We sat down with Eva, Community member and Climate Lead at a large commercial bank, to find out what her role is about, what her workday looks like and how she has found renewed motivation by transitioning to a role centred around sustainability, climate, and ESG strategies. 

What It’s Really Like

Eva’s role sits within the corporate and commercial side of banking, supporting companies, investment funds, and institutional clients to manage climate-related risks and to identify opportunities linked to sustainability. Her role is very varied and includes research into trends and regulations, working with tech teams to implement processes, and educating internal business teams on how to support clients. 

What You’ll Need

The most essential skill is mastery of communication, especially tailoring messages for very different audiences, from highly technical teams to stakeholders. Strong emotional intelligence is crucial for understanding motivations, reducing resistance, and winning buy-in with the clients. It’s a true mix of generalist breadth (across data, tech, regulation, customer needs) and specialist depth (in commercial banking and sustainability).

What You’ll Face

Eva’s role has great variety, it requires and guarantees continuous learning, and affords the ability to influence how a major bank supports sustainable business transitions. On the other hand, it requires dealing with often slow processes, navigating complex organisational dynamics, and the need to repeatedly align stakeholders in a highly regulated environment. Resilience, political awareness, and confidence navigating ambiguity are necessary.

What You’ll Grow Into

Over time, this role develops you into a strategic leader who understands complex organisations end-to-end. You gain deep experience in translating sustainability principles into commercial action, managing large cross-functional teams, and influencing senior stakeholders. You learn to balance technical, regulatory, and customer perspectives, positioning you for future roles in strategy, transformation, ESG leadership, or broader banking management.

How People Get In

Once a profession mostly held by Economics and Finance majors, more recent hires in Eva’s team have been professionals from a wide range of backgrounds including commercial banking, accounting, engineering, geography, and other non-finance fields. There is no fixed route, curiosity and the ability to learn financial and sustainability concepts matter more than specific degrees.