CORE (Cross-border Opportunities for a Resilient Environment) Project Officer

CONTRACT PERIOD: The duration of the contract will be 2.5 years

HOURS: Full-Time 35 hours per week

SALERY: €52,500 per annum

OVERVIEW

The Irish Environmental Network (IEN) is seeking a motivated and highly organised senior Project Officer to support the delivery of a cross-border environmental NGO capacity-building programme focused on leadership development, governance strengthening, and partnership building across the island of Ireland.

The Irish Environmental Network is an umbrella organisation for national environmental NGOs. We have over 40 members spread across the country. The IEN has been working with its sister organisation in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) for a number of years on improving all-island cooperation on the environment. The island of Ireland is a single biogeographic unit, with shared landscapes, water systems, and interconnected habitats. Both jurisdictions face significant climate and biodiversity challenges, and protecting the environment depends on coherent policy-making, high standards, and effective cross-border cooperation. Strengthening collaboration between Ireland and Northern Ireland presents a key opportunity to improve environmental outcomes on an all-island basis.

The IEN and Northern Ireland Environment Link have received support from the PEACEPLUS programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), to deliver the CORE (Cross-border Opportunities for a Resilient Environment) project, which will provide targeted support to environmental NGOs on both sides of the border aimed at enhancing structured, effective all-island cooperation in the sector.

The Project Officer will play a central operational role in implementing environmental leadership training and governance mentoring activities, supporting cross-border partnership development, coordinating workshops and events, contributing to financial and narrative reporting, and facilitating stakeholder engagement and strategic partnerships.

THE ROLE

This role is ideal for a highly organised and capable professional with strong coordination, communication, and delivery skills within complex projects or programmes, who is committed to strengthening environmental governance and civil society collaboration.

The Project Officer will play a key operational role in the coordination and delivery of training, partnership, and best-practice outputs under the project work programme. Working closely with the Project Manager and project partners, the role will coordinate workshops, liaise with trainers and participants, manage project documentation and reporting processes, and contribute to stakeholder and network engagement activities.

The Project Officer will be responsible for ensuring that project activities and deliverables under their strand are implemented efficiently, documented accurately, and aligned with funder, governance, and audit requirements.

This is a senior Project Officer role operating at Project Coordinator level, with responsibility for the day-to-day coordination and delivery of a strand of a complex, externally funded, cross-border programme.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIESITIES 

1. Project Delivery and Coordination

• Co-ordinate the delivery of environmental leadership, governance, and community engagement training programmes.
• Coordinate the planning and delivery of in-person and online workshops across jurisdictions.
• Liaise with trainers, facilitators, partner organisations, and participants to support smooth delivery of events.
• Prepare workshop materials, participant packs, agendas, and briefing documents.
• Manage event logistics including venues, registrations, travel coordination, and follow-up communications.
• Track progress of deliverables and maintain project activity records.

2 Training and Capacity-Building Support

• Support delivery of cross-border training on governance, leadership, organisational resilience, funding access, advocacy, and inclusion.
• Compile training outputs and workshop reports.
• Support development of training guidance documents and resource materials.
• Gather participant feedback and evaluation data.

3 Cross-Border Partnership and Network Support

• Support the development and documentation of cross-border environmental NGO partnerships.
• Coordinate partnership meetings (online and in-person) and maintain partnership records.
• Coordinate and support the delivery of network-strengthening workshops and collaboration events.
• Prepare summaries and reports from partnership and network workshops.

4. Reporting and Documentation

• Draft and compile workshop reports, summary papers, and learning documents.
• Prepare training reports, partnership documentation, and best-practice publications.
• Assist in compiling evaluation findings and lessons learned.
• Maintain organised project files and audit-ready documentation.

5. Stakeholder Engagement 

• Support stakeholder engagement and partnership facilitation.

EXPERIENCE

The successful candidate must demonstrate the following:

Essential 

• Substantial relevant experience coordinating and delivering complex project activities or workstreams, including responsibility for planning, logistics, documentation, stakeholder engagement, and meeting agreed outputs and deadlines.
• Proven experience supporting or coordinating complex projects with multiple activities, partners, or stakeholders.
• Experience coordinating the delivery of training programmes, workshops, seminars, events, or capacity-building initiatives, including logistics and participant engagement.
• Experience providing administrative, financial and/or reporting support on projects or programmes.
• Experience managing multiple workstreams, deadlines, and deliverables simultaneously, with a high level of organisation and attention to detail.
• Experience engaging professionally with external stakeholders, partners, facilitators, or service providers.
• Demonstrated experience preparing clear, accurate written outputs, including reports, summaries, briefing papers, or internal documentation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

LOCATION

Remote/Hybrid. The IEN office is in Dublin 7 but the successful candidate will be expected to work mainly remotely and will be expected to travel frequently in Ireland and Northern Ireland for to locations in the border area for project delivery and team meetings. Travel outside of the office/remote working location is reimbursed according to the project expenses policy. This post is open to anyone based or willing to be based in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

The IEN is an equal opportunities employer. IEN is committed to a healthy work-life balance, celebrates diversity and is committed to building an inclusive and supportive environment for all employees.

This project is supported by PEACEPLUS, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB)