About the role:

Are you passionate about enabling more everyday Australians to get access to the cost of living benefits of clean, renewable energy, like home solar?

Solar Citizens is recruiting a New South Wales Campaigner, to help us reach diverse communities and remove barriers to solar for renters, apartments, strata, and social housing. This position will play a key role in our national Solar for All campaign.

Led by our National Consumer Advocate Campaigner, with oversight from our National Director, and input from a Solar for All Advisory Group, our Solar For All campaign complements Solar Citizens’ Repowering Australia’s Homes campaign throughout 2022-2023. You’ll be part of a laser-focused, driven team creating tangible, positive change in the world.

About Solar Citizens:

Celebrating our tenth birthday in 2023, Solar Citizens is Australia’s leading national non-government organisation focused on renewable energy and clean transport. Solar Citizens represents millions of Australian households who are powering their lives with the sun, and the vast majority of Australians who support the transition to renewable energy and clean transport. We obsessively pursue the largest opportunities to bring down carbon emissions, whether that’s in our energy system through the rapid deployment of rooftop solar, or through the rollout of electric vehicles. We are a charity funded by individual and philanthropic donations, and our campaigns and activities are people-powered.

Our vision is for an Australia where everyone is enjoying the financial and health benefits of clean technology: renewable energy, clean transport, and electrified homes.

Solar Citizens NSW campaigner will:

• Build on the great work of our Chinese language-speaking organiser who worked on our Western Sydney household clean energy campaign. You’ll help us reach new audiences, in particular renters, and those living in apartments and strata, in ethnically diverse communities.
• Lead the creation of top-notch in-language campaign materials with community-specific messaging (not just translations), including emails, photoshoots, posters, flyers, and multicultural community radio ads.
• Organise and hosting community events.
• Collect case studies, and help pitch proactive media stories.
• Take part in meetings with councils, peak bodies, and state and federal MPs.
• Lead the development of a pilot project for clean energy high-rise living, supporting passionate residents and reaching an ethnically diverse community in a densley populated community to create a blueprint for their complex to go solar (and get off gas), and produce associated media and promotion packages. The project will be delivered by supporting a volunteer subcommittee residing in this community.
• Shape this blueprint into tangible policy asks that will enable many more people in strata, apartments, and rentals to get access to cost-saving clean energy.
• Create and provide resources for better consumer information to facilitate strata and community-titled properties to get solar, and charge electric vehicles with clean energy, including in new developments.

Responsibilities:

• Maintaining an understanding of current national and NSW energy policies.
• Creating a campaign plan, work plan, and using an activity budget, delivering the campaign to budget and on schedule.
• Building and maintaining productive relationships with MPs, local government Councillors, media, community groups, and renewable energy industry representatives.
• Working on the ground with communities, including running events and stalls.
• Volunteer recruitment and management.
• Identifying political and media opportunities to further our campaign goals.
• Developing high-quality campaign materials including emails to our supporters, leaflets, billboards, social media content, and media releases, including facilitating in-language materials.
• Developing and delivering tactics such as MP/candidate meetings, public forums, and other events, and coming up with ‘big, hairy audacious’ ideas to help change the story and drive meaningful change.
• Working as a team to lobby at a state and national level to deliver strategic outcomes.
• Engaging with relevant state and federal government public consultations and submissions.
• Assisting with strategic fundraising to help fuel our campaigns.

Selection criteria:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills. The ability to write creatively, quickly, and in various tones is a must-have for this role.
• Political analysis and judgment: understanding how to play a key role in an independent, non-partisan organisation.
• Project management skills.
• Flexibility, can-do attitude.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure and in a small team.
• Ability to be collaborative and independently motivated whilst working remotely.

Desirable qualities:

• Experience in campaigning.
• Experience in working in partnership with other organisations or community groups to deliver on common goals.
• Fluent in Mandarin or Cantonese or another second language is a bonus.
• Familiarity with Nationbuilder platform, Google business apps, and Facebook.
• Familiarity with the electricity sector and/or renewable energy industry.

Salary And Conditions:

You will be based in Sydney (or surrounds). You can work from home and/or hotdesk. Pay-level is between $80,000 - $85,000 (+ super), depending on experience. Candidates with significant professional experience who are currently being remunerated above this level should talk with us about the merit of making an application. Candidates with less experience but a keenness to step up should also reach out. This role is for a one-year full-time contract, with scope for permanent full-time, depending on performance.

Solar Citizens is a flexible workplace with four weeks’ leave plus one week of end-of-year closure.

Solar Citizens is an equal-opportunity, family-friendly employer, and we encourage people from diverse backgrounds to apply. Job-sharing is available by negotiation.

To discuss the role further, contact: Heidi Lee Douglas, National Director [email protected] using the subject line: NSW "Solar for All" Campaigner enquiry via EthicalJobs or 0401 092 570.

A position description is attached.

NOTE: Solar Citizens is an initiative of the 100% Renewable Community Campaign, trading as Solar Citizens Australia. 100% Renewable is the formal employer of the Queensland Campaigner.

100% Renewable acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and that sovereignty was never ceded.