Very worthwhile and interesting job available with the Open Food Network

Are you interested in helping create food sovereignty in the UK? Would you like to help create food systems in which everyone has access to affordable, nutritious, culturally-appropriate food? Are you creative, motivated, autonomous? Do you like to inspire others to act and become involved in the movement for a fair food system?  We might just have a cool job for you!

As OFN grows we are looking for another person to help with the support and social media roles.  We are looking for someone who is comfortable using IT and social media, excited about OFN and is good with people.  They need to be able to work flexible hours from their own office and be able to respond to support requests on most days.

What is the Open Food Network?

OFN UK is a collaboration helping power the food revolution. Our team includes fundraisers, facilitators and a wealth of experience in running local food enterprise. We use innovative, open source software designed to help local food enterprise be streamlined yet connected to the people that eat your food. Built to further the movement for food sovereignty in the UK and around the world, OFN UK is a social enterprise built on co-operative principles to support change in how our food is produced, distributed and eaten.

The Open Food Network software is designed to help:

• add flexibility to community agriculture projects and box schemes
• add diversity to food hubs with wholesale functionality
• add resilience to farmers markets with pre-ordering
• add revenue streams to producers with an online shopfront
• streamline administration of local food projects with simple reporting that links with accounting systems
• support our food system to network, collaborate and GROW

Job description

The role is diverse (see below the range of things you’ll get to be involved in) and flexible. You can work from anywhere at any time. The role will start with one day a week, largely focused on social media with training in customer support. We anticipate this will increase as OFN grows. We need you to help us grow and we hope you’ll grow with us!

As a growing organisation we are offering this role on a self-employed basis, and the salary reflects this. We anticipate 30 hours per month at £16.67 per hour to begin, with the possibility and expectation to expand this role as fitting with your skills and goals. You will need to join fortnightly online meetings with the administration team, but other than this your hours are flexible.

Key Responsibilities

Lead OFN Social Media Communications

• Develop OFN UK brand awareness and online reputation
• Develop a publishing schedule for WordPress, Facebook and Twitter.
• Plan and implement specific and timely online marketing campaigns
• Promote OFN user enterprises.

Supporting OFN users and customers

• Responding to support enquiries by email, answering questions from hubs, producers and customers. Directing users to further support in the OFN User Guide and community forum.
• Providing support and demonstrations of OFN via Hangout and phone
• Responding to support enquiries on the OFN community forum and maintaining a catalogue of relevant questions and enquiries
• Identifying where a support enquiry is a software bug or error and escalating to the development team.

Additional Responsibilities (to suit your interests and goals)

Reporting software issues to the development team

• Outlining specifications for software bugs and errors and lodging issues on Github
• Assisting in testing of bug fixes and providing feedback to development team
• Reporting back on bug fixes to customers and the OFN community forum

Reporting on and building the OFN UK customer base

• Following up new user registration with offer of support, identifying opportunities for enterprise collaboration and facilitating this
• Identifying barriers to user take up and developing support processes and resources that can overcome these

Participating in the wider development of OFN

• Engaging in discussions in the OFN International community forum, with a particular focus on UK user needs, and assisting in the development of support systems for other OFN instances
• Identifying needs and opportunities for further development of OFN UK and raising these in the appropriate forums
• Assisting with testing of new software features, developing an understanding of their functionality ahead of UK rollout
• Contributing to the development of the OFN user guide as new functionality is added

Other responsibilities

• Participating in networking and promotion opportunities for OFN, including conferences, trade fairs and workshops
• Delivering occasional in-person support visits and workshops for new users

Person specification

• Proven knowledge of WordPress, Facebook, Twitter for marketing.
• Good communication skills, both written and verbal; ability to filter information, explaining sometimes complex issues in a clear and concise way, and breaking down processes into easy to follow instructions.
• Ability to self-organise, manage time, and prioritise work unsupported. Experience of working remote from a team is desirable.
• Good IT skills, with a basic understanding of different web platforms and their use (although knowledge of programming and development is not necessary)
• An understanding of the logistics of food hubs / producers / small businesses and how on-line sales can enhance and support their businesses in the UK
• An interest in the wider food sovereignty movement and how co-operative collaboration can address environmental, food-justice and community development issues in the UK
• Flexibility with working hours, ability to prioritise urgent issues as they arise

Hours & remuneration

This is a self employed role with initially up to 30 hours per month at £16.67 per hour. You will be required to record your own hours and submit an invoice for payment at the end of each month, and are responsible for paying your own tax and national insurance. There is flexibility as to when these hours are worked, but we are looking for a fairly quick response time to social media and user queries, so regular email checking is required. We anticipate that the hours available will grow to 60 hours per month by the end of 2017. After a probationary period this is a one year contract with high likelihood of extension.

How to apply

Please send an application with cover letter explaining how you meet the key responsibilities and person specification along with your CV/resume to [email protected] and make a note of these dates:

1. Applications close Wednesday 5th April
2. by 12th April we will let everyone know our decision about who we will interview
3. interviews will be online by hangout on Wednesday 19th April – please let us know if you have any time restrictions for a 45 minute interview on that day.

Looking forward to hearing from you.  Any questions please contact [email protected]