Climate-KIC Community Host
Job Description
Job Title: Climate-KIC Community Host
Team: Community
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Level: Advanced
Please refer to our Capability Framework
Location: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands
Start Date: As soon as possible
Apply By: Interviews will happen on a rolling basis till we find the right candidate. It is advisable to apply as early as possible.
ABOUT US
At EIT 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!
EIT 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, EIT 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.
EIT 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 – with subsidiaries in the UK.
ABOUT THE ROLE
The purpose of this role is to shape and support the Climate-KIC Community, mobilising it to act together for innovation excellence, for mutual value, and for positive change in the world through impact on climate change. The absolute heart of our strategy and ultimately our ability to deliver meaningful impact on climate change, is the mobilisation of our Community and connecting with other Communities who are driving change. One of our key roles in acting as a system change agent is to provide the support, stimulus, and connectivity for these Communities and the people within them to find each other, generate transformative ideas and to take action.
To that end, we are seeking a Community Host to take a leading role in bringing our Community model to life and implementing the relationship and value exchange needed to ensure our Community can thrive. This will include facilitation of visible, shared intent, joint fundraising, meaningful connection and matchmaking, leading to collaboration and experimentation, institutionalised curiosity and serendipity, and an intensification of learning. Building relationships, connections and network effects is a key component of this role, with a view to enabling knowledge exchange, guided community access and exponential community co-impact.
This role will require a highly innovative person who is a natural connector, relationship manager and network-builder. We are looking for someone who is passionate about reaching out and connecting to people in local contexts, building and nurturing communities, fostering networking, and role-modelling a collaborative approach to community activation and management, to play a leading role in the design and implementation of Climate-KIC’s future community relationship model.
Critically, we are looking for someone who is proactive and deeply curious about getting to know the Climate-KIC Community members, both at an individual level and as discreet sub-communities working on specific grand challenges (for example the sub-community of our members who work specifically on transforming cities). The Community Host is the person who meets people where they are and builds a deep understanding of what individuals and their organisations are working on, what they have to offer to others, what their capabilities are, who they know and who they should be connected with, what they are interested in and what they want to learn from us and each other. Having this kind of deep knowledge and understanding of our Community is critical to ensuring that we are delivering a community programme that is engaging and valuable to our members, as well as helping us to understand what kind of organisations we should be engaging with but who are not yet connected to the Community.
For this role, we need someone who combines systems thinking with empathy and curiosity and a deeply practical, solutions-driven approach, and who uses both to shape a truly 21st century community; someone who can design and implement systems, structures, mechanisms, tools and processes that will enable EIT Climate-KIC to connect and inspire thousands of organisations across the world to effect change at a planetary scale.
Key Responsibilities
Community Model Deployment and ongoing Development
- Lead the ongoing development and optimisation of the Climate-KIC Community Model, in close partnership with the Community Lead (who faces internally), which includes proactively fostering a collaborative approach with all teams in Climate KIC to make the Community a common goal, instilling a sense of collective ownership and responsibility for the success of the Community, and sharing best practices to ensure first-rate community relationship management and support across the organisation.
- Lead on the design and delivery of the member experience together with the Community Lead, Memberships Manager, and relevant colleagues across the organisation.
- Design, align and monitor the Community formats (e.g. events) to create a connected community and foster connections across sub-communities.
- Design and implement structures to create a strong community culture.
- Design and produce protocols, guides and communication campaigns for the Community.
Community Hosting
- Build a visible presence and interest in Climate-KIC based on building and nurturing Community relationships across Europe.
- Develop and coordinate an integrated relationship management approach across different sub-communities.
- Liaise with Community members to understand their interests, capabilities, and experience, and to facilitate connections with other members (including within and across different sub-communities) as well as with relevant Climate-KIC colleagues and teams.
- Co-design and deliver community events and workshops, working closely with Delivery and Programme teams across the organisation to develop content of interest for different sub-communities and member types.
- Manage communication with Community members and with different sub-communities, in collaboration with other members of the Community team.
- Act as a primary point of contact for inquiries from Community members.
- Monitor the satisfaction of Community members.
Outreach and Membership Sales
- Lead on the development and implementation of a new outreach and engagement strategy for attracting new members to the Climate-KIC Community.
- Develop and coordinate marketing outreach campaigns for attracting new members, in close partnership with the Marketing and Communications Lead.
- Set and achieve sales targets together with the Community Lead.
Communications
- Oversee design and management of communications with the Climate-KIC Community, including use of the Climate-KIC Community platform (ClimateHive) and other support mechanisms, in collaboration with the Community Lead and Communications and Marketing Lead.
Key Working Relationships
- Community Team
- Climate-KIC Community Members
- Association Climate-KIC Members, Chair and Governing Board Members
- CEO, COO, CSO and CFO Climate-KIC
- Chief of Staff
- Marketing and Communications Team
- Digital Transformation Orchestrator
- EU Affairs and Policy Team
- Delivery Teams (Cities, Industry Value Chains, Resilient & Climate Neutral Regions, Entrepreneurship, Solutions & Ventures)
- Climate-KIC Alumni
ABOUT YOU
Experience
- 10+ years’ experience in relationship management and network building, communications, organisational learning, design of knowledge exchange and cultural change. Direct experience of innovation development and implementation will be considered an advantage.
- Experience in community management, including designing, hosting and managing community events.
- Experience in experimenting with membership outreach and business development strategies.
- Evidence of being able to build effective and sustainable relationships internally and externally.
Skills
- Innovative thinking and confidence to encourage creativity in others.
- Ability to develop strong, long-term relationships with internal stakeholders and external community members.
- Expertise in design thinking approaches, methodology and tools.
- Expertise in deriving insight and using knowledge from data collected and analysed in decision-making, planning, cross organisational learning and external activities. This should include understanding of how to visualise / present meaningful information and insights for different uses and audiences.
- Ability to effectively use and develop CRM systems.
- Research skills, and evidence of an understanding of the climate change agenda.
- Fluency in English language combined with excellent written and verbal communication skills, knowledge of other European languages highly desirable.
Qualities, Personal Style, and Approach
- Articulate and dynamic with highly developed interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively, inspire and motivate people.
- Growth mindset; Highly adaptable, flexible and resilient: able to work effectively in ambiguity and complexity and to respond dynamically to change.
- Customer service ethos and commitment to continuous improvement.
- ‘At home’ working with an international team and in a multi-disciplinary context.
- Curious, ambitious, respectful and fearless.
- Ability to keep the big picture in mind while focusing on the details of implementation.
- Proactive, commercial approach, entrepreneurial.
- A commitment to achieving social transformation in support of Climate-KIC’s mission.
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.