FTE: 40 hours/week
Starting date: As soon as possible
Location: Belfast, London, Madrid (or a suitable home location)
About Foundation Earth
Foundation Earth (FE) is an NGO that has gained a lot of attention during the past 10 months as we have been leading the way to an efficient and zero emissions food and drink sector with credible eco-labeling. We drive transparency and mobilise cooperation across multinational supply chains and their logistics partners to take action. This is done through robust, science-based Life Cycle Assessments and credible, transparent food and beverage food labeling for industry to calculate, report and reduce emissions. Our work builds consumer trust and incentivises farmers, producers, manufacturers to develop and implement their net-zero strategies.
Our mission has steadily been expanding, leading us to reinforce ties with highly visible partners, collaborating with government actors, prestigious universities, and other stakeholders. With the current attention towards climate change, food labeling has become very visible and therefore growing fast. Our industry recognition, ambitious approach, experience and excellent technical capacities make us stand out from the rest.
About the position
Foundation Earth is seeking an experienced, innovative, and collaborative scientific leader to serve as its Lead Scientific Officer. As a key member of the leadership team, the LSO will be instrumental in leading all science-based aspects, including the management and development of a Life Cycle Assessment methodology for scoring and labeling of the food industry. The LSO will drive the scientific rigor to accelerate the ultimate eco-label with a harmonised approach for Europe, the UK and beyond. The LSO will focus on the development, execution, and communication of FE´s overall research strategy to drive scientific advances for a FE LCA methodology.
You will be working closely with the Executive Director and other team members on building and maintaining high impact collaborations with current and prospective partners. You will work in a small international oriented team and will interact with multiple FE external partners and collaborators, including consumer engagement.
We ask you to:
- Drive the development and execution of the overall research strategy for the FE in pursuit of an optimal LCA based methodology.
- Identify areas of research and develop innovative research programmes to address the needs of harmonisation across identified leading LCA systems.
- Manage the evaluation and execution of all research programmes and grants to ensure appropriate scientific review, study design, feasibility, regulatory guidance, project management, timelines, and budgets are met.
- Develop strategic partnerships with investigators, researchers, industry stakeholders, FSA or other government agencies to advance FE´s scientific agenda and programmes.
- Execute and convene necessary stakeholders for FE-led scientific meetings, advisory groups, and roundtables to inform overall scientific strategy and advance critical research questions.
- Evaluate scientific data for and provide scientific guidance to FE´s LCA technicians and partner companies
- Develop and execute scientific communications plan to support all research initiatives which may include written publications, submissions to scientific meetings, oral presentations, etc.
- Stay up-to-date regarding advancements in all aspects of LCA-based food labeling and research and adjacent disciplines, and provide regular guidance to the broader FE organisation on implications for current and future research initiatives.
- Collaborate and communicate effectively with all FE stakeholders and partners to ensure alignment and efficient execution of research initiatives.
As an ideal candidate you can demonstrate:
- 5+ years’ work experience, ideally Phd qualified, with a proven track record in the food science sector, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), product carbon footprint, environmental certification, PEF-EU Ecolabel interactions for green claims, Embodied Carbon Assessment, Scope 3 assessment
- Experience of consultancy type work and managing delivery of projects and subcontractors
- High quality writing skills and producing concise summary reports, as well as detailed technical reports
- Autonomous and self starter attitude. Comfortable working under regular periods of minimal supervision
- Experience in applying methodologies for carbon footprint and LCA impacts of products and knowledge of product or carbon footprint standards.
- Experience with food databases i.e. Agri-footprint, Hestia, IPCC, ecoinvent, OpenLCA, SimaPro or GaBi is advantageous
- Proven record of strategic research leadership, including the ability to drive innovative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research programmes and partnerships with multiple stakeholders
- Ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial, fast-paced, solution-oriented, and highly collaborative environment
- Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills
- Fluent in English, comparable to a native English speaker: other language skills are a bonus
- Proactive, organised and innovative work attitude – since we are growing fast the role leaves room for some autonomy to innovate; improve our contact database and make suggestions to our communications approach
- Ability to work independently, easily adapt to changing situations and work in a structured manner
- Motivation to make a difference in the world and ready to join a very passionate team driven by purpose
Applications
Interested applicants should e-mail their CV and motivation to Foundation Earth at info@foundation-earth.org.
