Basic information
Hours: 3-5 days per week (37.5 hours pro rata), subject to discussion
Pay: £28,480 (pro rata), with pay rises expected
Terms: 12 months fixed, subject to a probationary period of 3 months, with extension subject to funding
Start: Ideally 1st June 2025, but flexible, based on notice needed
Location: Remote working primarily, but in-person workshops and meetings require regular commuting to Sheffield, UK
Applications must be received by: 6th April 2025
Interviews: We anticipate the recruitment process consisting of shortlisting and two rounds of interviews starting in the week commencing the 14th of April 2025.
Background and invitation
The role will be an integral part of our Sheffield Transition Financing Facility project, which is part of our wider Demonstrators portfolio.
Demonstrators are projects and interventions that show how innovations in future system capabilities and civic capacities could bring about change proportional to the complex and entangled challenges we face in Sheffield.
Demonstrators aim to illuminate how we can address the transitions ahead by acting collaboratively and cross-sectorally. They often seek to build resilience in those parts of our economy and our city that are experiencing fragility due to the increasing frequency and intensity of crisis events, such as in the areas of care, water, food, energy, transport, and the democratic deficit.
Demonstrators are intentionally designed to be ‘multi-solving’ and multi-disciplinary, releasing co-benefits across systems. A hypothetical example: an urban food forest directly contributes to strengthening community cohesion, improves mental and physical health outcomes, enhances carbon capture and air quality and could also reduce flooding risks.
This role is a key component in a Demonstrator project currently in an early stage of development – the Sheffield Transition Financing Facility (STFF). This aims to transform the financial landscape of Sheffield and, eventually, the wider South Yorkshire region. Through innovative financial models and targeted investments, the STFF will drive systemic change and achieve broad, boundary-spanning goals that will transform the city and bioregion, and position them at the forefront of sustainable development.
Sheffield and South Yorkshire’s transition must address more than just high-growth sectors and isolated initiatives. The region, as with many around the world, faces unprecedented volatility in its foundational economies, with escalating costs in energy, food, materials and essential goods. This instability, driven by climate breakdown and global market geopolitics, is expected to intensify, worsening systemic inequalities. A rapid transition to a new bioregional foundational economy that emphasises equity, collaboration, justice, ecological balance and human thriving is urgently needed.
STFF will create a financial ecosystem that supports these transitions. By providing fair, affordable and accessible finance to diverse groups, businesses and individuals, the facility will channel financial capital into ‘next generation’ asset classes with entangled value functions that promote long-term resilience and prosperity in South Yorkshire.
For example, STFF could provide catalytic funding to worker-owned cooperatives and
community-led enterprises that struggle to secure traditional bank loans, enabling them to scale and thrive. It could also support neighbourhood-scale renewable energy projects, such as solar cooperatives or district heating schemes, ensuring that local communities benefit directly from the green transition.
Additionally, STFF could back place-based investment funds, which empower residents to direct capital into local priorities like affordable workspace, high street regeneration, and sustainable transport solutions. By structuring finance in ways that align with long-term community and environmental benefits, STFF ensures that investment flows toward solutions that create lasting, systemic change.
We are seeking a co-creator to contribute to the design of this work, which is currently outlined but is not completely finalised. As such, we offer this information as a starting point for your thinking and encourage you to contact us with questions, or for an informal conversation, before applying for this role.
