Objectives of this role

The purpose of this role is to support the Executive Director and the Sustain team in the management and coordination of the organisation, helping Sustain fulfil its mission and key objectives. The General Manager - People and Research will oversee Sustain’s consulting and urban farming team (3 and 2 people respectively) as well as casual staff and external contractors, where required, to support the development of our urban farm network in the City of Darebin, and the expansion of our research and consultancy services to local governments and other clients.

The General Manager-People and Research will build a positive workplace culture that ensures employees actively contribute to project goals. This includes the planning, direction, management and evaluation of day to day and future operations.

The ideal candidate will have significant project and people management experience in the not-for-profit sector, with strong skills in developing and overseeing work plans, supervising staff and managing relationships with diverse stakeholders (including clients). The key responsibilities of the General Manager-People and Research will include ensuring that grant and contract deadlines are met, staff across the organisation are properly supported and that grant outputs and service provision are achieved to a high standard.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include the following functions, but not limited to:

• Overseeing general operational functions, including
  • Information management, IT, HR, workplace health and safety and insurance management (working with external IT and HR services where required)
  • Supporting the transition to a new management structure
  • Managing staff and team development
  • Attending bi-monthly Risk and Finance Subcommittee meetings
  • Fostering positive team culture
• Coordinating research and consultancy projects including:
  • Planning and oversight
  • Supporting and developing a small team by providing purpose, direction and motivation
  • Client and stakeholder management (shared with the Executive Director / other members of the consultancy team)
  • Research, report writing, client presentations and workshop facilitation (shared with other members of the Consultancy and Research Team)
  • Establishing and maintaining processes for managing scope during the project lifecycle, setting quality and performance standards and assessing risks
  • Coordinating internal and external resources to ensure that projects adhere to scope, schedule, and budget
  • Preparing and submitting consultancy proposals (shared with the Executive Director)
• Coordinating the Urban Farm Network, including:
  • Supporting and developing a small team of urban farmers
  • Overseeing and reviewing the Urban Farm Strategy and workplan with the Urban Farm team on a regular basis
  • Team meeting organisation and coordination
  • Coordinating internal and external resources to ensure that the Urban Farm Network activities adhere to scope, schedule and budget
  • Overseeing and supporting the acquittal of grants (philanthropic and government)
  • Report grant outcomes and/or risks to the appropriate management channels and escalate issues, as necessary, according to relevant work plans

• Undertake other tasks as agreed and appropriate

Time fraction, contract and place of work

This role is advertised as a full-time, fixed term (1-year) contract, with the goal to make the role permanent (contingent on funding).

Reporting and support

The General Manager: People and Research will report directly to the Executive Director and will be supported by a part-time (0.4 FTE) Project Support Officer.

About the successful candidate

To be successful in this role, you will be able to work as part of a small team with a genuine interest in contributing to and developing your skills in social policy research. Exceptional attention to detail and capacity to juggle multiple priorities as well as the ability to edit your own work and pick up concepts quickly will be essential qualities of the successful candidate. You are passionate about urban farming, food systems transformation and using your project and people management as well as research, writing and analysis skills to influence change.

Key selection criteria

Essential skills and experience

• Extensive project management experience, ideally in a not-for-profit. research or government context
• Proven ability to build and lead high-performing teams and foster a positive workplace culture, ideally in a not-for-profit and/or social enterprise context
• Strong analysis and reporting writing skills
• Good knowledge of Microsoft Office and online collaboration tools such as Asana, Slack, Google Suite, etc.
• Minimum three years’ experience in operations management
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and stakeholder management skills
• Highly organised, self-motivated and juggle competing priorities
• Minimum tertiary qualification in a relevant field (e.g. food systems, public health, sustainability/environment, community development, market research, etc)
• A genuine passion for social justice

Highly desirable

• Relevant postgraduate qualification in research / policy / systems
• Demonstrated experience in designing and conducting qualitative research and working with quantitative data, including focus groups, interviews and literature reviews as well as developing survey instruments and collating socioeconomic data
• Data visualisation or GIS skills
• Knowledge of and experience working in the community food systems / food security sector

Employment conditions

Reporting and working relationships

• This position reports directly to the Executive Director and will work in collaboration with Finance and Strategic Communications Managers. The incumbent will develop strong, collaborative working relationships with other Sustain staff, Board Directors, clients and stakeholders.

Staff performance and development

• Sustain staff may undertake allocated duties not specifically mentioned in their position description but within the capacity, qualifications and experience normally expected from persons occupying positions at a similar level. This provides opportunities for staff to develop new skills and expertise.
• Performance targets and expectations will be negotiated at the beginning of the contract as well as when undertaking new project responsibilities. A 6-monthly review and annual performance review will provide opportunities to monitor progress and discuss performance and development needs. Where budgets allow, staff will be supported to develop skills and knowledge relevant to the position through attendance at workshops/events and/or participation in training activities.

Salary, benefits and contract duration

The salary for this role is up to $90,000 on a full-time (1 FTE) basis, plus 11% superannuation and not-for-profit salary packaging options up to $15,900.

One year contract, with possibility of extension subject to funding availability and satisfactory performance during probationary period.

Location

Work can be done flexibly. However, our team is primarily based in Melbourne. and we would expect the successful candidate to work from our Preston office at least two days per week.