Associate Manager, Innovation Fund Learning

Are you passionate about capturing and sharing learning from projects and programmes and able to analyse and summarise key points from a wealth of information? ISEAL´s Innovations Fund is a central component of our work to catalyse innovations that improve the effectiveness and deepen the impacts of market-based approaches to sustainability. This is an exciting role to work on the development of a learning agenda and value proposition for the Fund, as well as producing relevant communications and learning reports.

First launched in 2016, the Fund supports innovative projects by ISEAL Community Members to help sustainability systems deliver more value to their stakeholders and effectively drive sustainability improvement on the ground, over time, and at scale. The Fund provides grants that enable recipients to develop and test new technologies and approaches, while drawing out cross-project learning to share with the wider sustainability community.

The Associate Manager will work closely with ISEAL colleagues and grantees to improve the ways learning is extracted from the projects, and to produce high-quality learning products. The person in this role will take ownership of the engagement processes necessary to collate and share lessons learnt in a strongly collaborative setting with ISEAL Community Member organisations or other stakeholders. Previous experience with MEL activities, and specifically on project and programme learning is required to be successful in this role.

The key responsibilities we entrust you with

Implementation of Innovations Fund learning agenda

• Develop and maintain an overall learning agenda for the Fund, and lead Fund and programme team on all aspects of its delivery
• Propose and implement methodologies for capturing learning from grants and for evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the Fund during and after project implementation
• Working with thematic leads, extract and synthesize key lessons and trends across multiple grants and produce reports and other learning outputs to share practical lessons and insights
• Lead the design and delivery of knowledge sharing and learning workshops, facilitating peer to peer interactions between organisations participating in grant-funded projects
• Act as programme officer for Innovations Fund projects aligned with job holder expertise, to provide support and technical insight to grantees and gain insights into project learning
• Conduct stakeholder interviews and other forms of research to support implementation of the learning agenda and to inform the focus of the Fund’s upcoming thematic funding rounds
• Review and provide input on call announcements and on Fund application, proposal, and reporting templates to ensure that these support the Funds learning agenda and approach

Communications

• Working with the rest of the Innovations Fund team, identify opportunities for increasing the Fund’s visibility and map internal and external stakeholders who can support widening the Fund´s impact
• Support implementation of the Fund’s communications strategy, identifying target audiences for Fund and producing and adapting learning products for each
• Produce reports, briefing papers, blogs, case studies, and slide decks, and manage content on ISEAL’s online platforms, to communicate Fund learnings and project findings, outcomes, and achievements
• Project manage work with external designers for specific communications outputs

Other

• Support organisation in Monitoring & Evaluation tasks for the Innovations Fund and contribute to donor reporting
• Help to ensure that the Innovations Fund and related activities deliver on annual workplans, meet commitments to donors

Essential experience, knowledge and attributes

• Solid experience in a role related to project or programme learning activities, analysis of project data and reporting of lessons learnt
• General knowledge of international development and/or sustainability context, ideally with knowledge of sustainability standards or sustainability action
• Ability to quickly grasp new concepts and topical areas
• Excellent project management skills, with ability to establish and manage priorities
• Excellent writing skills and ability to synthesise and distil technical information for a range of audiences
• Proven ability to analyse large sources of information and to identify and summarise the most important points in accessible language
• Strong relationship building and engagement skills with a range of stakeholders, both internal and external
• Experience in facilitating sessions and workshops, even on topics outside of own expertise
• Ability to communicate and work effectively with cross-functional teams in a fully remote, international environment, including occasional international time-zone calls
• Proficient IT skills, familiarity with virtual meeting tools (e.g. Teams, Zoom, etc.)
• Demonstrated interest in sustainability issues

 Desirable

• Previous experience drawing lessons learnt from across multiple projects or grants
• Previous experience with an Innovations Fund or similar grant facility
• Good understanding of how market-based sustainability systems operate
• Previous experience in monitoring, evaluation and reporting

About ISEAL

ISEAL supports ambitious sustainability systems and their partners to tackle the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges – from the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis to human rights and persistent poverty. ISEAL Community Members include many of the most respected sustainability schemes worldwide and are active across a diverse range of sectors. Read more about us on our website. 

ISEAL´s culture and how we will help you thrive

Our values are Connection, Empowerment, Inspiration, Wellbeing, Effective Working and Creativity.

These are traits we value in each other and in the organisation overall and we instil these in all our processes and interactions.

The issues we work on are of a global nature and our team reflects this, with individuals from many different backgrounds and nationalities. We know this diversity adds to the high quality of work we deliver as an organisation and through our commitment to diversity and inclusion we want to add strengths and perspectives in our team with each recruitment. Diversity for us includes race and gender identity, age, disability status, sexual orientation, religion and many other areas forming part of someone´s identity. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer.

As an organisation, we also support our people in their personal and professional development, with specific budgets and processes enabling individuals to take advantage of growth and development opportunities.

We offer 25 days of annual leave, to which we will add a day a year after 2 years (to a maximum of 30 days), as well as an extra five days as a one off once you have been with us for a full five years.

We recognise individuals’ preferences when it comes to where and when to work through a hybrid working model with a minimum of 4 days per month in the London office as well as the opportunity to apply for flexible working arrangements to suit individual´s needs.

Other relevant information

Term: This is a permanent contract

Working hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week

Salary: £45,800 –49,800 per annum, depending on experience

Location: London. Applicants will need to provide evidence that they are entitled to work in the UK. An ability and willingness to work in a hybrid work environment is required.

International travel: The post holder may be required to undertake occasional international travel

Ideal start date: May 2025

Deadline for applications is 16 March 2025

Please note that we will only contact shortlisted applicants.

Interview process

Please see below the planned interview process (please note that we will endeavour to keep to this schedule, but some dates may be subject to change):

First interviews (Teams): 20-24 March

Pre-interview timed exercises (between 60 – 90 minutes from home): 24-30 March

Panel interviews (Teams or in person): w/c 31 March

Decision: w/c 7 April

Accessibility

If candidates required additional time or other considerations for the interview process, we are committed to accommodating any reasonable requests.

Please note that ISEAL will cover travel expenses for in person interviews for candidates travelling from outside of Greater London. ISEAL also covers caring expenses for candidates who are carers and need to arrange of cover for the duration of the interview/exercises.