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 as well as in-person workshops and meetings, which will require regular commuting to Sheffield and other locations in South Yorkshire, as required by the work
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 Demonstrators portfolio of projects:
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.
The projects we are initiating will function at a neighbourhood scale. They will respond directly to the needs of each community, within the framework of systems change and enabling a just and green transition across South Yorkshire. This role will involve bringing those communities together in a participatory co-design process to shape the interventions for each neighbourhood. It will also involve working with the wider team, including a financing specialist, to bring those project designs to the point of investment and actualisation.
The exact nature of the Demonstrators projects and interventions will be place-specific. The role involves overseeing excellent communication and reflective collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders to ensure the final designs meet the identified needs. An example of a Demonstrator project in progress is the River Dôn Project, which seeks to reimagine our relationship with nature, and what a ‘right to thrive’ for the river might look like. You can read more about the interventions this project seeks to make and the thinking behind it in this article.
We appreciate that this role potentially involves holding a wide range of spaces. As such, we offer this information as a starting point for your thinking and encourage you to contact us with any 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 has the following responsibilities:
Working within neighbourhoods to identify participants and bring together broad coalitions of people with varying lived experiences. This is with the aim of developing Demonstrator projects and interventions that respond to their needs, as well as aligning with the region-wide Demonstrators portfolio
Developing this into a programme of co-design and creation processes for neighbourhood Demonstrator projects across Sheffield and, eventually, South Yorkshire
Working with multiple stakeholders within neighbourhoods, both individuals and organisations/groups, to identify needs and work towards designing multi-solving solutions
Working with the wider Demonstrators team in a collaborative, relational and reflective way, incorporating feedback into future plans
Joining and contributing to the development work for the broader Demonstrators steering group and Opus’s organisational development.
Skills and attributes
Proven experience in designing and facilitating workshops, ideally in a systems change and/or sustainability context
Proven experience with relationship building and development in a community setting, where multiple stakeholders may have competing or conflicting needs, including hosting difficult conversations and mediating through conflicts or tensions
Experience in solutions-focused project creation and design
Experience in participatory design and co-creation
Excellent project management skills, with a particular view to ensuring a balance between attention to localised community needs and an understanding of the overarching Demonstrators strategy
An ability to facilitate participation and discussion on complex issues with emotional intelligence and inclusivity
A knowledge of communities and politics within Sheffield and South Yorkshire would be an advantage
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 for learning, discovering and growing with the project and the team, while expanding your understanding and investing in personal and professional development
Able 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 in this work with wraparound care and an evolving package of support 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
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.