Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

  • month 00, 2020 | by Autor

Applications Period and Search Activity: 14th October – 23rd December 2022

Interviews Period for short-list of selected Candidates foreseen: 25th January – 26th January 2023

Job Description

The AIR Centre’s CEO holds a key leadership position in the organisation, under the authority of the General Assembly of the AIR Centre. The CEO assumes complete responsibility for implementing the organisation policies and regulations, has the authority to direct the execution of the organisation’s programmes, projects and services, and is responsible for the supervision and management of all staff members. The CEO will be responsible for promoting the AIR Centre and for consolidating the international membership, including attracting other member countries and stakeholders to join and to contribute scientifically and financially to the research network.

AIR Centre’s CEO should be an internationally recognised professional, with excellent strategic planning and management skills and an ability to assimilate, interpret and act upon current or emerging issues that may affect the organisation. The CEO must also be able to network globally and effectively at a variety of levels and cultural environments and be able to engage with key stakeholders. The CEO should be capable to advocate for the organisation and be experienced in delivering effective presentations and engaging in professional interactions with end-users, decision makers, media, etc.

Tasks and Responsibilities

Strategic Planning

  • Responsible for the preparation and submission of the three-year strategic plan to the General Assembly in line with appropriate policies, and related applications in Atlantic-based economies and societies.
  • Responsible for the preparation and submission of the annual plan and budget to the General Assembly.
  • Ensuring the implementation of the agreed annual work programme.

Leadership and Foresight

  • Leading in the consolidation of the international membership/partner organisations in accordance with the Statutes of the AIR Centre.
  • Developing the AIR Centre network around an innovation ecosystem model to realise new economic value through creating new community structures around existing and new actors across the value chains.
  • Researching and identifying national and international funding opportunities and securing new sources of funding for the organisation to ensure its financial sustainability.
  • Acting as an advocate for the organisation as its key operational representative, promoting awareness of the AIR Centre, its resources, services, and objectives.
  • Participating in networking activities on behalf of the organisation and the projects in which it participates, building strong relationships with key players on an international level.
  • Liaising with and endorsing the AIR Centre Member Organisations to other relevant organisations in Europe and at the international level.
  • Engaging new members and developing partnerships and new opportunities.

Programme and Financial Management

  • Managing, empowering, supervising, and recruiting the AIR Centre staff according to the annual work programme approved by the General Assembly and in close cooperation with the Board of Directors and in accordance with the Statutes of the AIR Centre.
  • Organising the official meetings of the AIR Centre.
  • Ensuring the efficient execution of AIR Centre responsibilities and commitments according to the annual work programme and the projects and other programmes where the AIR Centre is involved.
  • Managing the budget for the AIR Centre, ensuring adequate monitoring of revenue and expenditures; making an annual budget for approval by the General Assembly; providing regular reports to the General Assembly on the status of revenue and expenditures, namely an annual activity and financial report.

Qualifications and experience

  • Proven skills in interacting with decision makers globally, at various institutional levels and user communities.
  • Proven skills in strategic development of an organisation and experience in engaging with the research, business and public administration ecosystems in an international environment.
  • Proven skills in staff, administrative and financial management.
  • Excellent proficiency in English.
  • Good interpersonal and communication skills, a team-work attitude and the ability to work in a multicultural environment.
  • High motivation, guided by excellence, innovation and ambition, focused in achieving progress and contributing to the development and establishment of AIR Centre´s network, vision and strategy.
  • Demonstrated experience in budget management and a fundraising record.
  • Experience in Technology and Knowledge Transfer for economic growth (e.g triple P).

Relevant but not mandatory:

  • PhD degree.
  • Additional languages of wide expression in the Atlantic (e.g Portuguese, Spanish or French) are considered an asset.
  • Good knowledge of the Atlantic landscape, including international research institutions, infrastructures, and other public and private relevant bodies in one or more areas of relevance for the AIR Centre.
  • Experience with the preparation and the management of projects funded by the European Union, European Space Agency, World Bank and other national and international funding organisations.

Specific requirement

The candidates are invited to provide their own strategic development plan for the AIR Centre for a period of 5 years, in no more than 5 pages.

