Senior Manager, Urban Heat Programmes/

Position Description

The Senior Manager, Urban Heat Programmes will manage a newly-established Urban Heat Team, that works across the existing C40 Climate Resilience and Energy & Buildings teams. With the support of team members, they will manage and coordinate the activities of a range of projects across different geographies, that support active and passive cooling policies at the building and neighbourhood level to help cities tackle urban heat and improve health outcomes The projects will have a combined total budget of between $1.5 million and $2.5 million USD.

The 3-4 projects that the post-holder will be responsible for on active and/or passive cooling across C40 are in the process of being established and may change, they will likely cover some or all of:

• A project that is looking to assess cooling demand, energy poverty impact and health impacts of heat and support around 5 global cities to develop cooling roadmaps and policy solutions. It will undertake thought leadership research as well as workshops, knowledge products and webinars.
• A project that is supporting cities to develop maximum indoor temperature standards for cities primarily located in North America.
• A project to support 4 cities in the US take action on heat to implement a short/medium term action (likely to be passive measures) for the 2025 heat season and test the results.

In addition to delivering these projects, the Senior Manager will contribute to C40’s work to expand support to cities on extreme heat and integrate climate mitigation and adaptation goals into city heat actions. They will also coordinate closely with a global programme on urban heat and health that promotes integration of climate and health data and promotes multi-sector collaboration in 4-6 cities and builds a programmatic model for heat-health action for C40.

The Senior Manager will manage a small team of around 1-4 staff members. They  will report to Head, Building Strategy & Implementation and will form part of a larger global matrix organisation working with other C40 teams including Energy & Buildings, Resilience, Inclusive Climate Action as well as relevant regional teams. This is a growing area of work and C40 may expand the responsibilities under this programme, while ensuring that it is adequately supported with staff capacity and guidance.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee and support delivery of 3 to 4 projects focused on active and passive cooling within C40 that sit across the Resilience and Energy & Buildings Team.
• Ensure that all projects are delivered to time and budget, with guidance and support from the line manager and other relevant C40 staff and teams.
• Be responsible for managing the work across all 3 projects to deliver a coordinated offering to cities, manage staff workload and an aligned strategy.
• Organise, facilitate and deliver project activities and events, including city workshops and input into mayoral event(s) in collaboration with the Energy & Buildings, Resilience and Inclusive Climate Action (ICA) teams.
• Select and coordinate consultants and engage relevant partners/stakeholders to deliver a high standard of work on behalf of the cities and C40, maintaining productive, long term relationships. This includes research and analysis, and technical assistance.
• Ensure existing C40 tools, research and approaches from the research team and ICA team are used where relevant.
• Utilise and strengthen the strong relationships C40 has with cities receiving technical assistance, relevant stakeholders and partners.
• Line manage between one to four staff members.
• Drive the collaboration of C40 and city teams working on resilience and mitigation related to cooling.
• Work closely with the Cool Cities, Private Building Decarbonisation and New Building Decarbonisation Senior Network Managers to align resources and project work with existing initiatives
• Together with the delivery manager, be the main focal and liaison point with each city receiving technical assistance, for both resilience and building-related departments (plus other relevant departments) and where relevant look to build collaboration and coordination across city and C40 departments.
• Identify ideas for thought leadership to explore with cities and produce research and knowledge products  on the topic of active and passive cooling that will support a just transition, working closely with the Inclusive Climate Action team.

• Support C40 to effectively develop and communicate powerful and engaging stories to disseminate the project learnings with varied perspectives and voices for multiple audiences and in different languages.

• Support the Head of Building Strategy & Implementation and the Senior Manager, Urban Heat in the reporting requirements to ensure reports are delivered on time and to a high standard to the funders and senior C40 staff.
• Other duties as assigned.

Person Specification:

The successful candidate will be a quick learner who thrives in dynamic environments and is skilled in building relationships across teams and coordinating across diverse groups of stakeholders and reporting in a matrix structure to different teams. They will have a collaborative mindset and be adept at connecting people and organisations around a shared purpose and common goals.

• Strong programme manager that can work closely and flexibly with other teams to deliver projects to a high standard.
• Strong experience of developing or implementing policy and strategy required, preferably through working in or with city level governments.
• Knowledge and experience of both passive and active cooling solutions at the building and neighbourhood level and how to implement them in a just and equitable way.
• Preferably have knowledge of best practice solutions to manage extreme heat in both global north and global south geographies.
• Proven track record in programme management and successful delivery of complex multi stakeholder programmes or multi-disciplinary process and policies as well as budget and contract management.
• Project and partner coordination and procurement experience and track record of delivering projects in a challenging and evolving environment.
• Proven track record of working collaboratively and effectively with major global partners, such as NGOs, the corporate sector, funders and multilateral development banks;
• Strong written and verbal communication skills essential, including proven ability to facilitate in-person workshops and virtual meetings or webinars and proven ability to communicate complex ideas in a simple way to various non-technical audiences.
• Strong problem-solving, interpersonal and strategic thinking capabilities coupled with an outcome, delivery-oriented approach required;
• Proven strong understanding of political dynamics in cities and local governments, and of strategic and technical needs of city leaders
• Fluency in English essential; fluency in another language spoken in a C40 city strongly preferred.

Other Requirements:

Applicants must already have the right to work in the listed locations. Some travel will be required as part of the role.

• Reporting To: Head, Building Strategy & Implementation
• Term: Fixed Term Contract until 31st May 2027
• Location: Greece, South Africa & UK
• Salary: (Grade 3) Greece – EUR 55,438,  South Africa – ZAR 1,036,800, UK – GBP £63,323 per annum.