Energy Officer – Vietnam At Adam Smith International

Position: Energy Officer – Vietnam

Duration: Until 24 December 2025

Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

Reports to: P4I Energy Lead

Closing date:11:59pm (Bangkok time) on Wednesday 14 August 2024

About P4I
Partnerships for Infrastructure (P4I) is an Australian Government initiative partnering with Southeast Asia to drive sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth through quality infrastructure. P4I partners with Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
P4I works with partners to strengthen infrastructure decision-making and practice across the transport, energy, utilities and telecommunications sectors. P4I’s focus is on the early stages of the infrastructure lifecycle, including planning and prioritisation, financing strategy, and procurement.
The 4 main services offered by P4I are linkages with Australian government agencies and other institutions, technical and policy advice, infrastructure project advice and knowledge-sharing and learning. As the foundation of quality infrastructure, P4I also integrates gender equality, disability, and social inclusion, and disaster risk reduction and climate change considerations into all activities.
Delivered through a single team, P4I is led by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in collaboration with EY, Adam Smith International, The Asia Foundation and Ninti One.
P4I has a regional program office in Bangkok, with staff also located in Australia and each partner country. More information about P4I is available at www.partnershipsforinfrastructure.org

The Role
Australia has a long-standing partnership with Vietnam in the energy sector, and the two countries share a commitment to take urgent and ambitious climate action. The recently upgraded Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) includes a pillar on climate, energy and environment. Vietnam is a priority country in the Australian Government’s international climate engagement strategy, with P4I serving as an important mechanism to support Vietnam’s clean energy transition and respond to the impacts of climate change
P4I recently undertook a high-level energy design to guide energy programming in Vietnam through P4I over the coming 18 months to December 2025. The Energy Officer – Vietnam will work closely with P4I’s Energy Lead based in the Bangkok program office and P4I staff working for different delivery partners, the Australian Embassy Hanoi and DFAT to drive P4I’s energy program through fostering stakeholder relationships with relevant government entities and officials in Vietnam. Based on these relationships, the Energy Officer will support development and implementation of P4I’s energy programming.
The role supports the Australian Government’s priority of developing sustainable, inclusive, and resilient growth in Southeast Asia through the development of quality infrastructure. This will be achieved through the creation of strong partnerships amongst Australian and Southeast Asian government agencies and institutions.

Responsibilities
The responsibilities of the position will include, but not be limited to:

• Lead a portfolio of high priority bilateral energy transition activities in Vietnam, including peer to peer exchanges and other technical assistance activities, working in close coordination with P4I, the Australian Embassy Hanoi and DFAT.
• Liaising with and supporting the management of relationships with key energy sector stakeholders, including partner governments, regulatory bodies, development partners and others involved in P4I’s energy portfolio in Vietnam.
• Providing advice to and supporting the P4I Energy Lead, other P4I team members and the Australian Embassy Hanoi on relevant protocols and the policy, institutional and administrative context in which P4I operates. This includes research or analytical tasks, such as political economy analysis or other research as directed.
• Assisting with scoping and managing the delivery of activities in the region, consistent with Australia and P4I’s priorities with those partners. This could include contribution to the development of the energy program workplans, as well as ad-hoc program, support related to policy advice and institutional strengthening.
• Organising and supporting visiting Australian delegations to the region on key dynamics, issues, and considerations to enable successful engagement with partner governments to advance P4I’s energy programming. This includes energy missions, visiting Australian technical experts and staff and other Australian delegations visiting the region.
• Supporting the monitoring of progress of activities, including through liaison with key stakeholders, to ensure activities meet P4I requirements and are delivered in a way that is appropriate to the P4I context. Monitoring will take place in line with the P4I Performance Management Framework, and as guided by the P4I Performance team.
• Supporting the identification of opportunities for Australian (state or federal) government agencies to provide input into activities and policy dialogue. This will involve close liaison with P4I’s government-to-government partnerships team who lead in liaising with Australian stakeholders.
  In undertaking all the above, the successful candidate will operate as part of P4I’s One Team. They will be contributing to well-coordinated planning and delivery across P4I’s delivery partner organisations.

Selection Criteria

• Postgraduate qualifications in a relevant discipline (i.e., public policy, economics, public finance, development, or qualifications related to infrastructure).
• At least 8 years of experience in the energy sector, including experience working in Vietnam, ideally focused on international development, economic growth, or institutional strengthening.
• Excellent communication, liaison, and coordination skills, with demonstrated ability to operate effectively in a complex, multi-stakeholder organisation (fluency in English and Vietnamese required).
• Excellent analytical skills, including the ability to work with partner governments on sensitive issues.
• Strong experience with developing and managing a pipeline of technical assistance activities, including liaison with Government counterparts, donor organisations, and technical specialists in the energy sector in Vietnam.
• Commitment to and experience managing compliance with environmental and social safeguards, GEDSI, and DRRCC, in the context of infrastructure development.
• Sound judgment working in a complex environment, with the ability to take initiative balanced with good understanding of risk.
• Excellent team management skills.