About us

Driven by a passion to solve the climate crisis, The Sunrise Project is a team of experienced change-makers, researchers, campaigners and communications professionals with a mission to scale social movements to drive the global transition beyond fossil fuels. With programs and staff in Australia, Europe, and the US, we have developed a unique model of grantmaking and campaigning that supports networks of organisations to drive powerful change towards our mission.

We have a dynamic and nimble organisational culture and we’re serious about supporting our people to thrive. We’re committed to building justice and equity into our organisation as well as through our work in the world. We move fast and are growing rapidly as we lean into the urgency of the climate challenge.

About the role

The Australian Chief of Staff is a new, senior leadership role that will be responsible for supporting our Australian Program team to thrive as they design and implement high impact programs and campaigns to help solve the climate crisis. Working closely alongside the Co-Executive Director, the Chief of Staff will nurture a creative and life-affirming organisational culture that supports our people to do their best work, develop professionally, communicate clearly and efficiently, and support each other. The Co-Executive Director will lead on program and campaign strategy, while the Chief of Staff leads on process and culture strategy.

About you

You’re a warm, mature and emotionally intelligent human who deeply cares about people and is invested in their success. You are an experienced manager and know how to support people to be their most powerful selves. You never shy away from the difficult and challenging conversations that need to be had, but you handle them with compassion and sensitivity. You love thinking and learning about groups – what makes them succeed and how you can support them - and have a track record of leading high performance teams.

You’re interested in systems and processes, but your inclination is to keep them lean, fast and practical and to avoid bureaucracy. Your facilitation and group-work skills enable you to bring people along with you and confidently transform conflict. You’re secure in your leadership and are comfortable devolving responsibility and nurturing the leadership of others.

You are deeply concerned about the climate crisis and passionate about doing something about it, even if you don’t necessarily have much knowledge or experience of the issue.

Key responsibilities & tasks

The Australian Chief of Staff reports to the Co-Executive Director and is responsible for:

1. Supporting Australian Program Directors to develop and implement high impact programs designed to shift Australia beyond fossil fuels and into clean energy;
2. Proactively nurturing a vibrant and healthy culture that supports all of our team to do their best work;
3. Coordinating planning processes, including development of annual plans and budgets;
4. Facilitating high-level coordination and integration between teams;
5. Ensuring all staff are supported to learn, have clear processes for reflection and feedback and have professional development plans;
6. Taking the lead on creating the enabling conditions for our Australian and global teams to actively live our values, with a particular focus on bringing justice to the centre of our programs and ensuring we integrate diversity, equity and inclusion in the way we work;
7. Working closely with program and operational teams to ensure effective management and administration of our grants program; and
8. Nurturing a culture of continual learning and reflection, including evaluation of our programs.

Key skills & experience

1. Demonstrated experience managing high performing teams and supporting people to do their best work;
2. Excellent communicator and relationship builder with high emotional intelligence, group facilitation and interpersonal skills;
3. Experienced strategic planner and project manager who loves building and managing systems and knows how to get people to use them;
4. Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work effectively in a fast paced, highly flexible environment;
5. Experience with effective monitoring and evaluation of complex programs;
6. Passion for climate justice and achieving the Sunrise Project mission;
7. You must have full working rights for Australia.

Salary

• $119,600 – 130,100 + superannuation