Sustainability Assistant Placement

Sustainability Assistant Placement

Based: High Wycombe
Type: Full-time, 12 month placement
Salary: £23500 pa

What you'll be doing:

The Focusrite Group is aiming to be an environmental sustainability leader that our peers strive to emulate. As Sustainability Assistant, you will report to the Head of Sustainability, working with departments across the Group to embed environmental sustainability into everyday life. It is not essential to have studied a degree related to environmental sustainability – the correct mindset is important.

This role encompasses our entire footprint, buildings, people, hardware manufacturing and product design, all with the overarching goal of following a science-based decarbonisation path and reducing our wider environmental footprint. Strategic and lateral thinking is required – there is no single solution to preventing climate change or reducing our environmental impact. We are continually horizon scanning to identify potential risks or opportunities.

This role will ideally be hybrid, based primarily in High Wycombe at our HQ. Travel will be required to our other offices as needed and attending industry events or conferences as required.

Key activities:

Sustainable Product Design and Engineering.

• Conduct component level product disassembles to support our internal Lifecycle Assessments.
• Research new candidate materials and assess environmental benefits of alternative materials.
• Contribute to the product design process, advising Product, Mechanical and Electronic Design teams, and working with Production Engineering to roll out initiatives.

Communication and written reporting.

• Contribute to our PLC level reporting, including responding to shareholder requests, ESG ratings surveys, and our annual Carbon Disclosure Project questionnaire.
• Content writing and design of our standalone annual Environment and Climate Report.
• Publishing content for internal company newsletters and external shareholders/customers.

Data Science and Analysis

• Analysing, comprehending, and developing business intelligence reports in Microsoft PowerBI.
• Identifying opportunities within the data to pursue and ultimately convert into decarbonisation objectives.
• Preparation of our annual GHG Emissions inventory and associated environmental metrics.

The ideal candidate will have these core skills:

• Extremely organised with an eye for detail – Sustainability is one of the most data-driven roles in the Group and data must be correctly managed and evidence-based.
• Strong presentation, copywriting and communication skills.
• An advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel, along with other Microsoft office applications.
• General engineering and electronics knowledge.
• A broad knowledge, interest and understanding of the current state of the green transition to Net Zero across the manufacturing, logistics, technology and energy sectors.

Beneficial:

• Experience with Microsoft PowerBI or similar business intelligence software.
• Degree subjects that are likely to be relevant are - Music Tech, Business and Management, Climate/planetary Science, Electrical/Electronic/Mechanical/Product Engineering, Environment and Sustainability/Environmental Science or similar courses, Economics/Finance, Global Challenges, Law/International Development Law
• An academic knowledge of Environmental Sustainability.
• Graphic design and Creative skills, particularly with Adobe Creative Cloud Applications.
• Hands on experience building, disassembling or repairing electronics.
• Experience with SQL, M-Language or other similar programming languages.
• Audio Content Creation or Sound Reproduction skills.

About Us

Doing a 12-month placement at Focusrite is like becoming one of the family. A rapidly growing, global family. We’re focused on providing opportunities for everyone and anyone to enjoy creating music.

Our placements are very popular, and that’s mainly because you can really get stuck in during your year with us. We don’t ask you to answer the phones and do the photocopying. We want you to help develop our products, market our brands, speak to our customers and make us better. A lot of our previous placements candidates are now full-time employees.

All placements last for 12-months. We pay you £23500 per year (£25650 for London-based roles), and you get to share some of the same benefits as our permanent employees.

Our brands, Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Novation, Ampify, ADAM Audio, Martin Audio, Optimal Audio, Linea Research, Sequential, Oberheim, Sonnox, OutBoard and TiMax come together around a common mission to remove barriers to creativity.

We work hard. We are professional. And we play hard too. We select really, really talented and passionate people. And we absolutely love our work. So if you think you can bring something new to the mix, we look forward to hearing from you.

Please apply for as many of our placements as you wish.

Timetable for applications:

Deadline to apply: 3rd January 2025

Interviews: January - March 2025

Offers made by: 28th March 2025

As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage people to apply regardless of religion, ethnic background, nationality, sexual orientation or gender identity. We recognise the diversity shortcomings of our industry and are committed to driving change. Equally, we recognise the major impact that climate change is having on our world and work every day towards being industry leaders in a carbon neutral future.