About Community Power Agency

Established in 2011, Community Power Agency (CPA) is Australia’s leading organisation supporting communities to engage in and benefit from the transition to renewable energy. We are a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to drive a faster and fairer transition to clean energy. We believe all Australians, regardless of where they live or what they earn, should have the right and the opportunity to participate in the clean energy transition, and by involving them we build the strong groundswell of support needed to facilitate a rapid transition to a clean energy future.

Our small dynamic team delivers advocacy, innovation, advice and capacity building to achieve our mission. We are a radically different organisation as a workers co-operative with both advocacy and fee-for-service work streams. We specialise in supporting communities navigate the complex process of developing their own clean energy projects and focus on building the capacity within communities, industry and government while fostering collaboration. We also work to address the systemic barriers facing the sector as a whole and play an active role in bringing socially-responsible, community beneficial business models into the Australian renewable energy market.

The Role

• Position: Operations Co-ordinator
• Salary (FTE): $80,925 per annum pro-rata plus 10.5% superannuation
• Location: Negotiable, ideally east coast of Australia
• Time commitment: Part-time 3 days/week (22.5hrs) flexibility is possible according to your needs. (Tuesday, Friday + day of your choice)
• Contract period: 12-month position, with view to extend
• Travel: Minimal, twice per year team planning retreats of 2-3 days

We are seeking a suitably qualified and experienced Operations Coordinator, who has a passion for helping the community energy sector to prosper and supporting the transition to renewable energy. As the Operations Coordinator for CPA, you would work alongside other members of the team, support their workflow and help to deliver the objectives of the organisation in accordance with our mission and values. While we are a dispersed, virtual team we work in a highly collaborative way and have a range of online strategies to support this. The right candidate will be willing to contribute to facilitating effective collaboration across the organisation and our external partners.

Your role:

The organisation is currently made up of a small, independent team of committed individuals who are developing and delivering projects, training and campaigns. Currently each member also assumes responsibility for managing parts of the organisation’s operations, such as finances and governance. However, as CPA grows we are finding that much of this organisational work would be better performed by an individual who has oversight across all areas of our operations. This would provide project staff with more time to focus on project design and delivery. Therefore, we are seeking a person with strong organisational skills and experience across a range of areas including:

• Finance (high level, we have an accountant)
• Human Resources & Support
• Governance & Operations

You should be self-driven, be able to work 100% autonomously, dedicated, and know how to solve problems creatively with a “can-do” attitude and enthusiasm for working in a small and lean team. You will work with our team and board to develop and refine processes and procedures that ensure that CPA runs smoothly.

The candidate may also work on existing CPA projects from time to time, where appropriate. After the six months we would evaluate our collaboration, and we would be hoping that your work on organisational management have resulted in positive outcomes for the broader team and the effectiveness of the organisation.

Responsibilities

We seek an individual with great abilities and skills in the following areas:

Financial Management:

• Budgets – Support the Payroll Officer in developing project/business budgets and financial plans, provide information to support financial decision making, track project budgets and hours.
• Reporting and Compliance – Ensure that all governance and financial compliance is complete, such as audits and annual statement lodgement, ensure timesheets and project budgets are up to date, handle all subscriptions and relevant insurances.

Human Resources and Support:

• Recruitment – Lead process to develop role descriptions, seek candidates, select and hire in collaboration with the team, and onboarding new employees, oversee the drafting and issue of Employment Contracts, managing leave, flex and other entitlements.
• Professional and Organisational Development – Supporting knowledge development and identifying external training/ learning options for employees, arranging mentoring opportunities for employees, team building and relationship development such as social events, identifying new roles and skills gaps.
• People care – Casual ‘checking-in’ with our team around their workload, satisfaction in the role, fit in the organisation, organising performance reviews and assisting to design work plans, organising conflict resolution, disciplinary actions and dismissals if needed, oversight of work/life balance for staff.

