Communications & Marketing Orchestrator (Director)

Job Title: Communications & Marketing Orchestrator (Director)
Team: Communications & Marketing

Contract: Ongoing

Level: Advanced
Please refer to our Capability Framework
Location: Amsterdam, Berlin, London (Hybrid)

Apply by: We're interviewing on a rolling basis until we close the role. We advise you to apply early as we may close the role early if we have a sufficient pool of candidates. 

ABOUT US

At Climate-KIC, we are wholeheartedly committed to building a diverse and representative team and an inclusive workplace that values different life experiences and perspectives, and we encourage personal development, learning and growth.

When recruiting, we look to achieve diversity in the candidate pool. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups and are happy to consider reasonable adjustments that will foster success in potential employees from diverse backgrounds and life situations. And because our team has differing needs and personal circumstances, we offer a high degree of flexibility to accommodate all working patterns. We’re happy to discuss your situation during the interview and see how best we can support you.

Don’t let Imposter Syndrome stop you from applying!

Climate-KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Community) is Europe’s foremost climate innovation initiative, entrusted by the European Commission to catalyse transformation through innovation. Headquartered in Amsterdam, with circa 160 people distributed all over the EU, Climate-KIC leads and orchestrates innovation with a community of more than 400. Together we conduct activities in 39 countries. We partner with cities, regions, governments and communities with the highest climate action ambition; providing the framework and expert support to holistically manage the complexity of climate change and deliver accelerated climate action.

Climate-KIC operates as a not-for-profit platform working through public-private partnership, wielding both public and private funding. We consist of 3 Legal entities: a Dutch BV Holding company (for profit) with 14 branches in European jurisdictions, providing grant management, innovation orchestration services, and impact investment advisory owned by a Dutch-based foundation with charity status – Climate-KIC International Foundation. Historically, we have been funded by our founder and core funder, the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), but we are currently transitioning to a multi-funder model.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are seeking an experienced and proactive Communications & Marketing Orchestrator (Director) to join our team. This pivotal role is at the forefront of our efforts to shape and communicate our narrative, engage stakeholders, co-create marketing strategy and enhance our brand visibility. You will head a talented team, while both driving and implementing innovative strategies that resonate with audiences and support our organisational goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Organisation-wide Leadership: Support the Leadership Team as a member representing communications and marketing, helping to steer and guide the direction of the organisation with one eye on the needs of the Climate-KIC and the other on the external factors affecting the climate movement and climate communications.

• Strategic Vision and Planning: Develop and implement comprehensive communication and marketing strategies that align with Climate-KIC’s mission and goals, which will also guide the strategic communications choices that are made at a programmatic and project level. This includes strategic oversight not only of our corporate communications, but also of the

communications and marketing aspects of our fundraising efforts and community building work. This also includes setting a high-level narrative for Climate-KIC and setting the communications priorities each year.

• Team Leadership: Manage and mentor a team of communication and marketing professionals, fostering a collaborative work environment, while also building and maintaining internal relationships especially with the fundraising and community teams.

• Team Management/Admin: Manage the communications and marketing budget for Climate KIC ensuring that the team is hitting its budget goals; perform strategic human resource planning of the team, maintaining tight oversight of how communications and marketing capabilities and resources are being deployed within the organisation; maintain oversight for

the recruitment of new team members and the procurement of comms related services; and manage the reporting of communications KPIs and milestones towards our funders.

• Brand Strategy and Management: Develop a brand roll-out strategy for the next years that will strengthen our newly created brand and ensure consistent messaging and use of our brand across all communication channels, while meeting our marketing objectives.

• Thought Leadership: Develop and implement a strategy on thought leadership, ensuring consistency of thematic messaging among our senior leadership, while supporting the CEO and selected members of our Boards in their roles as our most senior Climate-KIC representatives.

• Annual Report: Manage the production of the Climate-KIC Annual Report.

• Oversight and support in:

o Marketing Strategy: Oversight in the development and deployment of a robust marketing strategy for Climate-KIC.

Climate-KIC – Communications & Marketing Orchestrator (Director) – January 2025 3

o Content Creation: Oversee the creation of engaging content for various platforms, including social media, newsletters, blogs, and press releases.

o Campaign Management: Support the planning and execution of brand awareness and marketing campaigns to promote our initiatives and meet our organisational fundraising targets.

o Performance Analysis: Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of communication strategies and campaigns, making data-driven adjustments as needed.

Key Working Relationships

• Chief Executive Officer

• Chief Financial Officer

• Climate-KIC Hub Lead

• Communications and Marketing Team

• Community Team

• Leadership Team

• Cluster Leads

• Deal Desk and Programme Management Office

• Climate-KIC Foundation Board

• Multi-stakeholder engagement across the organisation

• Funders, including EU bodies, national and regional governments, philanthropies and private funders, corporate partners

ABOUT YOU

To be successful in this role you will have both strategic vision and hands-on approach. These will be essential in crafting compelling messages, managing high-impact campaigns, and building strong relationships internally and externally. You will play a critical role in ensuring that our work is effectively communicated and that our brand is recognised in the climate innovation space.

Education/Qualifications

• Masters or equivalent degree in communications, public relations, marketing, environmental

studies, international development, or a related field

Experience

We are looking for candidates with demonstrable experience in the following:

• Strategic Communications and brand building

• Marketing strategy

• Some experience leading a teams

Additional experience in the following would be a benefit:

• Marketing and fundraising in a non-profit setting

• Climate/sustainability communications

• Working in a holocratic or “team of teams” environment

Qualifications

• Excellent interpersonal skills and a professional and diplomatic manner

• Management experience and intercultural competence

• Highly developed problem-solving and decision-making capabilities

• High degree of self-organisation and personal responsibility

• Excellent writing and presentation skills

• English language skills at a very high level, both written and spoken

• Demonstrated excellence in organisational and communication skills, working with multiple teams across an organisation

Skills

• Fluency in English, excellent written and verbal communication skills, and any additional European languages are a benefit.

• Experience or willingness to work with collaborative IT applications (we use Office365 and Microsoft Teams, as well as Miro, Zoom, Mentimeter etc.)

• Strong analytical skills with pronounced attention to detail

• Creatively minded, good at thinking ‘outside the box’

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to quickly build rapport with internal and external stakeholders

• Emotional intelligence and awareness

• Highly motivated and target-driven

• Able to work in an international, distributed, and multicultural team; strong awareness of other cultures and working practices

• Interest and commitment to tackling climate change and its socio-economic, environmental impacts

Qualities, Personal Style, and Approach

• You devise new ways of achieving results

• You create new opportunities for Climate-KIC to position itself externally

• You mobilise resources and legitimacy from diverse sources to deliver change

• You manage multiple tasks simultaneously, producing strong results in each

• You are able to manage many different stakeholders

• You persevere despite setbacks, adapting your approach

• You adapt your contribution with refined sense of changing needs.

• You take calculated risks

• You are at ease with complexity

• You will hold multiple identities and ideologies at once

• You are highly empathetic

• You explore the edges of what is known and what exists

Location

Candidates must have the right to work in the location they’re applying for (I.e. not require visa sponsorship) prior to applying for the position. Ideally, the successful candidate will be based close to one of the EIT Climate KIC offices, but we support fully remote or hybrid forms of working and offer a high degree of flexibility.

To ensure that we can respond to every single applicant, we will close the role once we receive a reasonable pool of candidates to assess.