Executive Director

Executive Director

Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Brussels, Belgium

CLOSING DATE FOR REGISTRATION: 14 February 2023, 12:00 (midday) Brussels time

We are

The Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (Clean Hydrogen JU) established by means of Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085 and succeeding the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU).

The Clean Hydrogen JU, hereafter named "the JU", is a public private partnership supporting research and innovation activities on clean hydrogen in Europe. Its aim is to strengthen and integrate EU scientific capacity, in order to accelerate the development and improvement of advanced clean hydrogen applications, combining it with strengthening competitiveness of the Union clean hydrogen value chain. The three members of the JU are the European Commission on behalf of the Union, the Industry Grouping represented by Hydrogen Europe AISBL and the Research Grouping represented by Hydrogen Europe Research AISBL.

The EU will support the JU with €1 billion euro for the period 2021-2027, complemented by at least an equivalent amount of private investment (from the two private members of the partnership), raising the total budget to above €2 billion euro.

The research and innovation activities of the JU are guided to a large extent by the EU's Hydrogen Strategy and the policy developments in this context, including REPowerEU Action Plan, contributing to its implementation. Its main focus is on renewable hydrogen production, as well as hydrogen transmission, distribution and storage, alongside selected fuel cell end-use technologies in transport, buildings and industry.

The Clean Hydrogen JU consists of 25 staff members, including the Executive Director.

We propose

The function of the Executive Director of the JU who shall perform the functions of chief executive responsible for the day-to-day management of the JU in accordance to the decisions of the Governing Board, shall also be its legal representative and shall be accountable to the Governing Board of the JU. She/he shall provide leadership and direction across the activities of the JU and will be central to ensuring staff engagement and promoting a positive and healthy work environment.

Among other tasks, the Executive Director will:

1. Implement the budget of the JU and ensure sound financial management of the budgets, including an effective and efficient system of internal control;
2. Ensure sustainable and efficient management of the JU;
3. Prepare and ensure implementation of the Work Programme of the JU;
4. Prepare and be liable for the budgetary and reporting documents of the JU (annual budget, staff establishment plan, annual activity report);
5. Establish formal and regular collaboration with European partnerships identified in the SRIA (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda) of the JU;
6. Implement the communication policy of the JU;
7. Provide the Governing Board with all documents requested by it and act as secretariat of the Board;
8. Ensure that the JU advisory bodies receive timely and complete information;
9. Maintain overall responsibility over the staff of the JU.

A more detailed description of the tasks can be found in Articles 19 and 83 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2085.

We look for (selection criteria)

The candidates should have:

Management skills:

• Ability to organise, direct and supervise the operations, budget and the staff of the JU with the purpose of achieving the JU's objectives;
• Ability to lead, care for and motivate a multidisciplinary team in a European multicultural and multilingual context;
• Capacity for decision-making and delivering impact within fixed budget and timing;
• Capacity for managing significant financial resources, budgetary planning and internal control.

Specialist skills:

• Understanding of clean energy transition & energy policy of the EU;
• Understanding of the EU industry and of the challenges of clean energy transition for it;
• Understanding of the EU research and innovation policies;
• Understanding of the decision and policy making structure of EU.

Personal qualities:

• Strong diplomatic skills including ability for designing compromise;
• High level of ethics: integrity, loyalty, fairness, transparency;
• Ability to communicate fluently and efficiently and build good working relations with the European Commission services, with other European partnerships and with various external stakeholders, in particular in the research and innovation context.

Candidates must (eligibility requirements):

Candidates will only be considered for the selection phase on the basis of the following formal requirements to be fulfilled by the deadline for applications:

• Nationality: candidates must be citizen of one of the Member States of the European Union;
• University degree or diploma: candidates must have:
  • either a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is 4 years or more;
  • or a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least 1 year when the normal period of university education is at least 3 years (this one year's professional experience cannot be included in the postgraduate professional experience required below).
• Professional experience: candidates must have at least 15 years postgraduate professional experience at a level to which the qualifications referred to above give admission. At least 5 years of that professional experience must be in a domain relevant to the Joint Undertaking's activities;
• Management experience: at least 5 years of the post-graduate professional experience must have been gained in a high-level management function in a field relevant for this position;
• Languages: candidates must have a thorough knowledge of one of the official languages of the European Union and a satisfactory knowledge of another of these official languages. Selection panels will verify during the interview(s) whether candidates comply with the requirement of a satisfactory knowledge of another official EU language. This may include (part of) the interview being conducted in this other language;
• Age limit: candidates must be able to complete, at the deadline for application, the full mandate of four years before reaching the retirement age. For temporary staff of the European Union, the retirement age is defined as being the end of the month in which the person reaches the age of 66 years (see Article 47 of the Conditions of Employment of other Servants of the European Union).

Equal Opportunities, Diversity and Inclusion

The Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking applies a policy of equal opportunities and non-discrimination accordance with Article 1d of the Staff Regulations encouraging applications that could contribute towards more diversity, gender equality and overall geographical balance. The Council Regulation (EU) No 2021/2085 specifically sets out that the procedure will respect the principle of gender balance, and applications from female candidates are particularly encouraged.

The Joint Undertaking recognises that a healthy work-life balance is an important motivational factor for many people and that flexible working is increasingly expected to be part of a modern working environment. It offers, among other benefits, a very good package of statutory flexible working arrangements and facilities such as after-school care and crèche. As an employer, the Joint Undertaking is committed to preventing discrimination on any grounds. It actively welcomes applications from all qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds, across all abilities and from the broadest possible geographical basis amongst the EU Member States.

Assistance can be provided to persons with disabilities during the recruitment procedure. For further information, send an email to HR-BXL-OTHER-AGENTS-RTD@ec.europa.eu.

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