies, or user research is a plus.
• Languages: Proficiency in verbal and written English
• Requirements: Existing work authorization is required where this position is based. WRI is unable to authorize visa work authorization.

Potential Salary:

US salary range is between 83,520 and 98,658 USD. Salary is commensurate with experience and other compensable factors.

How to Apply:

Please submit a resume with a cover letter. You must apply through the WRI Careers portal to be considered.

What we offer:

• Access to the WRI global network with the opportunity to exchange with and learn from passionate colleagues working at the cutting edge of their fields across Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and the US
• The chance to have an impact and to develop your career within a mission driven organization with access to varied learning and training opportunities.
• A workplace that strives to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
• The opportunity to join and get involved in different working groups and affinity groups to shape the future of WRI
• Commitment to hybrid working model with flexible working hours
• Generous leave days that increase with tenure
• Medical Coverage, Dental Coverage, Vision Coverage, retirement plan access and employer contribution.

About Us:

World Resources Institute works to improve people’s lives, protect and restore nature and stabilize the climate. As an independent research organization, we leverage our data, expertise and global reach to influence policy and catalyse change across systems like food, land and water; energy; and cities. Our 2,000+ staff work on the ground in more than a dozen focus countries and with partners in over 50 nations.

Our mission and values:

WRI’s mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Our values are shared ideals that bind us together: Independence, Integrity, Impact, Partnership and Care.

Our culture:

WRI is committed to advancing gender and social equity for human well-being in our mission including equal opportunities in employment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, caste, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, disability, or protected Veteran status.

Our People team carefully reviews all applications.