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Staff Vacancies

Join the team

Sunseed is run by voluntary staff members. Coordinators' contracts last for a year, while assistants come for 3 or 6 months (both can be extended). You will find the upcoming vacancies and the general work conditions below.
If you are interested in a certain position, please do apply as eventually it will be open.

Now recruiting:

Education Coordinator

The Education Coordinator is responsible for developing the overall educational aspect of Sunseed Desert Technology for volunteers and staff, as well as connecting to networks, potential funding sources, other organisations and educational institutions and individuals on a local, national and international level. This position involves close collaboration within the Office Team and all other Coordinators to ensure that Sunseed’s development as an educational centre of experiential/informal learning, through the delivery of successful educational experiences, both internally and externally, is met. The work is diverse and wide-ranging, depending on the skills and knowledge of the successful candidate.

Core Responsibilities
  • Support the successful completion of the European Voluntary Service programme
  • Facilitation of paperwork and other aspects of internship programs e.g. Erasmus+
  • Researching educational strategies, activities and programmes
  • Networking with local education institutions and projects
  • Making and maintaining relationships with Universities, student associations and other educational groups, etc.
  • Represent Sunseed in public events, such as talks and conferences
  • Organize educational activities such as courses, workshops, open days, external visits, school visits, group visits, guided tours, seminars
  • Develop and oversee a working mentoring system for volunteers and staff at Sunseed
  • Encourage the development of monitoring and evaluation of activities and learning processes
  • Encourage the participation of staff members in courses and seminars for their further skill development

Other Responsibilities 
  • Maintaining and improving signs around the project
  • Conducting tours and giving information to visitors
  • Organising activities for volunteers within the education department
  • Monitoring and recording internships and feedback forms
  • Maintaining files of important contact information on different organisations/networks, materials etc. and ensuring they are properly archived
  • Writing blogs and articles related to the educational activity at Sunseed
  • Researching and writing grant applications to funding sources
  • Organising fundraising events
  • Ensuring that all interns and long-term volunteers receive Sunseed certificates
Requirements 
  • Commitment to promoting low impact living and environmental education.
  • Confident in public speaking, workshop delivery and facilitation with young people.
  • Initiative and creativity to explore new opportunities, networks and ideas.
  • Excellent communication skills, including ability to work as part of a closely integrated team; patience and open mindedness to work with all members of the Sunseed community in a non-hierarchical organisational method
  • Excellent spoken English and Spanish

Maintenance Coordinator

The responsibilities of the Maintenance Coordinator include supervision of the volunteers who are keen to help with the building work, often having more enthusiasm than skills, as well as the application of clear Health and Safety standards. There are also many opportunities to offer new ideas to improve the running of the project and working with other departments.

Core Responsibilities
  • Assisting and supervising volunteers in carrying out tasks
  • Building maintenance and improvements
  • Plumping experience
  • Aceqeiro (water way) maintenance
  • General repairs to roofs, floors, doors, etc
  • Plastering, painting and finishing with a lime wash
  • Tools and materials supervision
  • Applying Safety rules
  • Instructing on proper tool use
  • Ensuring unsafe tools are not used
  • Maintaining and repairing tools

Requirements
  • Experience and knowledge of building skills including plumbing repairs, plastering, painting, carpentry, masonry, joinery, etc.
  • Tolerance of hard physical work in hot conditions
  • Ability to organise work schedules
  • Ability to lead and motivate volunteers, who range from those with a wealth of experience to those with little or none.

Desirable Skills
  • Experience with water heating systems
  • Experience with rainwater catchment systems
  • Experience of ecological building
  • Experience in using power tools
APPLY NOW

Upcoming vacancies:

Sustainable Living Coordinator (Apr ’20)

The Sustainable Living department coordinates the smooth running of Sunseed’s low-impact lifestyle. The department ensures that all visitors contribute to it through shared cooking and household duties. The department is central to educating all volunteers in everyday low-impact, sustainable living and bringing awareness to the no chemical policy. The Sustainable Living Coordinator implements the Sunseed Food Policy to ensure an ethical, healthy, vegetarian diet. It is a very broad role involving many different tasks and getting to the core of community life, keeping the focus on the importance of an integrated and environmentally-aware lifestyle.
Core responsibilities:
  • Household
    • Overseeing the smooth running of Sunseed’s low-impact household
    • Orientating the volunteers on their arrival and educating them in low-impact living
    • Organizing the accommodation and the communal area
    • Supervising hygiene, health and safety, cleanliness, tidiness
    • Publishing and updating rotas, notices and routines
    • Implementing and encouraging no-chemical policy
    • Making organic soap and toothpaste
  • Food Management
    • Overseeing the implementation of the Sunseed Food Policy
    • Promoting solar and energy-efficient cooking
    • Overseeing the SL assistant in the smooth running of the kitchen and food storage
    • Preserving excess produce from the gardens
    • Foraging wild plants and promote their use
    • Processing olives and almonds
    • Baking bread
Other responsibilities:
  • Organizing Sunseed’s presence at local markets and festivals
  • Documenting and evaluating work undertaken

Organic Gardens Coordinator (May ’20)

Specific techniques in horticulture are required to work the terrace system, irrigated by an irrigation channel that dates back to the Moorish era. The project currently cares for twelve gardens which produce a wide range of food crops such as tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, garlic, broad beans etc as well as herbs and fruit.
The role of the gardens are:
  1. To provide food for the project
  2. Education and research
  3. To improve environmental integration by maximizing the cycling of our waste materials.
Our gardens are run strictly according to organic principles. Careful soil management is especially important because of the type of soil (alkaline) and the effects of flood irrigation. Our soil is maintained using compost made on site and manures. No artificial chemicals are used, neither to increase fertility nor combat pests.

