We're looking for a Senior Project Officer, to work in our Innovation and Practice team and support exemplary, agile project management across Involve.

This is an exciting time to join the Involve team. Alongside increasing public and political interest in our approaches, we are increasing the size and impact of our project work. We have a couple of new multifaceted projects which need really effective and agile project management. As a Senior Project Officer you will contribute to all aspects of our delivery, with a particular focus on project and programme management of larger projects. Your main focus will be on:

• Project management and delivery - core project management and logistics, running onboarding for participants, event management, analysis and reporting, and facilitation
• Building our project management approach further - supporting Involve to build our project management capacity and resources that are appropriate for our creative, inclusive processes and culture
• Project and programme design - working with project teams to design entire projects and processes which use deliberative, qualitative and participatory methods
• Project impact - recording and monitoring how our projects work, the kinds of impacts they have, and the ways they contribute to Involve’s mission.

This Senior Project Officer role sits in our Innovation and Practice Function. Our team’s daily work includes setting up, managing, designing, delivering and reporting on a wide range of participatory and deliberative processes, ranging from small scale, hyper-local community engagements to large, national, multi-event Citizens’ Assemblies and longer term projects. Our processes can be face to face, hybrid, or online, and often involve bringing together different groups from within the public with interested parties and experts from across government, business , academia and civil society.

In addition, you would work closely with our Capacity Building and Standards team to support their work helping others to deliver these approaches and contribute to our communications and advocacy work. You will also support fundraising for grants and projects, responding to tenders and writing proposals and building relationships with our funders, collaborators and clients.

We are looking for an excellent project manager, able to manage fairly large projects and task manage others at all levels to ensure smooth delivery. You will be great at managing relationships at all levels and working with others to get things done. Given the nature of our work we are also looking for public participation skills, or relevant or transferable expertise and an understanding of deliberative practice. That will enable you to design and deliver project management, and support facilitation that fits our work and enables you to contribute to advising our clients on designing and delivering effective engagement. It is critical that you are open to new ideas, a good team player, committed to shifting power and addressing inequities in our society and that you are passionate about furthering our vision. Experience of building project management capacity, fundraising and staff management is desirable.

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced individual to join Humanist Society Scotland as our Head of Ceremonies.

This is an exciting and unique opportunity to be involved in far-reaching wedding, funeral and naming services across the entire country. Over one million people in Scotland attend a humanist ceremony every year and this role holder has a unique opportunity to shape how these services are delivered across a wide range of communities the length and breadth of Scotland.

As the Head of Ceremonies, you will play a pivotal role in overseeing all aspects of our ceremonies department, ensuring seamless operations, maintaining high standards, and fostering relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.

We are especially interested in hearing from someone who has experience in strategic development of marketing and promoting services.

As a highly motivated self-directed individual you will manage a network of over 140 celebrants and line manage two support staff. We are seeking someone with considerable people management skills and a strong knowledge of marketing and promotion to direct and ensure delivery of growing the current demand and market share for our services.

In order to avoid conflict of interest and as this role has key management responsibilities in overseeing the delivery of all of our ceremony services this role holder cannot also hold a position as a celebrant. Individuals who are interested in becoming a celebrant can register their interest here instead.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee Day-to-Day Operations:

• Provide guidance and support to the ceremonies support team, including line management of two staff.
• Maintaining strong relationships with key contractors such as our celebrant trainers, emergency out of hours support and celebrant area officers.

• Budget Management:

• Ensure good oversight and planning of related budgets including delegating responsibilities to members of team where appropriate

• Promotional Plan:

• Developing and implementing business plans for sustainable growth, based on sound research and analysis of the competitive markets and future opportunities and then creating and implementing strategies to grow the business.
• Utilise various marketing channels and techniques to reach target audiences effectively.

New Celebrant Recruitment:

• Oversee recruitment and training provision for new celebrants working closely with our trainers.
• Working with our celebrant network to develop meaningful mentoring relationships for new celebrants.
• Ensure feedback from trainees helps further develop and improve our training.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Coordination:

• Coordinate ongoing CPD opportunities for celebrants, including organising gatherings and training sessions to enhance their skills and knowledge.

Reviews Oversight:

• Oversee and coordinate professional reviews of ceremonies.

Complaints Management:

• Address and resolve complaints from clients in a timely and professional manner.

Relationships with External Stakeholders:

• Cultivate and maintain strong relationships with external stakeholders, including funeral directors, wedding venues and other relevant partners.
• Collaborate with external partners to expand our celebrant network and reach new audiences.
• Sharing best practices and learning from professional networks of other humanist leaders and groups.

Person Specification:

• Proven experience in a leadership role, preferably within service delivery. This could be in the public, private or third sector.
• Previous professional success in creating a meaningful promotional and marketing strategy to help increase market share.
• Ability to proactively anticipate emerging trends and threats and apply business intelligence to react in response.
• Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to multitask and prioritise effectively.
• Sound people management skills including the ability to handle delicate issues such as bereavement, complaints and conflict resolution.
• Strong customer service experience both internal stakeholder facing and external public facing.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build rapport with diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrated proficiency in budget management.
• Independent work ethic with ability to self motivate and direct including ability to work on own initiative and prioritise workload.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality, and an understanding of GDPR principles.
• Has strong experience of ensuring that decisions are data-driven and evidence led.
• Is a committed team player and is used to collaborative working throughout the organisation.
• Good knowledge of humanist principles and practices.
• Professional experience of the wedding or funeral industries would be desirable but not essential.

Join our team and contribute to creating meaningful and memorable ceremonies that celebrate life and humanist values. If you're passionate about making a difference and thrive in a dynamic environment, we want to hear from you!

This role will primarily sit within our Capacity Building and Standards (CB&S) function but will work closely with our Innovation and Practice (I&P) and Advocacy and Communications (A&C) functions.

The CB&S function aims to build capacity both inside and outside of public institutions to embed the processes, skills, structures and cultures needed for effective public participation in decision-making. The I&P function is responsible for the deliberative, dialogic and participatory projects and processes that we run. The A&C function aims to build political and public understanding of and support for making participation and deliberation an everyday, integral part of our democracy.

This role will have a thematic focus on public engagement in decision-making within the science, technology and data sectors. Candidates do not need an educational or work background in this sector, although it would be useful, but we would expect the successful candidate to take a keen interest in these topics.

Involve achieves its impacts by growing expertise in sector-specific areas where public engagement is important. Science and tech represent policy areas where citizen engagement on both principles and practice is vital and where public engagement can also open the door to broader deliberative democratic interventions and feedback loops.

Technological advancement, including AI, presents risks and opportunities and will be an ongoing priority for government with five critical technologies likely to be central to UK policy for at least the next Government.

Involve has a significant pedigree and is well networked in the area of public engagement in science. Over the last 20 years we have been thought leaders in this space, in particular running the government’s science and tech engagement programme, Sciencewise. We have developed a reputation for best practice public dialogue, deliberation and capacity building.

Given the opportunity to grow this area, our reputation, and the important democratic need, we don’t want to stand still.

As Engagement Lead you will play a central role in leading Involve’s work, and building out our strategy, on public engagement in the science, technology and data field. The job will involve leading on our Sciencewise programme of public dialogue as well as supporting, growing and communicating our science and tech public engagement in general. You will be a proven project leader and strategic thinker looking to make your next move and develop your leadership and profile in this interesting and important area of public engagement in decision-making.