Indigenous Relationship Manager

About us

Acting to combat climate change is one of the world’s most pressing challenges. Climate Friendly was founded in 2003 as a profit-for-purpose business. Our growing team is passionate about active land management, and we are focused on finding economically viable solutions to maximise our impact on climate change.

We are one of Australia’s largest and most experienced carbon farming project developers. This includes more than 160 projects with farmers, plantation managers, agribusiness, and Indigenous groups on carbon farming projects.

Climate Friendly has delivered over 20Mt in carbon abatement as at the end of 2020. Our immediate mission is to establish partnerships, by 2025, that will store or reduce 150Mt of CO2-e, while repairing nature and supporting reconciliation. Join our team and you will be helping to build A productive, sustainable land sector that contributes to a zero net emissions & nature positive Australia by 2050

We have a genuinely friendly and supportive culture where everyone has a voice and opportunity to help shape our future and to fulfil our purpose.

The role

The purpose of the Indigenous Relationships Manager role is to effectively manage and nurture partnerships between Climate Friendly and our Traditional Owner partners that are built on trust, respect and mutual understanding. These partners include Native Title PBCs, Traditional Owner groups pursuing carbon farming projects, and other Indigenous organisations with whom we have strategic alignment.

This position requires strong project management and stakeholder engagement skills to actively operationalise and manage engagement plans with each of our Traditional Owner partners, as well as contribute to specific strategic initiatives led by the Indigenous Partnerships team.

Key responsibilities include:

• Managing relationships through regular phone, email and face to face contact with our Traditional Owner partners
• Arranging and participating in field work and site visits with Indigenous partners and other Climate Friendly staff and land manager partners.
• Liaising with cross-team stakeholders to ensure the accuracy and currency of information is maintained in internal systems and reports
• Updating relevant internal systems (e.g. customer relations and project management among others) in real time with relevant information relating to Traditional Owner partner relationships
• Working with Traditional Owners to assist them to remove obstacles to fully utilising partnership benefits, including by providing comprehensive support and to help them achieve their goals and addressing logistical, administrative, or procedural barriers.
• Monitoring and reporting on our project agreements with Indigenous partners to ensure our compliance with contractual obligations and more broadly with the intent of the agreement
• Creating and presenting reports for NTPBCs summarising carbon project performance and other key engagement with Climate Friendly
• Designing and supporting the implementation of our Annual Engagement Plans with each Traditional Owner partner, in accordance with our partnership agreements and respective strategic plans.
• Collaborating with other relationship manager staff in Climate Friendly to develop three-way partnerships with land manager partners and build a culture of engagement.
• Identifying and supporting opportunities (within CF or externally) that align with the aspirations and goals of CF’s Traditional Owner partners
• Advising the company on opportunities to strengthen our partnerships, improve our agreements and support our partners to achieve their goals and aspirations.
• Advising our Executive and Management teams on strategic opportunities to improve our reconciliation goal
• Contributing to the delivery of actions assigned to the Indigenous Partnerships team under our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.

About you

• Experience in working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups to achieve tangible outcomes.
• Experience walking alongside Indigenous communities and building cultural competency within a medium-sized organisation.
• Experience working on Caring for Country or other similar strategic collaborative planning.
• A passion for fostering two-way learning and genuine, respectful partnerships.
• The ability to solve problems, prioritise workload and provide clear advice to senior managers.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills sensitive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of thinking.
• Exposure to Customer Relationship Management Databases and project management tools (e.g. Asana) and/or willingness and capacity to quickly upskill in this space.
• Comfort with Microsoft suite.
• Capacity to undertake regular travel for fieldwork and team meetings, and experience working / travelling in isolated areas.
• Ability to work remotely and independently with minimal supervision.
• Previous experience with sustainable land management, designing ranger programs, NRM or carbon farming advantageous
• Current driver’s licence (with 4WD driving experience preferred).

Reconciliation is at the core of Climate Friendly’s mission, demonstrating our unwavering dedication to Indigenous communities and our support for Australia’s First Peoples on their path to self-determination. Over more than a decade of collaboration with Traditional Owners, we have prioritised fostering strong relationships and refining best practice processes. Through these efforts, we have been able to achieve tangible and impactful outcomes together with our Traditional Owners partners.

We are continuously working alongside Indigenous communities and committed to a world free of racism and discrimination for Australia’s First Peoples. As such, cultural safety for out Indigenous staff is paramount and one of our strategic focus areas is to create a space for Indigenous communities to thrive.

To perform this role, it is essential that the person is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. It is therefore a genuine occupational requirement under section 25 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991.

Why join our team?

Our goal is to be seen as an organisation that supports wholeness, lifestyle and wellbeing whilst rewarding individual and collective performance. In addition to competitive salary and transparent career progression opportunities, our benefits include:

• Work with purpose, contributing to a productive, sustainable land sector that contributes to a zero net emissions and nature positive Australia by 2050
• A fully hybrid workplace – work to your own rhythm and balance connection and productivity
• A supportive and inclusive environment that promotes diversity
• 2 all staff events a year to connect with your friends and colleagues
• Christmas holiday – 3 days of additional leave each year
• Floating public holidays
• Gender neutral paid parental leave
• 2 days each year for training / development / study leave
• Home office setup and refresh allowance
• Company performance bonus and shared equity