Project Manager, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning

Job Title: NetZeroCities Project Manager, Monitoring Evaluation and Learning
Team: MEL Team & Cities Team
Contract: initial 12-month contract with the possibility of renewal

Level: Advanced
Please refer to our Capability Framework
Salary: Competitive for Not-for-profit organisation

Location: Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, UK

ABOUT US

At Climate KIC, we are wholeheartedly committed to building a diverse and representative team and an inclusive workplace that values different life experiences and perspectives, and we encourage personal development, learning and growth.

When recruiting, we look to achieve diversity in the candidate pool. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups and are happy to consider reasonable adjustments that will foster success in potential colleagues from diverse backgrounds and life situations. And because our team has differing needs and personal circumstances, we offer a high degree of flexibility to accommodate working patterns. We’re happy to discuss your situation during the interview and see how best we can support you. Don’t let Imposter Syndrome stop you from applying!

Climate KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Community) is Europe’s foremost climate innovation initiative. We understand that global temperature rise is exceeding 1.5C and this demands unprecedented change. It requires new social dynamics, ways of doing business, capital flows, policymaking, economic models, and new ways of living. That is why our mission is to leverage the power of systems innovation to transform whole places, industries and value chains by 2030, working across sectors to develop and scale ambitious programmes. Climate KIC’s strategy 2024-2030, Transformation, with Urgency, is available here. 

Climate KIC operates as a not-for-profit foundation working through public-private partnership, wielding both public and private funding. Established in 2010 and headquartered in Amsterdam, we orchestrate a community of more than 150 organisations including large corporations and SMEs, municipal and regional governments, universities and research institutes, as well as non-governmental organisations and civil society actors.  

Climate KIC leads the implementation of the European Union’s Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities and the launch pilot of the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change, both with the objective of catalysing rapid and deep transformation on a large scale, creating the precedent and economic transition conditions for demonstration, learning, capacity building, fast followership and investment. Achieving the EU Cities Mission will mean avoided scope 1 and 2 emissions alone of an estimated 0.7GT CO2e between now and 2040. 

Climate KIC has a Remote-First approach, where colleagues work remotely from home based in one of the countries where we have a branch or employing entity (and can work out of local offices or co-working seats, where they exist). We meet at our local offices to exchange and connect and use online collaboration tools to work with each other and with our community. On occasion, we meet in person as teams, and once per year as an organisation. 

As a mission-driven organisation dedicated to climate transformation, we consider the climate impact of our own actions, for example travel, catering, or IT equipment. 

ABOUT THE ROLE

NetZeroCities is an initiative launched as part of the European Green Deal and directly linked to the European Commission Mission for Climate-neutral and Smart Cities. Climate KIC is the lead organization of a 34-member consortium comprising NetZeroCities and leads the process and coordinates across all Work Packages for the project. To deliver excellence in this project, Climate KIC has a focused team with high capabilities to lead a complex, multi-sectoral, multi-partner project.

The NetZeroCities Project Manager, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL), will oversee MEL aspects across multiple grant agreements, managing diverse relationships among partners and providing an operational framework for city support. We seek an experienced individual with strong project management and MEL skills, committed to driving transformative change and navigating complexity with innovation and pragmatism.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the MEL Theme project manager, build relationships and act as a conduit across relevant work packages and organisations;
• Support Work Package Leads to deliver on their MEL needs, ensuring MEL evolves to remain fit for purpose in design and practice;
• Support the delivery, operations, and management of MEL processes and Impact reporting for Mission Cities
• Support the delivery and facilitation of knowledge exchange and capacity building around MEL and (climate mitigation and resilience) Impact assessment/reporting
• Engage proactively with internal and external stakeholders to undertake outreach and storytelling for communicating the impacts/outcomes monitored by the Mission Cities
• Proactively identify and act on synergies between the MEL approaches and other activities in the NetZeroCities consortium and Cities Mission, and in sharing and implementing good practice;
• Collaborate with Climate KIC's central MEL Team on cross-cutting organisational data collection, analysis, insights and sensemaking, where appropriate and useful;
• Drive alignment, coordination and information flows of NZC MEL with central MEL team, where appropriate and useful

Key Working Relationships

• NetZeroCities Head of Operations
• NetZeroCities Programme Managers
• NetZeroCities City Support Work Package Leads
• NetZeroCities MEL Work Package Leads and Partners
• NetZeroCities Consortium Partners
• Climate KIC's MEL Team within the wider Learning Cluster

Requirements

ABOUT YOUTo be successful in this role you will be a proficient project manager with demonstrable experience leading on MEL. We are looking for a can do, get it done today/action-oriented person that can help us to manage efficiently and effectively the MEL approach across multiple grant agreements under NetZeroCities.

Education/Qualifications

• University degree, ideally at a Master’s level or higher, in economics, technical or social sciences or a relevant related field.
• Project Management Qualification is an advantage.

Experience

• Experience of successfully managing key stakeholder relationships to support MEL;
• Experience managing projects funded through Horizon funding or similar European funding and understanding of EU funding processes is an advantage;
• Knowledge and experience of supporting senior decision-making, facilitating and enabling excellent problem-solving, and helping individuals and teams consistently deliver high-quality results;
• Demonstrated experience in contributing or running monitoring, evaluation and learning and/or data management/analytics for complex programmes in an international context.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing MEL approaches for public, private or not-for-profit organisations working in relevant sectors;
• Experience working on climate change issues, linked to cities and urban governance is an advantage;
• Familiarity, knowledge and experience with systems and complexity-sensitive MEL approaches, particularly: Theories of Change and Transformation; Mixed-methods measurement and evaluation, City-scale Greenhouse Gases (GHG) protocols and quantification, emissions inventory, and reporting platforms; Knowledge of Innovation frameworks, capacity building and peer-learning processes is desirable.

Skills

• Fluent in English, other European languages are an advantage;
• Planning, organisation, coordination, multitasking, and problem-solving prioritisation under pressure with minimal supervision; proactively anticipating programmatic needs and supporting to meet them; foreseeing and tackling risks in an efficient manner
• (Co-)Designing appropriate and relevant MEL frameworks;
• Facilitating evaluative and learning workshops;
• Analyzing and making sense of large sets ofqualitative data;
• Familiarity or proficiency with quantitative or qualitative data research and analysis tools for Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning;
• Ability to build productive working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders

Qualities, Personal Style, and Approach

• Collaboration-focused attitude with excellent time and self-management skills
• Solutions-focused, proactive, with a positive ’can do’ attitude
• Ability to listen and build trust, willing to formulate clear reasoning and open to constructive feedback
• Dynamic and curious, with developed interpersonal skills and ability to communicate effectively, inspire and motivate people
• Adaptable, flexible, and resilient: able to work effectively in ambiguity and complexity and to respond dynamically to change

Location

Candidates must have the right to work in the EU prior to applying for the position. Ideally, the successful candidate will be based close to a Climate KIC office but we support full remote or hybrid forms of working and offer a high degree of flexibility.

Travel will be required roughly about once a quarter.

At Climate KIC we are wholeheartedly committed to building a diverse and representative team and an inclusive workplace that values different life experiences and perspectives, and encourages personal development, learning and growth.

When recruiting we look to achieve diversity in the candidate pool. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups and are happy to consider reasonable adjustments to that will foster success in potential employees from diverse backgrounds and life situations. And because our team has differing needs and personal circumstances, we offer a high degree of flexibility to accommodate all working patterns.