Do you believe in the power of data to improve people’s lives and know that working with the public is vital to our mission? Research Data Scotland needs you!

We have an exciting opportunity to work in a multifaceted Business Management role to support the delivery of exemplary governance and operational excellence. This role works with stakeholders at every level in our organisation and as such we are looking to appoint a highly motivated and conscientious individual.

About us

Research Data Scotland (RDS) is a charity set up by the Scottish public sector and leading universities. We help researchers find and make use of data that can improve the lives of people in Scotland. Working in partnership, we do this by widening the range of data available, creating new data assets and providing a single point of contact for safe, secure and effective access to public data in a trustworthy manner.

Data is often locked away in lots of individual systems, across many different organisations, and isn’t in a format that makes access or integration easy. We can help researchers to unlock the potential of this data by giving them information and advice that speeds up and simplifies their work.

RDS aims to provide a step change in the service to researchers, whilst maintaining the high standards of information governance and data security already in place. We aim to work as openly as possible, maintaining standards in transparency and ethics. Our focus is on providing a streamlined service for researchers, as well as extending the range of data available through the service, particularly in the areas of Covid-19, NHS imaging, geospatial data, children and justice services.

Our partners include: Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland, National Records of Scotland (NRS), and the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. We work closely with the national and regional safe havens. And we are in contact with other organisations in Scotland and across the UK in the data research sector, including public sector, research and commercial bodies.

About the job

The Business Manager will work closely with the Chair, CEO and Operations Director to manage, coordinate and schedule the regular cycle of our governance and business activities. This will include coordinating board meetings as well as maintaining our internal registers and ensuring our reporting mechanisms are top-notch! This post will be highly varied and vital to the successful delivery of our Business and Delivery plans.

There is a strong focus on developmental projects, operational risk, records management, governance, improving our performance and delivering our day-to-day charity operations. You’ll be an important member of our Operations Team, sharing your expertise with colleagues and board members, as well as independently leading on activities.

Reports to Operations Director

About you

You are a self-starter, with experience of working with stakeholders at every level. You’ll understand the importance of engaging well with board members, senior leaders and your colleagues to get their input into your work and support great governance. You are highly organised and thrive on managing multiple projects with different deadlines. You are keen to deliver, with an eye for detail and the pragmatism to understand our context and environment.

Life at RDS

We are a small friendly and highly engaged team of people. We promote continuous learning and work hard to build an inclusive and supportive workplace culture. We live our values of; integrity, transparency, courage, collaboration and humility.

Our people typically work a 35-hour week, with hybrid working on offer from day one. You can choose to work flexibly from home or use one of our desks in the Bayes Centre in central Edinburgh. The whole RDS team meets one day per month in-person in Edinburgh or at an off-site away day in the Central Belt. Individual teams organise their own in-person days to collaborate, develop and socialise together.

We offer 33 days’ annual leave (including public holidays) and have no set closure days. We have a generous pension and enhanced pay for parental/adoption leave. This list of benefits is being added to as the organisation develops, and you can help shape it as part of the team. Our Culture Group helps us seek feedback from colleagues across the organisation to make RDS an even better place to work.

Changeworks has over 35 years’ experience in delivering high impact solutions for low-carbon living. We work collaboratively with partners, organisations and householders to drive transformation in energy efficiency and to tackle fuel poverty. An opportunity for a Senior Consultant has come up in our busy and growing consultancy team.

This role is based within our Consultancy Team and will report to the Principal Consultant. The team work across the sustainability agenda for internal and external clients. They specialise in energy efficiency, heat decarbonisation and renewables in the built environment, fuel poverty and pro-environmental behaviour change. As Senior Consultant you will grow Changeworks involvement in the low carbon energy transition, making a telling strategic contribution and developing and delivering related service, project and business opportunities.

You will develop and deliver services that build on building data analysis and incorporate best practice in energy efficiency retrofit, low carbon heat and wider energy systems to decarbonise homes. Identifying and developing business opportunities and securing work for Changeworks and the Consultancy team will be a key aspect of this role.

Using your project management skills you will manage the delivery of high quality services and projects. You will allocate work, lead, oversee, monitor and sign off on the work of the team. You will manage projects, ensuring they achieve their aims and objectives and are delivered on time and to budget.

You will have at least 3 years’ experience delivering in a relevant professional and/or project management role. Experience of working in a relevant environment is also essential (e.g. academic, business, technology or community).

You’ll be joining Changeworks at a very exciting time as we continue to drive forward our strategy to help us scale our work and achieve our ambitious goal of decarbonising homes across Scotland.

Changeworks is a great place to work. We hold Investors in People Platinum accreditation (something only a few organisations in Scotland have), and we were nominated for employer of the year by the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce this year. Our staff overwhelmingly would recommend us as an employer too.

The Climate Emergency has resulted in ambitious national targets to reduce carbon emissions from the built environment and reduce rates of fuel poverty. This has driven a significant increase in the number of pilot and large-scale interventions delivered by Changeworks and external organisations in this area. These include area-based domestic energy efficiency retrofit and decarbonisation projects and programmes.

We are a growing organisation, and this role is crucial to the delivery of our ambitious objectives. We want to decarbonise homes in Scotland on a massive scale, and that needs talented individuals like you to help us deliver on our objectives. You’ll receive full training plus coaching and mentoring.

We offer a wide range of staff benefits including flexible working, bike to work scheme, an excellent pension scheme and 26 days paid holiday plus 9 public holidays per year.

At Changeworks, we welcome and encourage applications from everyone.

Are you…

• An experienced manager who can think strategically and lead operationally?
• Passionate about the benefits of positive health and wellbeing
• Keen to use relationship-based ways of working to build resilience and reduce social isolation?

Do you want to play a lead role at the heart of an organisation which makes a real difference to people’s lives?

If you’d love to lead an innovative and varied range of services which all promote health & wellbeing, then this could be the job for you! Our Health & Wellbeing pillar provides Preventative and Early Intervention services which support people to build community connections and promote positive health and wellbeing, thereby reducing the risk of homelessness. We know the power of food and greenspace in bringing people together and building community connections.

About the role

The Health & Wellbeing pillar is full of knowledgeable, experienced, dedicated staff, and this role leads them to deliver the following services:

• Reset
• Food Education
• Golden Years
• OPAL (West Lothian and Borders)

You’ll be responsible for leading the pillar’s strategic and operational activities. This includes planning, budgeting, funding, partnerships, quality assurance and risk management.

About you

You will have a knack for translating strategic aims into operational reality. You will be a role model of Cyrenians’ values-led, relationships-based approach, with experience in managing, developing and supporting services and people. You’ll be keen to use your excellent management skills to support your teams, build connections and share learning across the Health & Wellbeing pillar and beyond.

You’ll bring knowledge of health and social inequalities, their impact on people today, alongside excellent partnership-working and contract management skills. You’ll have experience in building, developing and evaluating services. As this is a busy, complex role, you’ll benefit from being organised and skilled in managing expectations and competing priorities.

We welcome applications from people with lived experience of the issues Cyrenians works on.

How we’ll support you

You’ll be supported by an experienced Director of Services, and join a collaborative, knowledgeable senior management team, who will support you to develop and grow in your role. You’ll also have access to wider Cyrenians’ support, including our learning programme, and staff wellbeing services.

About Cyrenians

At Cyrenians we tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness by taking a Public Health Approach to Homelessness Prevention. We take a values-led and relationships-based approach to delivering all our services. You can find out more about our organisation and our impact online.

Our values

Compassion | Respect | Integrity | Innovation