Conditions

  • Duration: At-will (under the Portuguese Labour Code (“Código do Trabalho”) the contract will be designate Service Commissioning (“Comissão de Serviço”), subject to annual appraisal of the Board of Directors and General Assembly)
  • Location: Lisbon or Azores (Terceira Island) offices, depending on selected candidate preference and convenience of service.
  • Working hours: full time (contractual 40h/week)
  • Salary: Gross salary range between € 100.000 to € 130.000/annum depending on experience of the selected candidate (inclusive of contributions required by Portuguese tax regulations).
  • Health Insurance is to be provided.
  • Employer: Association for the Development of the Atlantic International Research Centre (AD AIR Centre).
  • The Atlantic International Research Centre is committed to promoting diversity and gender equality within the top-level management roles. Women candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
  • More information about the AIR centre, its mandate and activities can be found on https://www.aircentre.org.

AIR Centre

The Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre) is an international organization. It is distributed in a network of Atlantic bordering countries, and it is oriented towards promoting sustainable economic development based on shared science-based knowledge of the Atlantic regions.

It tackles and integrates the scientific areas of space, atmosphere, ocean, climate, energy, and data science while promoting North-South / South-North / North-North / South-South cooperation, in alignment with national and regional priorities, and with global challenges, such as the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Structure for Risk Reduction (2015-2030).

The AIR Centre envisions the advancement of science and technology on a transformative scale in the Atlantic regions, and to do so its structure is internationally distributed in a network, comprised by several nodes which act in accord to develop initiatives, projects, and integrated actions in the Atlantic space. It is oriented to promote and create value and benefits for science, the economy and citizens of the Atlantic area aligning with regional, national, international priorities and based on three major global challenges:

  • Climate change,
  • Digital transformation, and
  • Population dynamics related to income inequalities.

The AIR Centre functions as a convener – a long-term consultation and dialog infrastructure, that enables governments, academia, and industry to work together with civil society to co-create solutions to cross-sectorial, transnational, interdependent problems. It is also a natural extension of individual organizations that makes it easier to find and engage new partners and key stakeholders. Most importantly, the AIR Centre promotes compelling narratives that bring people together to advocate for the environment and maximize societal impact.

Its activities are based on a scientific agenda aligned with five missions aimed at promoting transdisciplinary and collaborative Research and Development (R&D) with Universities, Research & Engineering Centres, Institutions and/or Research Laboratories, and enterprises, also seeking to stimulate technology transfer and contribute to projects to continue in the value chain to higher TLRs, for example with technology-based start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises and industry in general in all regions of the Atlantic. The AIR Centre’s scientific agenda is based on five missions:

  • Clean and Productive Bays and Estuaries – promoting the sustainable development of major coastal, bay and estuarine areas, with focus on reconciling urban growth and environmental preservation and restoration;
  • Resilience to Coastal Natural Hazards – preventing, reducing and increasing preparedness for response against coastal hazard exposure and vulnerability to natural or man-made disasters, such as floods, sea-level rise, and extreme weather, as well as adapting to and mitigating climate change effects;
  • Sustainable Food Production – promoting new food value chains with sustainable fisheries and off-shore aquaculture and reducing environmental risks and pressures for food security;
  • Improved resource management of oceans, coasts and marine systems – promoting the sustainable development of ocean and coastal ecosystems, enhancing capacity for good governance of marine and coastal biodiversity, and raising awareness for local communities and decision makers on the economic value of the marine and coastal ecosystems and biodiversity;
  • Environmental and maritime monitoring – enabling the creation of impactful, affordable data collection and information systems employing collaboratively developed nanosatellites, robotics, and autonomous systems coupled with earth observation, models, and artificial intelligence systems.

The development of these five main missions should be based on multi-funding arrangements through a diversified set of projects involving a broad range of stakeholders, with local, regional, national and/or international scope, and with projects and activities in the various branches/offices of the AIR centre.

In general, the activities are transdisciplinary and implemented through competencies developed along lines of action that are considered in the activities of the AIR Centre, as follows:

    1. Marine resources and biodiversity;
    2. Healthy and clean oceans;
    3. Systems integration from deep ocean to outer space;
    4. Mitigation and adaptation to climate change;
    5. Sustainable energy systems;
    6. Data science.

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