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Innovation Strategist (Climate Innovation Fellowship) (6 months)

Employer
ICF
Location
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
Jun 14, 2021

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Sector
Consultancy/Private Sector
Field
Conservation science
Discipline
Climate Change
Salary Type
Salary
Employment Type
Fellowship
ICF's mission is to make the world a more prosperous and resilient place. On behalf of our clients in government and industry, we design and deliver programs that address climate resilience, public health, cybersecurity, energy efficiency, and others. Our Innovation and Transformation Team works to bring ICF's experts together with our clients to solve big challenges through human-centered design, agility, and rapid-collaboration methodologies (for a full picture of the industries we work in, check out our "Industries and Services" menu on ICF.com)
As a climate-focused member of ICF's Innovation and Transformation Team you will grow your acumen in business, design and analytics as you work closely with teams of energy, environment, policy and other subject matter experts and stakeholders through the life cycle of innovation. You'll be mentored and supported as you gain valuable skills and experience working with internal and external clients to define problems, design and facilitate workshops, and leverage the tools and templates that support innovation at scale. You will help drive impact by engaging colleagues in direct interviews, guiding and delivering innovation initiatives, and drafting and disseminating outputs that lead to buy-in and action.
Among a team of versatile innovators and intrapreneurs, you will play a critical role in shaping and delivering projects where climate-related impacts are key value drivers for solutions. This may include identifying opportunities to:
- Set priorities for market, policy, and technology solutions by structuring thinking with disciplined frameworks;
- Explore and validate hypotheses using the tools of design and analytics;
- Get teams unstuck and moving forward with confident action plans by using effective design to communicate solutions, or define and re-frame problems.
The Innovation Function has a dual mandate to drive immediate business value and to introduce tools and templates that enable colleagues across the business to grow as successful innovators. We accomplish this dual objective by building successful solutions or interventions into repeatable business processes. Like other members of the team, you will therefore play a project management role for some initiatives. You will support the growth, development, and continuous improvement of our team, and will be supported by the team in-kind. You will collaborate in diverse partnerships with other teams across ICF, finding ways to scale our impact through tools, templates, coaching, and other enablement strategies.
Examples of typical projects include:
- Refining a reusable toolkit to enable ICF's experts in decarbonization to better scope and sell comprehensive process improvement solutions
- Scoping and leading a workshop to develop approaches for the European Commission to engage EU residents in direct climate change, including gamification and analytics
- Presenting your synthesis of key concepts and priority insights from a workshop to identify opportunities to support large energy utilities in the development of hydrogen-based solutions for energy storage to support the development of the business case and sales material for colleagues to engage clients effectively
- Rapid development and testing of diagnostic prototype solution concepts to supporting and empower ICF's climate professionals with more effective design skills
- Work with ICF technology partners to establish best practices in the discovery phase of a client project where we need to understand a client's current-state process flow and then identify and deliver solutions that fit the client's business model needs.
The Innovation and Transformation team's Innovation Strategist (Climate Internship) will be fully supported in a safe and healthy 'learning-by-doing' environment rich with opportunities to gain real experience that builds high-value and broadly applicable skills. By default, we employ an agile and human-centered approach to consult, analyze, develop, and deliver innovation projects and programs.
You will:
- Collaborate with technology and design process experts on projects led by others in the Innovation and Transformation Team or led by client-facing teams across ICF's different lines of business.
- Learn how to develop and facilitate customized collaborative workshops and produce workshop synthesis documents with optimization recommendations.
- Shape and manage program engagements, including developing challenge briefs, project plans, coordinating stakeholders, conducting business analysis, and creating implementation plans.
- Partner with the rest of the Innovation and Transformation Team to produce templates, guides, and tools that enable others to bring process optimization into their daily work and team culture.
The Innovation and Transformation Team is composed of experts in Design Thinking, facilitation, business strategy, data analytics, experience design, and training. Our team is fun and fast paced; we collaborate often, throw around and debate bad ideas in order to find good ones, laugh through the tough sprints, and support one another in getting exceptional work done. No day, and no solution, is ever the same. Someone who is ambitious, passionate, and creative will have the runway to bring their ideas fruition and deliver them at an exciting scale. Our team has members located across North America, with a hub in Toronto, Canada. We work together remotely on a daily basis using the Office 365 suite (Teams, SharePoint, Outlook) and the digital whiteboarding tool, Mural. When we go back to working in person, there will be travel involved across the U.S. (where the majority of our clients and client teams are) and Canada.
Skills, Aptitudes, and Interests:
- Strong verbal and written communications and stakeholder management skills; outstanding listening skills and empathy
- Able to leverage "sketches" (rough visuals and/or whiteboarding) to communicate ideas, maps, and flows
- Strong listening and facilitation skills (remote and/or in-person), and ability to read and engage a room with confidence.
- Energized by engaging with new people and by new projects/subject matter.
- Self-motivated, entrepreneurial, open-minded, values feedback, and disciplined
- Strong project management and organizational skills, enjoying driving projects through to completion
- Collaborative, thrive in a nimble, fast-paced, and collaborative team, versatile.
- Driven and excited to develop new skills and thought leadership on the intersection of technology and design.
- Professional maturity, especially in the context of complex organizations
Education and Experience Requirements:
- 2+ years' experience or coursework related to strategy and design or innovation; and/or addressing climate change, infrastructure, energy or related issues
- Experience translating clearly from challenges to requirements to solutions, preferably related to climate or energy
- Passion for driving customer-centered solutions using design
- Outstanding communication with individuals and groups. Experience managing projects or programs, and driving change within complex organizations
- Virtual and/or in-person group facilitation experience a plus
Working at ICF
Working at ICF means applying a passion for meaningful work with intellectual rigor to help solve the leading issues of our day. Smart, compassionate, innovative, committed, ICF employees tackle unprecedented challenges to benefit people, businesses, and governments around the globe. We believe in collaboration, mutual respect, open communication, and opportunity for growth. If you're seeking to make a difference in the world, visit www.icf.com/careers to find your next career. ICF-together for tomorrow.
Canada Remote Office (CD99)Need help? We're here:ICFCareerCenter@icf.com
About ICF
ICF (NASDAQ:ICFI) is a global consulting services company with over 7,000 full and part-time employees, but we are not your typical consultants. At ICF, business analysts and policy specialists work together with digital strategists, data scientists and creatives. We combine unmatched industry expertise with cutting-edge engagement capabilities to help organizations solve their most complex challenges. Since 1969, public and private sector clients have worked with ICF to navigate change and shape the future. Learn more at icf.com.

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