We are looking for an enthusiastic project officer with great communication skills to support innovative, collaborative community-based projects, offering targeted energy advice to householders in Manchester. You will be happy translating technical concepts for a non-technical audience, verbally and in writing. You may not have specific experience in energy advice or home refurbishment, but you’re likely to have a background or experience in an advice setting or consumer facing role.
The most important thing is you have the aptitude to understand technical ideas and communicate them concisely and clearly, and a keen interest in evaluating the way we work to iteratively improve it. Please note, this is not an office job! You’ll be out in the community in a range of settings and environments and you will be comfortable talking, face to face, to people from many different backgrounds and places.
Deadline: 5pm, Tuesday 29th August 2023
- Time: 0.8 – 1 FTE (Flexible)
- Location: Central Manchester, UK
- Wages: £26,800 – £32,160 (dependant on experience/qualifications)
- Start date: ASAP
- Duration: permanent
- Status: Payroll/PAYE
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So, if you want to use your skills to help people tackle climate change in their own homes, using practical tools and approaches, get in touch!
About the role
We are recruiting a Project Officer to work primarily on a new multi-disciplinary demonstrator project that will offer targeted energy advice to householders in South Manchester. The two year project will involve collaboration with a range of partners including the People Powered Retrofit one stop shop and service design experts Snook, as well as NHS and local authority involvement. The focus of your role is on working with team members to support project delivery, with an emphasis on demonstrating the innovative forms of engagement developed within the project as a way of offering practical, actionable and targeted energy advice.
As Project Officer, you will be involved in the design and development stages of the project – something which will in particular involve the application of behavioural design principles. You will help to develop and create communication materials and be heavily involved in on the ground delivery. Our project will see us act as a trusted source of independent advice and advocacy, we won’t be promoting particular products or companies. You don’t need to be a technical expert, but a keen interest in energy use and housing would be beneficial. We have a skilled and knowledgeable team and are able to offer formal and informal training, as well as effective mentoring and coaching from team members to ensure you are supported.
At Carbon Co-op we have several projects running at any given time. Whilst the majority of your time will be on the South Manchester demonstrator advice project, we see this role as complementary to our work across Retrofit, Energy Systems and Energy Commons teams, and there is scope for you to develop your expertise.
Flexible and remote working
We’re looking for someone who can work between 0.8 and 1 FTE. Carbon Co-op supports flexible working around core office hours. The role is based at our offices in central Manchester and much of it will involve working in community settings around South manchester. Evenings and weekend working will be required (we operate flexible work mechanisms for these hours to be taken back at other times). Within the constraints of the role there is scope for remote working.
Outline of the role
We believe this role could be suitable for people from a wide range of backgrounds, so we are not listing any minimum levels of qualifications or years of experience. The skills and competencies we are after can be developed in a range of settings, not just formal education.
i) Skills and experience
Essential
- Communication skills – we need someone with an ability to translate relatively technical information for a ‘non-technical’ audience. You’ll be able to communicate concepts concisely and clearly – both through verbal interactions and in writing.
- Maintain accurate records in relation to advice delivery activities, and ensure resources are used efficiently and effectively
- Solid understanding of energy demand reduction principles in particular.
Desirable
- Experience in delivering training and presentations or an interest in developing this skill
- Knowledge of fabric first and whole house approaches to retrofit
- Knowledge of the interaction between housing and health
- Knowledge of fuel poverty, and the factors that contribute to it
- Understanding of developments in the broader energy sector
- Able to explain key concepts through simple drawings, might have experience in laying out advice materials, perhaps used Adobe/Affinity/other design packages before
- Knowledge of Behaviour Change Design or an interest in developing this
- Good understanding of confidentiality, privacy and data protection
- NEA City & Guilds in Energy Awareness or similar
- Experience of Carbon Literacy training
ii) Person specification
Essential
- You will be comfortable speaking to members of the community about aspects of their homes, lives and use of energy.
- You will be able to research, digest and distil key information so this can be ‘demystified’ for others.
- You will be able to evidence critical thinking – at times you’ll need to research and find information to support advice delivery. You need to be able to detect greenwash and critically engage with the information you find, checking in with colleagues as necessary.
- You will show initiative in identifying tasks and be happy with a degree of independent working. You’ll be proactive and able to prioritise and manage your own time.
- You will be able to manage expectations of the people you meet and be open and honest about the limits of your knowledge, and be proactive in identifying and pursuing opportunities to enhance your own learning
- You will be able to deal calmly with being challenged or dealing with people in a degree of distress and where relevant, refer them on to other specialist sources of help and advice
- You will be comfortable speaking to, and building relationships with other stakeholders and partners – for example, local authority officers, health professionals, advisors within other organisations
- You will be committed to reflection and evaluation, and able to react constructively to new ideas and feedback from others. You’ll be proactive in seeking feedback from members of the community as to how we can better meet their needs.
Preferred
- The ability to contribute ideas around creative and participatory engagement methods in a range of community settings.
- The ability to contribute ideas for project proposals and wider organisational development.
Recruitment process
We will produce a shortlist of applicants that we will invite to an online or in person interview (likely to be held in early September 2023) lasting approximately 60 minutes. If you are shortlisted we will ask you to prepare a short presentation/activity as part of the interview.
We can provide feedback to those invited to interview but who were not successful on request (we do not have resources to provide detailed feedback to applicants who are not shortlisted, sorry).
About Carbon Co-op
Carbon Co-op is an award-winning and fast-growing member-led social enterprise based in Greater Manchester, UK. Our mission is to support people to take collective action on climate change in their homes and communities and we have a strong commitment to tackling Energy Justice which runs through this.
We pilot a diverse range of innovative low carbon projects and develop new energy services for householders. We are an integrated, multi-disciplinary team, with a range of skills and competencies and the ability to support your personal and professional development. We organise within three thematic teams, each with a Team Lead: Retrofit, Energy Systems and Energy Commons, this role falls under the Retrofit Team. We have an organisational strategy, devised at an annual away session with input from staff and teams, as well as our householder members and co-operative board.
Our work culture is open and collaborative and we employ practices such as user-centred design, service design and agile development. We welcome new team members! We operate from an office in Ancoats, central Manchester in the Bridge 5 Mill centre for sustainability but we also offer a range of flexible and hybrid working options.
Values
We require staff to demonstrate, understand and apply our core organisational values. These are embedded in all our roles and applicants are expected to demonstrate these values as part of the application process:
- Commitment to collective and community-based approaches to tackling climate change.
- Commitment to Co-operative Values.
- Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
- Commitment to environmental justice and tackling inequalities.
Legal right to work
By the time you commence your employment you must have a legal right to work in the UK. We are currently not in a position to act as a sponsor.
Please apply!
We’re an equal opportunity employer, value diversity and have flexible working practices. We acknowledge that people from certain backgrounds are under-represented within our sector and our organisation – and we want to ensure we address this. We encourage applications from anyone with suitable skills, no matter their background or ability. If you don’t feel confident enough to apply, get in touch with us, we’d love to chat!
For more information
Contact: Helen Grimshaw helen@carbon.coop