Senior Director, Tourism Finance

About the role

Conservation International is launching a programme to strengthen the financial stability of Africa’s Keystone Protected Areas (KPAs). The Senior Director, Tourism Finance will lead the ecotourism pillar, designing and implementing financing solutions that unlock tourism revenue for protected areas.

Key responsibilities

• Conduct rapid assessments of priority KPAs to identify viable ecotourism opportunities.
• Perform gap analyses on policy, infrastructure, biodiversity and capital access to define funding needs.
• Develop and lead the design of an ecotourism financing facility, including technical assistance components.
• Collaborate with other program facilities to ensure alignment with CI’s conservation and organisational priorities.
• Scale CI’s existing concessional loan facility (CIV Ventures) to include KPAs and create innovative financing solutions for ecotourism challenges.

Required profile

• Senior‑level professional with extensive experience in tourism finance, conservation finance or related structured finance.
• Proven ability to map ecotourism opportunities and design financing facilities.
• Strong analytical skills for rapid assessments and gap analysis.
• Experience working with multi‑stakeholder partnerships, including governments, NGOs and private sector investors.

Required skills

What we offer

• Opportunity to shape protected‑area finance at scale across Africa.
• Work at the intersection of ecotourism, finance and conservation.
• Collaboration with a global network of conservation experts and partners.