The role
We’re looking for a strategic thinker to join this multi-organisational team and bring this transformative work to life. The role will develop as the project does, but will initially entail:
Co-designing and developing investment propositions within neighbourhoods to create and finance Demonstrator projects, developing this into an incubation pipeline for neighbourhoods across Sheffield and, eventually, South Yorkshire
Building partnerships with investors, philanthropic funders, and public sector bodies to develop and secure innovative financial models and raise additional funds for the STFF
Developing place-based finance mechanisms that are accessible, equitable, and capable of delivering systemic change in South Yorkshire’s economy
Working with policymakers, financial institutions and regulatory bodies to navigate compliance and support the adoption of community-centric financial products
Identifying and implementing new investment models, such as revenue-based financing, community bonds, blended finance, and regenerative investment structures
Generating data-based arguments and methods of measurement and value which translate Demonstration work into the language of multiple stakeholders working in varying value frames, in order to generate broad, cross-sector support
Negotiating outcome deals and propositions relating to Demonstrator projects and their interaction with both private and statutory organisations, in relationship with the communities and neighbourhoods where demonstration is taking place
Joining and contributing to the development work for the wider Demonstration steering group and Opus’s organisational development alongside this
Skills and attributes
Experience in designing, structuring, and implementing alternative financial mechanisms (e.g., social impact investing, community-led finance, public-private partnerships), ideally in a systems change and/or sustainability context
Strong financial literacy, with an understanding of risk mitigation, impact measurement, and financial compliance in a mission-driven context
Ability to engage with and influence key decision-makers across finance, policy, and local governance
Experience in creating and maintaining healthy relationships and networks, in an environment where multiple stakeholders may have competing or conflicting needs
Excellent project management skills, with a particular view to ensuring a balance between attention to localised community needs and an understanding of the overarching strategy
Ability to take an idea from conception, through blueprint, design and actualisation in a co-produced process
Understanding of financial ecosystems, cooperative finance, and long-term capital strategies for systemic change
A high level of understanding in the space of systems change and a dedication to working towards this in an inclusive and collaborative manner
An appetite to learn, discover and grow with the project and team, expanding your understanding and investing time and energy in personal and professional development
An ability to hold uncertainty and sit with discomfort, as is sometimes needed in disruptive, change-making work. We fully understand the emotional complexity and labour involved in work of this nature. At Opus, we have a dedicated Wellbeing Officer and are committed to enabling our team to do this work with wraparound care and an evolving support package available
Employee benefits
We are a uniquely talented, highly diverse and passionate team engaging with complex and stimulating projects.
We are an organisation which provides the platform to make an impact from day one.
We offer a highly collaborative and open-ended environment where you have the space to shape your work and develop your personal and professional skills.
You will have opportunities to develop your connections and skills through our large network and in-house training opportunities.
We offer flexible working, so you will be able to choose your working days and agree a split of remote and some in-person working with Directors.
In addition to your regular annual leave allowance (28 days for full-time roles, pro rata), you will also receive bonus annual leave from 24th December to 1st January inclusive, every year.
If, for any reason, you are unable to take your full quota of annual leave in a year, you will be able to carry up to 3 days into the following year.
We offer a £26 monthly contribution for working-from-home support and phone bill coverage during working hours.
Further information
Please read this introduction to the Sheffield Transition Financing Facility.
Read our annual report for 2024
Find more information about all our different projects
About Opus
Opus is a not-for-profit social enterprise based in Sheffield, established in 2008. Our projects include Now Then Magazine, Festival of Debate, Opus Distribution and UBI Lab Network.
Opus works to contribute upstream solutions to complex system problems. We do this through strategic partnerships, engaging arts and culture, research, identifying leverage points, and co-creation. We incubate and deploy services, projects, platforms, decentralised networks, and movements that are proportionate to the challenges ahead.
Opus is multidisciplinary, cross-sector and adaptive, working across hyper-local, regional, national and international contexts. We work with citizens, communities, neighbourhoods, businesses, voluntary groups, cities, campaigns, research institutions, infrastructure organisations and governments to address the entangled ecological, social, economic, political and cultural crisis we collectively face.
We recognise that this is a long-term and systemic approach to social change. There are no easy fixes and few quick wins, so we spend our time and energy creating the space – whether that’s a platform, a network or something else – for new ideas to emerge and develop.
Opus reaches more than 150,000 people annually through live events, broadcasting and publishing in Sheffield and beyond.
Pay rates
Our current full-time salary at Opus is £28,480. All Opus employees, including the company’s Directors, are paid the same. We have listed a salary range for this role because we anticipate bringing in a significant pay rise for all staff in 2025.
As a worker-controlled company, everyone gets a say on when and by how much we increase our pay. Whenever we raise wages, we do so for everyone who works at the company.
How To Apply
Please email your CV and a cover letter, explaining why you are suited to this role, to info@weareopus.org by 6th April 2025.
The cover letter should be no longer than one side of A4. You are welcome to submit it in another format, for example as a voice note or a video recording.
If your application is successful, you will need to provide two professional references.
If your application is successful, you will not need to undergo a health check before starting work.
Your data will be stored in accordance with GDPR regulations.
The law requires us to ensure that you demonstrate that you have the right to work in the UK.
Diversity and equal opportunities
Diversity in our workforce is a priority for Opus. As well as the clear moral imperative of properly reflecting our home city of Sheffield and its many communities, diversity in our team improves how we work, how we ‘frame’ problems and their possible solutions, and how we interact with stakeholders and audiences.
We particularly encourage applications from groups that are under-represented. This includes but is not limited to people of global majority descent (i.e. people of African, Asian, Indigenous, Latin American, Middle Eastern/Arab, Polynesian/Pacific Islander, or mixed race heritage), disabled people, those who identify as LGBTQI+ and individuals from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.