Anthesis

Global ESG and decarbonization advisory

Senior Carbon Scientist

Environmental SciencesUpdated on Nov 13

Full-timeCape Town, South AfricaNo salary listed

About the Job

Requirements

A Master's degree in a quantitative environmental discipline, such as quantitative ecology, biogeochemistry, environmental or ecosystem science, agronomy, soil science, or a closely related discipline; a PhD is welcome.
At least four years of relevant post-qualification experience in soil carbon, greenhouse gas quantification, or quantitative environmental research; candidates with fewer years may be considered if they demonstrate proven competence in these areas.
Hands-on experience with a process-based soil carbon or biogeochemical model, such as Roth-C, DNDC, or DayCent.
Working knowledge of the VCS Programme and at least one agricultural, forestry, or land-use methodology.
Strong applied statistics and fluency in R or Python.
Ability to research and synthesize technical material and translate it accurately for non-technical audiences, including auditors, farmers, and buyers.
Right to live and work in South Africa.

Responsibilities

Lead research for running, calibrating, and re-validating the Roth-C soil organic carbon model across VM0042 projects, and ensure validation results are interpreted correctly and clearly.
Lead drafting model validation reports and responses to reviewer, independent modelling expert, and auditor comments related to model validation or soil carbon quantification.
Validate model performance against measured soil data in accordance with VM0042 and its associated tools and modules, and document reproducible evidence.
Ensure model validation outcomes align with uncertainty deductions required by VM0042 and its associated tools and modules.
Contribute to soil sampling design, including statistical sample-size analyses aligned with project-area stratification, and maintain the in-field soil sampling protocol as VM0042 requirements evolve.
Track revisions to the VCS Standard, VM0042, and associated quantification modules; attend relevant webinars and communicate key feedback to the broader team in a timely manner.
Assess the implications of each version change for each project and help establish transition plans and timelines.
Update quantification components of project descriptions, monitoring plans, and supporting workbooks to meet new version requirements; keep templates current and aligned for submission to Verra’s Digital Hub.
Prepare deviation, revision, and methodology clarification requests, and handle Verra queries through resolution.
Build the quantitative basis for baseline scenarios, including baseline soil carbon stock assessments and modelled baseline trajectories.
Carry out common-practice and land-management analyses for project regions to support additionality cases.
Support delineation and justification of eligible project areas using spatial data, land-use history, and applicable methodology eligibility criteria.
Draft technical quantification sections of project descriptions and monitoring reports for VCS registration and issuance.
Support new-project feasibility work with the project development team by providing methodology- or ecosystem-specific carbon estimate ranges aligned with scoped activities.
Support expansion into new geographies, crops, and farming systems across Africa and beyond.
Define soil and quantification data requirements for digital MRV platforms.
Build reproducible, version-controlled analysis pipelines in R or Python.
Quality-assure farm activity data relevant to quantification and close data gaps with field, agronomy, and farmer-support teams.
Assemble quantification evidence packs for validation and verification bodies.
Respond to corrective action, clarification, and forward action requests, and close them on schedule.
Coordinate independent model evaluation when required by a methodology.

Desired Qualifications

Direct VM0042 experience at validation, verification, or issuance.
Exposure to other nature-based solutions methodologies, such as ARR (VM0047), REDD+ (VM0048), sustainable grassland management (VM0032), and blue carbon (VM0033).
Exposure to other carbon standards, such as Gold Standard, Puro, and Plan Vivo, and their respective nature-based methodologies.
Familiarity with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and how ITMOs affect project eligibility and credit accounting.
GIS and remote-sensing skills applied to land-sector carbon work, such as delineating and stratifying project areas, mapping land-use and land-cover change, deriving activity data from satellite imagery, and using Google Earth Engine, QGIS, or R/Python for these analyses.
Peer-reviewed publications in biogeochemistry, soil or ecosystem carbon, quantitative ecology, agronomy, or greenhouse gas science.
Science-communication experience, such as translating technical findings into briefings, reports, or presentations for non-specialist audiences.
Experience with African or Latin American smallholder or commercial farming systems.
Afrikaans, Portuguese, or Spanish.

