• Location: Sydney (negotiable)
• Supervised by: Director
• Hours: Part-time, 22.5 hours per week
• Contract period: 12 months with the possibility of joining the CPA long-term post completion of this role and review
• Salary: $70,200 p.a. pro rata plus superannuation
  

The Community Power Agency is Australia’s premier organisation campaigning for community energy and a faster and fairer transition to clean energy. Our mission is to grow a vibrant community energy sector in Australia. We are a small, dedicated and dynamic team working with the now more than 110 community energy groups across Australia. For more information about Community Power Agency see our website – cpagency.org.au.

In Australia, over 2 million solar households now enjoy the benefits of clean, cheap energy produced from solar panels installed on their roofs. Unfortunately, not every household has a sunny roof suitable for solar. These 'locked out' customers might live in apartments, be renters or have no solar access. Overwhelmingly, the most vulnerable, low-income electricity users in our society fall into this category. We are seeking someone excited about changing this state of affairs and helping to ensure all people can access the benefits of clean energy directly, no matter where they live or how much they earn.

Specifically, we are looking for an experienced project manager to deliver our project work targeted at enabling locked out and low-income energy users to participate in solar through developing community-led solar gardens in Australia. It is also crucial that the candidate is a good fit for the organisation and our team beyond this role, and has a desire to contribute to the processes and aims of the organisation.

In this role you will:

• Work with partner organisations to co-design and establish appropriate business models for solar gardens
• Support community engagement activities aimed at ensuring the community are active in projects and member recruitment targets are achieved
• Manage internal/external project communications across projects
• Ensure projects are delivered on time and on budget
• Work with the broader CPA team on business development opportunities arising from project work
• Contribute to day-to-day CPA operations and organisational development tasks, including attending fortnightly online meetings

As Project Manager you will need to have extensive experience managing multiple partner organisations and individuals and their contributions.

This position is an ideal opportunity for a self-starter excited to work in a worker's cooperative and with a passion for driving positive social change, who has a strong knowledge of the workings of the Australian electricity sector.

Your role will involve:

Project management

Working with project partners to co-deliver complex multi-stage projects, efficiently and effectively, to ensure the positive outcomes for locked out energy users. Practically this will include partner and external communications, reporting to funders, project planning and resourcing as needed, planning meetings and more.

Supporting community engagement and recruitment

Supporting the community engagement activities of projects. This means you will need to be aware of the importance of strong community participation in community-led energy projects, have strong knowledge of marketing, communications and media management, and able to support member/customer recruitment processes that have a strong emphasis on local community champions spearheading a local peer-to-peer recruitment campaigns.

Facilitation

Our project work generally includes meetings and workshops. You will play a role in designing agendas, processes and co-facilitating these meetings and workshops, to proactively move projects forward.

Helping to co-create a new clean energy business

Engaging the community in the development and operation of innovative solar garden business models that are based on cooperatives and are new to the Australian context. You will work with project partners, communities and champions, to co-design the most effective way to involve local people in the build and operation of solar gardens.

Developing strong relationships

Hit the ground running by building productive relationships with project partners, funders, the CPA team and broader stakeholders. Many of our projects are delivered in partnership, meaning you will need to work closely with project managers from partner organisations, ensuring roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and gaps in responsibility don’t emerge during projects.

Selection criteria for the ideal candidate:

Essential

1. Experience project managing multi-partner/organisation projects.
2. Experience in community engagement and facilitating co-design processes.
3. Excellent communication skills, particularly ability to quickly build and maintain professional relationships on the phone, face-to-face and online.
4. Knowledge of Australia’s energy system and/or community energy and/or the solar industry
5. Knowledge of and experience using a range of communications, media and marketing tools, such as social media.
6. Ability to work autonomously and within a small dispersed team whilst being self-directed and pro-active.

Desirable

1. Experience in establishing new business models and/or organisations, particularly cooperatives.

This role is based in central Sydney and will require some travel to regional NSW. However, Community Power Agency adopt a flexible approach to working and for the right candidate will consider an appointment outside of this area and possibly remote working arrangements.

A position description is attached.