Project Manager – Sustainable Energy and Social Development

About Hudara

Hudara gGmbH is an independent and impartial organisation working in locations where people’s lives are impacted by poverty, conflict and climate change.

Our Vision

We strive for a world in which people experience good mental wellbeing, live in peaceful communities and in balance with the natural environment.

Our Mission

We support communities in reaching a sustainable and peaceful way of functioning through mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), social cohesion (SC) and community-based adaptation (ACC) and mitigation to climate change (MCC).

About the project MAESHA

Technological and institutional changes, depletion of fossil fuel resources, and climate change make it paramount that energy systems across the globe are going through a radical transformation.

Mayotte (FR) consists of a main and a smaller island and several very small islets around these two. It is part of the Comoros archipelago, located in the northern Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Southeast Africa, between north-western Madagascar and north-eastern Mozambique. The land area is 374 square kilometres, very densely populated with its 279,471 people. Mayotte faces the common challenges regarding energy supply that is seen in islands and a high dependency on imported fossil fuels. The energy is costly and leads to high pollution and the lack of interconnections impacts the resiliency of the network putting a huge burden on the local population.

The project’s name “MAESHA” means future in Shimaore, the local dialect, and it is funded by the European Union to reach the main objective to decarbonise the energy system by fostering large deployments of renewable energy systems based on the local community’s needs. Overall, the project has 7 objectives in 12 work packages (WPs) with 15 partners responsible for content in different WPs.

Hudara’s role and your tasks and responsibilities

Hudara’s role in this project is to ensure a community-based approach and the consideration of end-users in new emerging business models. Local communities are to be activated and involved for better ownership and acceptance of the energy transition. Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) are to be developed to allow simultaneous integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) and engagement of local communities. With the emergence of ICESs new roles and responsibilities as well as interactions and dynamics are expected in the energy system. This process has to be implemented and monitored regarding its value that these systems can provide to the local communities as well as the whole system, considering the associated technological, institutional, socio-economic, psychosocial and environmental factors. The aim is to support local communities to install such a system on the island Mayotte and to understand the ways in which ICESs can contribute to enhancing the energy transition also in other contexts.

What we are looking for

· A person with a master degree in socio-political, economic or environmental science; a degree in ecological economics is an asset.

· Fluency in written and spoken English and French is obligatory, another language, especially German, is an asset.

· Willingness to perform travels and spent extended time periods in Mayotte.

· Interest in doing research, writing scientific articles and support other team members in new proposal development.

· Commitment to work in a community-based way, using critical methodologies and recognising decoloniality and social justice as essential for the establishment of sovereignty of marginalised and oppressed people, especially in the Global South.

What we offer

· The gross monthly salary for this position (4 days per week / 80% part-time) is 2100 Euro in the first year; with the possibility of an increased salary in the second year; pension, unemployment and health insurances are covered.

· The duration of this position is one year with the possibility of extension.

· Starting date is as soon as possible.

· There is the possibility of doing a PhD through the collaboration between Hudara and the Technische Universität Berlin (in case of interest, not required).

· You will be part of a young and dynamic team and you will have the possibility to set your own emphasis within the thematic focus of our initiative depending on your personal strengths and interests.

· The position is based in Berlin, Germany. The work can be arranged flexible with three days per week at our shared office space and one home office day. We will support the process of receiving a Schengen work visa, in case needed.