Project Officer NetZeroCities

Job Title: NetZeroCities Project Officer (Funded Innovation Programmes)

Team:  NetZeroCities Team (Cities Team) 

Contract: Fixed term contract for 12 months, with possibility to extend/convert into permanent over time 

Level: Foundation

Please refer to our Capability Framework  

Salary:  Competitive for Not-for-profit organisation  

Start Date: As soon as possible 

Location: EU and UK

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 colleagues 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 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. We understand that global temperature rise is exceeding 1.5C and this demands unprecedented change. It requires new social dynamics, ways of doing business, capital flows, policymaking, economic models, and new ways of living. That is why our mission is to leverage the power of systems innovation to transform whole places, industries and value chains by 2030, working across sectors to develop and scale ambitious programmes. Climate KIC’s strategy 2024-2030, Transformation, with Urgency, is available here.    

Climate KIC operates as a not-for-profit foundation working through public-private partnership, wielding both public and private funding. Established in 2010 and headquartered in Amsterdam, we orchestrate a community of more than 150 organisations including large corporations and SMEs, municipal and regional governments, universities and research institutes, as well as non-governmental organisations and civil society actors.     

Climate KIC leads the implementation of the European Union’s Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and the launch pilot of the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, both with the objective of catalysing rapid and deep transformation on a large scale, creating the precedent and economic transition conditions for demonstration, learning, capacity building, fast followership and investment. Achieving the EU Cities Mission will mean avoided scope 1 and 2 emissions alone of an estimated 0.7GT CO2e between now and 2040.    

Climate KIC has a Remote-First approach, where colleagues work remotely from home based in one of the countries where we have a branch or employing entity (and can work out of local offices or co-working seats, where they exist). We meet at our local offices to exchange and connect and use online collaboration tools to work with each other and with our community. On occasion, we meet in person as teams, and once per year as an organisation.    

As a mission-driven organisation dedicated to climate transformation, we consider the climate impact of our own actions, for example travel, catering, or IT equipment.    

ABOUT THE ROLE

Climate KIC is supporting cities across Europe to accelerate their transitions to climate neutrality through systems innovation. A key component of this work is delivered through NetZeroCities, a flagship programme of the EU Cities Mission for 100 Climate-neutral and Smart Cities by 2030, designed to help European cities become climate neutral by 2030. Central to the framework is a growing portfolio of programmes funded through sub-grants, including the Pilot Cities and Enabling City Transformation programmes, that enable cities to test, learn, and scale innovative approaches to systemic change.

The NetZeroCities Funded Innovation Programmes support large scale piloting activities to exploit, deploy, and scale R&I and systemic solutions combining social, cultural, technological, nature-based, regulatory, and financial innovation, and new business and governance models to underpin the climate transition.

The NetZeroCities Funded Innovation Programmes Project Officer will be responsible for ensuring the large spectrum of project daily operations (from running Open Calls to select proposals to handling the portfolio of selected proposals and reviewing reporting).

This role will also collaborate to assure a transparent and direct exchange of learnings across the selected Cities consortia and the NetZeroCities consortium, contributing to the effective communications with the European Commission about project execution, results, and stakeholder participation. The role entails working at different levels: within the project team, with external stakeholders (Cities representatives) whilst coordinating with NetZeroCities partner organisations.

We are looking for a dynamic team player who is a self-organised professional, willing to navigate complexity and experienced with Grant Management within the European Commission’s Horizon Europe funding schemes.

We wish to bring to our team a person who is efficient and operational and wants to join a vibrant, multicultural team militating towards decarbonising cities. The successful candidate will support the Project Manager navigate the given priorities and bring new ways of working to model the change we want to see in the world.

Key Responsibilities

NetZeroCities Funded Innovation Programme Operations:

·      Contribute to the daily project management tasks (financial, administrative and operational) for the running and incoming funded innovation programmes

·      Assist in the preparation, publication and completion of the NZC running Calls for Proposals, in association with the Grant Management Business Partner

·      Support in the management, monitoring, reporting and driving forward project processes, in coordination with the programme partner organisations and project leads across the selected Cities

·      Ensure effective Grant Management (EU Horizon Europe specifically) in close collaboration with grant team and PMO peers

·      Support the project team to deliver and report on time, assuring the quality requirements

·      Support and Improve processes and tools for assessing, planning, and reporting of the funded projects with your PMO peers

·      Contribute to the internal and external communications by writing content in line with our principles and easy to understand by recipients.

Key Working Relationships

·      NetZeroCities Funded Innovation programmes team

·      Grant Management Business Partner

·      NetZeroCities Consortium Partners

·      Grantees (Cities representatives and partners)

·      NetZeroCities and wider Climate KIC Cities Team

ABOUT YOU
To be successful in this role you will be a good team player, ready to roll up the sleeves in peak periods to finish urgent deadlines, solution oriented, careful to detail, working towards autonomy.  

Education/Qualifications

·      A Bachelor's degree or Master’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Project Management, Social and Political sciences, Public Policies or other relevant fields

·      Minimum of 3 years working experience in project teams in a complex, multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder and city-focused environment

·      Experience in Grant Management specifically around the European Funding Frameworks (grants, subsidies, loans and prizes to winners specifically under Horizon Europe)

Experience

·      Project Management Officer exposure or support in complex projects with multiple partners.

·      Demonstrated experience of gathering and analysing data to support senior decision-making, contributing to problem-solving, and helping individuals and teams to attain delivery of planned tasks;

·      Exposure over performance management tools and processes, particularly those linked to complex projects with multiple partners. 

·      Planning, organisation, coordination, multitasking, problem solving and prioritisation under pressure with growing minimal supervision.

·      Experience in building community engagement and fostering collaboration between different stakeholders

·      Proven expertise in autonomously creating high-quality written documents

Skills

·      Fluency in English, excellent written and verbal communication skills, and ideally in at least one other European language

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

·      Ability to build positive and fruitful relationships with a wide range of stakeholders

·      Self-organised and strong attention to detail

Qualities, Personal Style, and Approach

·      Soft skills such as empathy and willingness to work as a team

·      Solution focused, proactive, with a positive ’can do’ attitude

·      Ability to listen and build trust, willing to formulate clear reasoning and open to constructive feedback

·      Dynamic and curious, with developed interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively, inspire and motivate people

·      Ambition to learn and grow through taking on challenging tasks and complex organisation, and willing to respond dynamically to change

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 a Climate KIC office, but we support fully remote or hybrid forms of working and offer a high degree of flexibility.  

Occasional travels abroad, once per quarter within EU countries.

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 - (often within a week).