Industry Engagement Lead

Summary

Join Climate-KIC as an Industry Engagement Lead – Climate & Sustainability Transitions and contribute to transforming value chains and businesses. Based in Poland, Slovenia, Italy, or Belgium, this remote role focuses on building partnerships with industry and public authorities to accelerate climate action. You will shape dialogues, create engagement strategies, and support policy advocacy. The position requires a university degree, 5+ years of relevant experience, and expertise in industrial transitions and stakeholder engagement. Climate-KIC offers a competitive salary, flexible working arrangements, and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Requirements

• University degree or comparable education in relevant field, such as business and economics, business models and strategy setting, sustainability (climate, environment)
• Proven experience: 5 years of demonstrated experience at the intersection of industrial transitions and the policy ecosystem (for example working with industry associations on sustainability (esp. decarbonisation and/or circularity), working with renewables companies, etc.)
• Experience in meaningful stakeholder engagement. Proven track record of building communities of practice or networks, with diverse stakeholders, including businesses
• Expertise in at least one of the following: industrial strategies addressing climate change, circular economy, circular supply chains, industrial symbiosis, energy transition, energy efficiency, renewables, climate regulations, incentives, and reporting frameworks
• Proven track record and work experience in international and multi-disciplinary environments and contexts, fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration, and ensuring successful collaboration and delivery
• Comfort and confidence working at systems levels, working in areas of complexity and uncertainty with multiple partners and relationships
• Comfortable working with a high degree of independence to steer ongoing programs and initiatives
• Emphasizing listening to learn, empathy, human-centered design, agility, empowerment, and collaboration
• Ability to navigate government policies, subsidies, and compliance frameworks for industry transitions
• Strong ability to build positive and fruitful relationships with a wide range of stakeholders
• Design and facilitation of meetings and workshops
• Seeing patterns of connection and difference; using diverse perspectives to catalyse breakthrough thinking, reflection and learning; culturally aware and skilled in working with diversity and inclusiveness
• Proficiency in English with exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Articulate and dynamic, with highly developed interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively, inspire and motivate people
• Growth mindset; highly adaptable, flexible and resilient: able to work effectively in ambiguity and complexity and to respond dynamically to change
• Commitment to continuous improvement
• Solutions focused, with a “can do” attitude; willing to undertake a range of tasks to meet needs
• Proactive approach, entrepreneurial

Responsibilities

• Build effective mechanisms of engaging business in long-term, place-based transformations (cities, regions and countries)
• Build an effective format of industry – public entities dialogue for cooperation supporting climate neutrality of the places like cities, regions and countries
• Reinvent ways in which we are attracting business attention to raise their climate and sustainability ambitions as basis for competitiveness and resilience
• Formulate and support policy advocacy practices and behaviors of businesses to address the implementation gap between expected policies and business reality or current practices
• Contribute to the design of a new learning track of Climate KIC, to reimagine sustainability and climate neutrality as the basis of competitiveness and resilience (‘beyond ESG’ as a compliance tool, using its principles and methods as a strategic tool for successful green and digital transformations)
• Participate in additional attempts to fundraise for programmes to maximise impact and scale given the criticality of the climate challenge
• Contribute to thought leadership with technical expertise and knowledge on value chains transformations, circularity and decarbonization
• Manage stakeholders and partnerships – influence and curation, including coalition building and holding broader relationships with key strategic organisations and individuals. Contribute to Climate KIC community model, to include and retain business entities in the existing mix of public authorities, startups and citizens
• Building partnerships with industry representatives/associations to enable transformation of value chains and individual businesses
• Shaping the dialogue between industry-public authorities (cities, regions, national governments), creating and validating a value proposition and service model
• Creating meaningful ways of engaging businesses in a long-term transformation processes, that Climate KIC runs with cities, regions and national governments
• Working with businesses (both individual and through industry associations representing them) to help them meet their climate ambitions and excel at transformations towards clean, sustainable and competitive industries

Preferred Qualifications

Knowledge about business ESG strategies and EU regulations influencing business operations today will be an important added value

Benefits

• Competitive salary for Not-for-Profit Organisation
• Remote work, flexible hours