Net Zero Carbon Programme Grants Officer

This new, full time fixed term role on a 9 month contract has been established to provide extra capacity to support the work of the NZC Programme’s grant streams for parish churches and church halls during a period of increased demand for our services since the launch of the Decarbonising Churches Grant Fund in June 2026. The successful candidate will help enable the team to continue delivering a consistent and responsive service to grantees.

As a first point of contact on behalf of the NZC Programme for new applicants and existing grantees, you will handle a busy caseload from pre-application contact through to completion. This will involve all aspects of grant service delivery including assessment, issuing of offers and rejections, monitoring, payments, quality assurance and evaluation.

The role is based Church House, Great Smith Street, London with hybrid working arrangements (an expectation to be in Church House for 2-3 days per month on average)

You will work under the supervision of the Grants Manager and the Decarbonising Churches Lead, reporting directly to the NZC Programme’s Grants Manager.

Closing date - 5th November at 23:55.

Responsibilities

• Act as a primary contact for the Decarbonising Churches Grant Fund, handling enquiries, pre application support and ongoing case management.

• Process applications on a rolling basis, including initial assessment, detailed review, recommendation preparation and issuance of offers or rejections.
• Monitor live grants against agreed objectives, assess payment claims, manage change requests and conduct due diligence checks for case closure.
• Maintain accurate records in the Grants Management System, logging activity, offers, payments and balances for sound financial management.
• Prepare regular status reports for the Grants Manager, highlighting novel, contentious or at risk cases and recommending actions.
• Assist the Grants Manager with forecasting, budget management and reporting to the DCGF Grants Panel.
• Contribute to updating grant scheme documentation and the Grants Management System in collaboration with the Grants Administrator.
• Represent the grant schemes at NZC Officer Network meetings, conferences and relevant NCI forums, providing reliable information to stakeholders.
• Gather case studies and information for promotional and communications purposes, supporting the wider advocacy of the Churches workstream.
• Support the Decarbonising Churches Lead with administrative tasks to ensure smooth operation of the grant programmes.

Qualifications

Knowledge/Experience

• Sympathetic understanding of the aims of the Net Zero Carbon Programme, as described in the Routemap to Net Zero Carbon;
• Significant experience of large capital grant-making in a charitable or public sector environment, or a closely comparable role; ideally including a breadth of experience in complex, multi-stakeholder, large capital grants of over £100k+ and in-kind capacity building style grant packages;
• Experience working in the environmental sustainability sector; with knowledge / experience of decarbonisation of the built environment, ideally in a heritage context;
• Understanding of the use of church buildings as centres of worship and mission;
• Substantial administrative experience, including developing, implementing and maintaining effective administrative systems and processes;
• Experience of building excellent relationships and communicating effectively with staff, customers (or grantees) and external stakeholders, including at a senior level.

Skills & Abilities:

• Good written/spoken communication skills;
• Good interpersonal skills, with a professional, co-operative and diplomatic manner;
• Ability to work well both on own initiative and as part of a team;
• A well-organised approach to work, with the ability to prioritise a busy and varied workload and remain resilient to pressure;
• Good analytical skills;
• Strong numeracy skills, with accuracy and attention to detail.

Please note that you will not be able to view the role description after the closing date. We suggest that you save a copy of this page before you submit your application.

About the NCIs

The National Church Institutions comprises a wide variety of teams, professions and functions that support the mission and ministries of the Church of England in its vision to be a church, centred on Jesus Christ, for the whole nation - a church that is simpler, humbler, bolder.

We Include. You Belong.

Our Belonging and Inclusion Strategy aims for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

Living out our values in all that we do, we:

• Strive for Excellence
• Show Compassion
• Respect others
• Collaborate
• Act with Integrity

We believe our commitment to belonging and inclusion fuels our progress and drives us forward. The NCIs are a safe, inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and walks of life. We welcome applications from people of all faiths and of no faith. We want to encourage applications from a diverse group of people who share our values. Even if you have never thought about working for us before, if you have the skills and experience we’re looking for then we would like to hear from you.

We offer a highly competitive benefits package that supports your health, wellbeing and long-term financial security. This includes annual leave starting at 25 days' plus bank holidays and three additional NCI days, family friendly policies, a wellbeing cashback scheme, an electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme, a defined benefit pension with employer contributions of up to 18%, and generous life assurance cover.

Use of AI in your application

We appreciate that you may want to use AI tools to help you with your application. We're happy for you to use AI to come up with ideas and help structure your thoughts, but you shouldn't use AI to fabricate information or write your whole application for you. One of our values is integrity, and although we want you to demonstrate your best self, we don't want an AI-generated persona. If you simply copy and paste AI-generated content into your application, this will reduce your chances of success.