Anthesis Group is the world's largest dedicated sustainability consultancy. We have more than 1,500 experts across 46 offices in 23 countries, and we are a certified B-Corporation. Our Carbon Development Unit is co-led from South Africa and the Netherlands, and has contracted over 20 million tonnes of carbon credits worldwide.

Anthesis South Africa develops, verifies and transacts carbon credits across agriculture, renewable energy, household energy, waste and nature-based solutions. Our carbon farming portfolio operates exclusively on Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) VM0042 methodology (Improved Agricultural Land Management) and includes AgriCarbon (VCS 2554), which in March 2025 became the first project in Africa to issue credits under VM0042; SARA (VCS 3432), covering Argentina, Paraguay and Chile; and ReTerra Brazil (VCS 5774).

We are a member of the Project Developer Forum, and a founding member of the Southern Africa Carbon Markets Association. Our work is built on market integrity, scientific rigour and real sustainable development co-benefits.

The role

You will carry out and quality-assure the soil carbon science and modelling that sits underneath our carbon farming programmes and broader nature based projects. Your role will support the models, the sampling design the statistics, and building and maintaining a robust and transparent evidence trail that stands up to a verification audit.

You will also help us manage change. Verra continues to revise the VCS Standard and associated methodologies, and each new version has real consequences for registered projects as well as those in the pipeline. You will work out what each change means, then lead the transition.

This is a hands-on scientific role, and its consequences are commercial as much as technical. The quality of the carbon quantification helps us determine how many credits we issue, and these credits fund the programme and reward our farmers .

You will report to our Principal Carbon Specialist – Nature-based Solutions and work closely with our carbon developers, analysts, agronomy partners and data platform teams in South Africa and the Netherlands.

The role combines scientific excellence with practical application, requiring the ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, accessible language for a range of audiences, including auditors, project teams, farmers, and buyers.

Carbon quantification and modelling

Lead the research component required for running, calibrating, and re-validating the Roth-C soil organic carbon model as implemented across our VM0042 projects. Ensure model validation results are correctly and clearly interpreted.
Lead the drafting of model validation reports and the responses to comments from reviewers, independent modelling experts, and auditors related to the model validation or soil carbon quantification.
Ensure model performance is validated against measured soil data following guidance and requirements stipulated by VM0042 and it’s associated tools and modules. Document the evidence so a third party can reproduce it.
Ensure alignment of model validation outcomes to uncertainty deductions as required by VM0042 and it’s associated tools and modules.
Contribute to soil sampling design (including statistical analyses for sample size calculations aligned to stratification of project areas), and maintain the in-field soil sampling protocol to meet the evolving requirements of VM0042 and it’s associated tools and modules.

Methodology and standard version transitions

Track Verra's revisions to the VCS Standard, VM0042 and the associated quantification modules. Attend relevant webinars and provide key feedback to the broader team in a timeous manner.
Assess what each version change means for each project, and help set out the transition plan and timeline.
Update the quantification components of project descriptions, monitoring plans and any supporting workbooks to meet new version requirements. Ensure templates are up-to-date and aligned for submission to Verra’s Digital Hub.
Prepare deviation, revision and methodology clarification requests, and handle Verra's queries through to resolution.

Carbon project development

Build the quantitative basis for baseline scenarios, including baseline soil carbon stock assessments and the modelled baseline trajectory
Carry out the common-practice and land-management analysis for the project region to support the additionality case
Support on the delineation and justification of eligible project areas, drawing on spatial data, land-use history and eligibility criteria set out by the applicable methodology
Draft the technical quantification sections of project descriptions and monitoring reports for VCS registration and issuance.
Support feasibility work for new projects alongside the project development team, providing methodology or ecosystem-specific carbon estimate ranges aligned to scoped project activities
Support expansion into new geographies, crops and farming systems across Africa and beyond.