Governance and Operations:

• Reporting – Maintaining and reviewing our Cooperative structure and associated documentation, coordinating Board meetings and communications with the Board, fulfilling external reporting obligations.
• Policy – Developing, reviewing and updating policies, processes and procedures where needed, minimal as we are a lean & trusting organisation.
• Planning – Organise and plan bi-annual retreats with input from the team, maintain and upgrade planning tools such as Asana, Zoom, G Suite etc. and provide appropriate training for members, assist with travel arrangements and bookings(limited, most staff prefer DIY).
• Administration – Responding to enquiries & general emails (info@) and , supporting meetings – preparing agendas and reminding staff of follow-up, co-ordinating course registrations and communications (eg Socially Responsible Renewable Energy Development course).

Key Attributes

The future Operations Coordinator has the following key attributes:

• An interest in, knowledge of and passion for community renewable energy and cooperatives.
• Committed to working collaboratively in a transparent, accountable and democratic way. You enjoy consulting and receiving feedback from various team members.
• You are highly organised, have excellent attention to detail, enjoy project management and can coordinate tasks with several moving parts.
• You have a high degree of computer literacy and like improving and setting up new systems and taking people on the journey of using those systems.
• You can communicate clearly and constructively with colleagues (both written and verbal communication).
• You have the initiative and creativity to take action when faced with new ideas, new initiatives or ambiguous situations. This includes the ability to be self-driven and working remotely.

Selection Criteria

1. Strong alignment with Community Power Agency’s mission, vision and values.
2. Proven experience in a similar role, providing operational support and organisational leadership to a small and very busy team. This includes competency in administration, finances, human resources and governance.
3. Excellent organisational, time management and delegation skills and demonstrated capacity to manage competing priorities with deadlines and time pressures.
4. High level of initiative and ability to be self-motivated, responsive and flexible with a proven track record of working both independently and collaboratively.
5. Well developed interpersonal and negotiation skills, as well as excellent verbal and written communication skills.
6. High level computing skills including competency in web based and remote working systems, project and database management systems, GSuite and MS Office Suite.

Desirable

• Prior experience working in a workers coop or not-for-profit organisation and understanding of the challenges and opportunities this work environment presents.
• Understanding of donor management or grant writing experience.

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t have 100% of the selection criteria characteristics. A passion for the work and an eagerness to learn are the most important things.

Our values and how we work

Community Power Agency is a workers cooperative – a business entity that is owned and controlled by the workers. Employees of the cooperative actively contribute to the direction the business takes. The work we choose to do and why, is directed by the employees – their shared values, hopes and visions – as well as by a mutual responsibility and care for the cooperative.

We strive for egalitarianism. We have a flat management structure and as such, we all take responsibility for holding ourselves and each other to account. A key part of this commitment is our policy of pay equity. We believe that people are inherently of equal value, so instead of paying some people more, we have sought to share/ redistribute responsibility, power and knowledge. Instead of a typical line of management we build people’s capacity, skills and confidence through mentoring, working collaboratively, and opening up opportunities for passionate people to ‘give it a go’.

CPA recognise that the way we make change is as important as the outcomes. We are supportive, honest and transparent in the way we work internally and externally. We offer pro-rata public holiday leave so regardless of whether your normal work day falls on a public holiday you receive the pro-rata additional leave. As a nimble, dynamic and dispersed team, we put energy into remaining connected as best we can. We invest in getting together face-to-face twice a year to evaluate, strategise and connect as a team. We are continuously improving our way of operating, to address issues and challenges as they arise.

How to apply

Please complete the form by clicking Apply Now.

Note: We are also recruiting for a Communications Co-ordinator, if you would like to combine both roles into a full time role please indicate this in your application.

We are an equal opportunity employer. First Nations people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTIQ people, and people with a disability are encouraged to apply.

• To be considered for this position, applicants should have current working rights for Australia.
• We respectfully request that recruitment agencies do not submit applications for this position.

Want to have a chat before you click submit? You can contact Elizabeth Noble, Director on [email protected] using the subject line: Operations Co-ordinator enquiry via EthicalJobs or 0426 887 415 with any questions you might have.