Join Our Team!

 We are seeking a UK-based Associate Partner with expertise in both fund structuring and financial modelling to help design and deliver innovative, scalable financing solutions for neighbourhood-scale Net Zero transitions. This role combines the strategic design of blended finance structures that balance financial, social, and environmental outcomes with hands-on modelling to test and optimise investment propositions. 

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Living Places is a not-for-profit consultancy whose sole purpose is to accelerate the net zero transition in a way that supports communities, places, and planet. Our mission is to establish repeatable and hugely scalable models for the delivery of fully funded and just local net zero transitions.

We started in July 2023 and are building a multi-disciplinary team with expertise across neighbourhood transition and climate resilience investment, including finance, energy systems, buildings and materials, housing, participation and engagement, governance, policy, and programme design and delivery.

We are building out a comprehensive programme of place-based Net Zero transition with a focus on domestic retrofit, and we are establishing cross-sector collaborations to design and deliver demonstrators. Our work includes developing finance and delivery mechanisms, blending public and private funding, and exploring cooperative and community benefit structures and asset ownership models in the context of project development and delivery.

We have live projects with Bristol City Council, London Councils, West Midlands Combined Authority, Glasgow City Council and the London Borough of Newham among others.

A core element of our work is developing both the financial structures and the quantitative models that make a just Net Zero transition viable. We envision coordinated investment in neighbourhoods around the country, improving homes at no upfront cost to residents while delivering wider community improvements in parallel.

The financial model that enables this is based on a blended finance fund that leverages public investment in Net Zero transition to attract private finance. Understanding both the structuring of such funds and the robust modelling that underpins them is key to our success.

To support our ongoing work and help us deliver our growing portfolio of impactful projects, we are looking for a UK-based Associate Partner with a minimum of 5 years’ experience in project structuring / project finance and a strong track record in financial modelling for complex, multi-stakeholder projects. This role will shape the design of fund and delivery structures, develop the models that validate and optimise them, and ensure they can be scaled nationally.

We are looking for diversity of thought, background and experience, ideally with some international exposure, including:

• Designing regional blended finance funds that can invest in multiple asset classes on a portfolio basis to enable cross-subsidisation of projects
• Building and stress-testing complex financial models to assess viability, returns, risks, and sensitivities
• Cooperative structures particularly with a community and/or energy transition focus (CLTs, CLGs, CICs etc)
• Energy infrastructure project financing
• Public-private blended funding models
• Blending financial, social and environmental outcomes into funding models
• The regulatory, governance, and legal structures to support the above

Additional relevant experience could include any of the following:

•  Understanding of returns and financial products
• Commercial business modelling and forecasting
• Business and funding planning for complex capital-intensive projects
• Governance design for complex investment structures
• Design and set-up of special purpose vehicles
• Experience of engaging with outcome-seeking finance
• Deal structuring and closing principles
• Green Book business case preparation
• Modelling of co-benefits

As a small company consisting of five partners plus a small business support function, we operate a very flat structure, so you’ll be an integral part of the team and often work across multiple aspects of several projects.

While this makes the job dynamic and always interesting, it means you’ll thrive if you're adaptable, curious, and open to working across a range of challenges — sometimes beyond your formal role. With the full support of the existing partners, you’ll be working towards becoming a full partner in two to three years’ time.

You should come prepared to learn continuously, to bring your insight and experience to bear on a variety of different questions and challenges, and to work on things that may sometimes feel above your pay grade and other times below. We work laterally rather than hierarchically and, as we don’t have a big support team, taking initiative and taking responsibility are key qualities you’ll need to demonstrate.

We all work remotely and get together in person once or twice a quarter to co-work and do project deep dives. The core team is spread across London, Bristol and Scotland, and we’re keen to have more parts of the country represented.

Our normal working week is 40 hours but we recognise the pressures of modern life and the desire many have to work flexibly. Colleagues are welcome to work flexibly outside our core hours, and we are also happy to consider applications from people wishing to work less than full time, subject to an average minimum of 32 hours per week.

We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. If you meet most but not all of the criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

•  Leading the development of robust financial models for Net Zero Neighbourhood investment, including scenario analysis, risk assessment, and return forecasting
• Designing and refining fund and investment structures that enable large-scale, equitable Net Zero transitions
• Working closely with Living Places’ partners to deliver key aspects of our expanding client project portfolio, including modelling, structuring, and producing high-quality outputs for funders and stakeholders
• Undertaking research and further developing our thinking around core elements of the Net Zero Neighbourhood financial model
• Contributing to winning bids in response to client tenders

• Strong research, quantitative, and analytical skills, with the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly
• Proven experience in building and managing complex financial models (ideally in Excel and/or other relevant tools)
• Deep understanding of fund structures, project finance, and blended finance mechanisms
• Ability to work in a dynamic, team-based environment with minimal supervision
• Ability to organise and track overlapping tasks and assignments, with frequent priority changes
• Strong communication and networking skills
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office products, especially Excel

• A salary of between £60k and £80k (depending on experience)
• 28 days holiday per year plus public holidays
• Flexible working outside core hours
• A company pension scheme with an employer contribution of up to 8%
• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (partner and children)

This job advert will be open until 5pm (UK time), Friday 12 September 2025 – please send a CV of no more than two pages and cover letter of no more than one page by this deadline to info@livingplaces.earth.

Shortlisted candidates will be notified by 5pm (UK time), Friday 19 September 2025.

Online interviews of shortlisted candidates will take place w/c 29 September 2025 with two of the partners at Living Places.

You can expect the online interview to last no more than one hour and we will ask you to talk through your relevant experience in relation to the role as set out above. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions of the partners.

If you have any queries about the role, please send them to ‘info@livingplaces.earth’ and we will endeavour to respond within five working days.

We’re excited to welcome someone who shares our commitment to a just Net Zero transition and is ready to help shape the future of neighbourhood-scale investment in the UK and beyond.