MRV, data and systems

Define the soil and quantification data requirements for our digital MRV platforms.
Build reproducible, version-controlled analysis pipelines in R or Python.
Quality-assure farm activity data relevant to quantification, and close gaps with our field, agronomy and farmer support teams.

Validation and verification

Assemble quantification evidence packs for validation and verification bodies.
Respond to corrective action requests, clarification requests and forward action requests, and close them on schedule.
Coordinate independent model evaluation where a methodology calls for it.

Essential

A Master's degree in a quantitative environmental discipline, for example: quantitative ecology, biogeochemistry, environmental or ecosystem science, agronomy, soil science or a closely related discipline. This is a firm requirement. A PhD is welcome.
At least four years of relevant post-qualification experience in soil carbon, greenhouse gas quantification or quantitative environmental research. Strong candidates with demonstrable, proven competence in these areas will also be considered with fewer years of post-qualification experience.
Hands-on experience with a process-based soil carbon or biogeochemical model, such as Roth-C, DNDC, or DayCent.
Working knowledge of the VCS Programme and at least one agricultural, forestry or land-use methodology.
Strong applied statistics and fluency in R or Python.
The ability to research and synthesise technical material and translate it into forms for a non-technical audience. This is central to the role. You will write for auditors, farmers and buyers, and each audience needs something different. A strong candidate can move between technical and plain-language for delivery without losing accuracy.
The right to live and work in South Africa.

Advantageous

Direct VM0042 experience, at validation, verification or issuance.
Exposure to other nature-based solutions methodologies, such as ARR (VM0047), REDD+, (VM0048), sustainable grassland management (VM0032), and blue carbon (VM0033)
Exposure to other carbon standards, such as Gold Standard, Puro, Plan Vivo and their respective nature-based methodologies
Familiarity with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and how ITMOs affect project eligibility and credit accounting
GIS and remote sensing skills applied to land-sector carbon work, for example delineating and stratifying project areas, mapping land-use and land-cover change, or deriving activity data from satellite imagery and using tools such as Google Earth Engine, QGIS, or R / Python for these analyses.
Peer-reviewed publications in biogeochemistry, soil or ecosystem carbon, quantitative ecology, agronomy or greenhouse gas science.
Demonstrable science-communication experience, for example, translating technical findings into briefings, reports, or presentations for non-specialist audiences.
Experience of African or Latin American smallholder or commercial farming systems.
Afrikaans, Portuguese or Spanish.

How you work

The role rewards a particular disposition more than any single technique. You are evidence-first, in the sense that you would rather find the weakness in your own number than have an auditor find it for you; where a result is well-supported you will say so plainly, and where it rests on thin or borrowed data you will flag the uncertainty rather than smooth it over.

You are comfortable working under methodologies that keep changing, and you plan around that rather than being unsettled by it. Because the quantification is what ultimately funds the programme and pays our farmers, you understand that delay carries a real cost, and you leave a clean, reproducible audit trail for every calculation you touch.

While much of the work is independent, you keep colleagues across South African and the Netherlands informed as a matter of course, without needing to be asked.

About the Company

Anthesis

Global ESG and decarbonization advisory

Anthesis is a global sustainability consultancy that helps organizations meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. It offers services in carbon strategy, sustainable finance, supply chain transparency, and net-zero decarbonization, delivered through advisory, digital tools, and educational programs. How it works: the company provides data-driven consulting, develops practical action plans, and uses software to monitor progress, enabling clients to set targets, implement decarbonization measures, and report on ESG metrics. How it differs: it combines expert advisory with digital solutions and training for a broad client base (corporations, governments, nonprofits), delivering end-to-end support from strategy to implementation rather than just recommendations. Its goal is to help clients reduce climate impact, improve resource efficiency, and advance social equity, building a more sustainable and resilient future.

Company size: 501-1,000
Company stage: Not listed
Total funding: Not listed
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Founded: 2013

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