Working in the gardens is always popular with volunteers (therefore the Gardens Coordinator needs to be able to work and communicate effectively with a wide range of people).

Core Responsibilities
  • Running a department, advising and working with other departments in a busy project
  • Planning and monitoring a departmental budget
  • Assisting and supervising volunteers
  • Documenting work done
  • Monitoring crop yield
  • Planning work to fit in the projects general activities
  • Tool safety, instructing on proper tool use, ensuring unsafe tools are not used
  • Liaising with staff and trustees as required, including regular written reports
  • Liaising with other organic growers and organisations
  • Planning and production of vegetables and fruit on irrigated terraces
  • Using a mixture of methods such as crop rotation, companion planting, inter-cropping
  • Planning sowing and transplanting times
  • Preparing beds and some tree care
  • Greenhouse Management
    • Propagating plants under cover etc
  • Soil Management
    • starting and maintaining compost heaps
    • crop selection
    • mulching
    • proper irrigation techniques
  • Nutrient Cycling
    • managing humanure
    • storing and using urine
    • preparing liquid feeds from local plants
  • Pest Control
    • using organic methods for prevention and treatment
  • Innovation and Research
    • Trialling and developing effective gardening techniques to meet local conditions
    • co-operating with other departments to trial research projects
    • supervising innovative volunteer projects
  • Education and Documentation
    • Running and contributing to Sunseed courses
    • Conducting tours of the department
    • Overseeing volunteers projects
    • Maintaining up to date information
    • Production of written materials in the form of reports, leaflets, web pages, articles etc
    • Supervision of placement students and working visitors
    • Incorporating volunteers into the work and methodology and development of their own projects to satisfactory completion
  • Administration
    • Writing and supervising the production of reports, documenting larger projects, preparing projects proposals, producing literature
    • Inter-departmental co-operation
    • Work as a team to ensure the smooth running of Sunseed
Requirements
  • Experience and knowledge of all aspects of organic growing
  • Tolerance of hard physical work in hot conditions
  • Ability to lead and motivate volunteers, who range from those with a wealth of experience to those with little or none
  • Ability to work in co-operation with other departments

Required skills:

  1. Commitment to Sunseed’s vision, mission and goals

  2. Commitment to environmental stewardship and social change

  3. Willingness to share knowledge and ideas and encourage learning, teaching and community integration

  4. Ability to give short talks and guided tours

  5. Ability to be flexible, co-operative and welcoming to all visitors

  6. Ability to provide mentoring for visitors and supervise their projects

  7. Good communication skills, good spoken and written English

Desirable skills:

  1. Some knowledge of Spanish and willingness to improve language skills

  2. If over 25, a full driving license valid for driving in Spain

  3. Non-violent communication, sociocracy and facilitation knowledge

Benefits

Vegeterian food

Locally sourced mostly organic food included

Paid holidays

12 days of paid bank holidays per year

Amenities

Internet, cosmetics, detergents, library, etc. provided

Scenic landscape

Unique location within a natural reserve with a natural pool

Coordinator
€ 210

Monthly

APPLY
  • Contract of 12-24 months
  • Accommodation: basic single room
  • 2 paid days off a month
  • 150€ travel assistance at the end of each contract year
All staff are responsible for their own insurance and up-to-date tetanus jabs.
Assistant
€ 26/52*

Monthly

APPLY
  • Contract of 3-6 months
  • Accommodation: basic shared room
  • 40€ travel assistance at the end
  • 2 days paid holidays per month
*26€/month for the first 3 months, 52€/month afterwards. 

Committing to Sunseed 

Living at Sunseed as a community member means more than simply doing your job well. You will be expected to put your environment first and personal needs second.

You will be expected to take part fully in community life, relevant meetings and to assist in duties that are outside of your post like sharing communal duties such as cooking and cleaning, as well as setting a good example in areas such as enthusiasm, safe practices, punctuality and socialising.

All staff participate in the planning and implementation of tasks in their department and contribute to the overall longer-term strategic development of the project.

All staff are responsible for supervising volunteers and implementing the Health and Safety guidelines in all activities. This is of the utmost importance for staff involved in supervising unskilled volunteers in potentially hazardous situations.

All staff are expected to follow and oversee Sunseed’s mission and policies (vegetarian, no-chemical, no-drug), procedures (grievance) and agreements (communal).

Do you think you would fit in with the Sunseed team?