Head of Energy

Clean energy is critical to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement. With decades of experience helping poor people gain access to modern energy services, Practical Action takes a leading role in shaping the energy access agenda and priorities at global, national and local levels.

Our teams work across Asia, Africa and Latin America in programmes and partnerships that deliver energy for people living in poverty in an effective and sustainable manner, and to influence other organisations, including governments and business, to achieve the systems change required on energy.

Building on our successful track record, we are looking for a dynamic individual to drive Practical Action’s strategy on Energy That Transforms and support our teams across the world to make it a reality.

You will catalyse strategic activities across the organisation (and sector), to speed up progress on energy access amongst key public, private, and civil society players. You will provide thought leadership around topics such as energy access financing, clean cooking, the gendered dynamics of energy, and productive uses of energy (especially with a focus on agriculture and improving rural livelihoods).

Your communication, presentation and interpersonal skills will be outstanding. A strategic thinker, you will have a proven ability to develop and strengthen partnerships and activities with a range of stakeholders, and will be able to work effectively across cultures. A detailed knowledge of actors in the energy access space, decentralised energy technologies and energy access markets in developing countries is essential.

We are looking for a passionate and committed individual, with a degree in a relevant subject and fluent in English (with knowledge of French, Spanish or Arabic an asset). We are committed to supporting you on your professional journey and offer a vibrant team atmosphere with strong engagement across teams and offices.

About you

You have a high level of expertise in the energy access sector, with a passion for ensuring that people living in poverty have the energy services that work for them. You have particular understanding of the challenges faced in achieving universal energy access in the developing world.

You are confident at building relationships and communicating and inspiring a wide range of people, whether that is in writing or verbally. You are a strategic thinker and an effective influencer, adept at identifying where to focus and who to target and the messages and materials that will work most effectively.

You enjoy working with colleagues across the world and supporting them to improve their effectiveness and influence in achieving our energy goals.

You have empathy with Practical Action’s vision, mission and values.

Why join us?

The opportunity to work for an organisation that is making a positive difference to the lives of people worldwide, a friendly and supportive culture, working with values driven and highly engaged colleagues, work life balance and flexible working – these are just some of the reasons we think Practical Action is a great place to work.Our open plan offices are located in the centre of Rugby and near to Rugby train station but we also offer free parking.

In addition, we offer the following benefits:

• Full time roles are contracted at 35 hours per week.
• Flexible working hours are encouraged and enabled – depending on the role, remote working is possible.Most staff in the UK are currently working from home due to coronavirus and we expect to it be this way for some time. It is however our practice normally that we operate an agile flexible working policy, where flexible working hours are enabled as well as remote working (between 2-3 days per week depending on the role).
• 26 days holiday rising with continuous service, in addition to public holidays.
• A pension scheme that new employees can join from day one of employment - employer contributes 10.5% of salary and the employee contributes 5%.
• Enhanced family friendly policies, including maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave.
• Life assurance (3 x annual salary).
• Bike to Work scheme.

About us

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

Additional information

We treat all applications for employment on their merits and do not take into consideration any factors that are not relevant to the job such as disability, race, age, religion, gender, gender reassignment or sexual orientation.

Practical Action are committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and as such candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks.

Please note that should we recruit a suitable candidate before the closing date, we will close applications earlier than the specified date.

The successful applicant must have the pre-existing right to both live and work in the UK.

Closing date for applications: Monday 30th November 2020

Proposed interview date: Monday 7th December