Interesting jobs to inspire your search
In the 11+ years we’ve been running Escape the City, we’ve come across our fair share of unique jobs. Ones which cause you to daydream, wonder how on earth you could be doing something so cool, and how that can be your career. Here’s a collection of some of the most interesting careers and jobs we’ve had the pleasure of hosting on our job board. Hopefully, these will inspire you in your own job search.
In the 11+ years we’ve been running Escape the City, we’ve come across our fair share of unique jobs. Ones which cause you to daydream, wonder how on earth you could be doing something so cool, and how that can be your career.
Here’s a collection of some of the most interesting careers and jobs we’ve had the pleasure of hosting on our job board. Hopefully, these will inspire you in your own job search.
1 . Innovation Consultant at Innovation Unit
Salary: £35k - £42.5k
Location: Remote
What does the organisation do?: Innovation Unit is a not-for-profit social enterprise that is deeply committed to making a positive, social impact in the world.
What does it involve?: An Innovation Consultant helps to grow and scale the boldest and best innovations to deliver long-term impact for people, address persistent inequalities and transform the systems around them. Spanning across five main areas the Innovation Consultant would:
1. Leading small-medium innovation projects (up to c£50k)
2. Team member on medium-large projects
3. Helping to win new business
4. External engagement and communications
5. Helping the organisation improve
Requirements: People who can work flexibly and creatively, navigating the boundaries of, for example, health and social care, or children’s and adult social care. We’re seeking diversity of professional and personal experience as we know that this enriches our work.
View the full job description.
2 . Senior Social Innovation Consultant at The Young Foundation
Salary: £45k - £50k
Location: Remote/London
What does the organisation do?: The Young Foundation are determined to make positive social change happen. Its mission is to enable the development of connected, more sustainable and stronger communities across the UK.
What does it involve?: The Innovation Consultant was hired to help support up to eight of the most promising social innovation and mission lead ventures from across the UK focused on supporting people in the following areas:
- Transition to work
- Mental health in the workplace
- Financial inclusion and capability
- Digital inclusion.
The Social Innovation Manager would help them to meet their scaling priorities, establish partnerships and contribute to the delivery of the programmes.
Requirements: Venture support skills, strong networking skills, excellent project delivery skills, coaching skills, collaboration skills as well as insight and research skills.
View the full job description.
3 . Consultant Sustainability & Social Value at Social Value Portal
Salary: Upon application
What does the organisation do?: The Social Value Portal is an online solution that allows organisations to measure and manage the contribution that their organisation and supply chain makes to society.
What does the role involve?:Typical tasks for a Consultant at Social Value Portal include:
- preparing materials for strategy workshops and then facilitating the sessions
- writing detailed strategy documents for clients
- supporting developers throughout the planning process
- producing needs-based Social Value Action Plans
- conducting socio-economic assessments
- speaking at conferences or other seminars/workshops
- writing presentations, bids and reports
Requirements:
- A comprehensive understanding of social value and sustainability
- Minimum of 3 years’ relevant experience working directly with clients
- Enthusiasm for understanding clients’ needs and identifying solutions
- Strong communication skills, verbal and written, with confidence to deliver presentations and workshops but also write comprehensive reports
- Examples of having developed strong client relationships
4 . Junior Sustainability Consultant at Verco Advisory
Salary: £24k - £28k
Location: London/Chorley/Bath
What does the organisation do? Verco Advisory are an energy management and sustainability business, providing high-quality environmental management solutions, turning complex information into simple indicators, robust reporting outputs and operational cost reductions.
What does the role involve?:
The role represents the entry point within Verco’s consultancy career structure and the opportunity to develop and demonstrate the capabilities required to perform a full consultancy role within the business.
- Project management - delivering on time, high quality and to budget requirements.
- Technical input - Providing insightful data analysis to projects to support challenges faced by clients
- Business development - Assist proposal creation and support the team to achieve targets
- Client management - Maintain strong relationships through professional interactions
- Operational - time-sheeting, invoicing, reviews, health and safety etc.
- Performance targets - Share responsibility for meeting or exceeding targets
Requirements: You will have a passion for sustainability and a drive to support others in reducing their environmental impact.
View the full job description.
5 . Consultant at Good Business
Salary: £25k - £35k
Location:
What does the organisation do? A marketing agency making good things happen. Working with organisations that want to ensure they are always a valuable part of our society, as it changes.
What does the role involve? Getting involved in client-focussed assignments, working closely with other consultants and the senior leadership tea. You’ll work on projects ranging from strategy development, to data analysis, to branding and communications, as well as developing social marketing and behaviour change strategies.
Requirements: Someone who:
- has previous experience in a professional environment
- has a proven interest in business, current affairs and social and environmental issues
- has exceptional written, verbal, analytical and communication skills, as well as a proven ability to develop and implement strategies
- has a good understanding of social media and digital channels
- has excellent research skills, and can apply these from the outset
View the full job description.
6 . Bison Ranger at Kent Wildlife Trust
Salary: Upon application
Location: Kent, UK
What does the organisation do? Founded in 1958, the charity is leading conservation organisation covering the whole of Kent and Medway, dedicated to protecting wildlife and wild habitats for everyone to enjoy.
What does the role involve? Looking after and managing a small herd of bison within approximately 200ha of Blean Woods for the West Blean Project. The bison must be kept in as wild a state as possible in order for them to display their natural behaviour, therefore careful and sympathetic management will be essential to the fulfilment of this role. This includes daily inspections of the bison, carrying out health checks and leading on animal escape drills.
Training will be provided as part of this role, which will involve spending several months with ARK Naturr Ontwikkeling at several of their sites in the Netherlands.
7 . Head of Rewilding Investments at The Real Wild Estates Company Ltd.
Salary: £55k - £65k
Location: South West of England
What does the organisation do? Their aim is to help search for, acquire, advise, manage and sell large landscapes that we believe can be restored to nature – rewilded – creating both a very valuable asset for owners, but also a better, more biodiverse world for all of us.
What does the role involve? You will join a small starter team to build an innovative large-scale landscape restoration and rewilding business, working collaboratively with a range of high net worth investors, investment and wealth capital trusts, carbon and natural capital businesses, alongside landowners, land managers and NGO’s like RSPB and Wildlife Trusts.
Requirements:
- A relevant qualification(s), accompanied by good experience in the financial markets, specifically banking, investment trusts or private wealth.
- Well-honed budgeting and financial modelling skills
- Proven ability to sell investment portfolios – a new nature-based asset class.
- Working knowledge of Natural Capital services and ESG valuable.
- Excellent communication skills.
8 . Barefoot Bookseller at Ultimate Library
Salary: Upon application
Location: Baa Atoll, Maldives
What does the organisation do? Ultimate Library provides bespoke book collections and libraries for hotels, resorts, private residences and retail spaces.
What does the role involve? While most of us find that holidays are the only opportunity we get to read for pleasure, finding the perfect book that enhances your destination and opens your mind can be a challenge.
Previous Barefoot Booksellers have provided guests with unforgettable literary experiences from writer’s workshops to personal reading consultations. The lucky individual will have a month’s pre-departure product training with the Ultimate Library team, prior to flying to the Maldives to join the Soneva team for a 6-month placement role
Requirements:
- Excellent written & verbal English skills
- A love of reading & in-depth knowledge of both classical and modern literature
- Experience in bookselling/publishing is highly desirable
- Strong knowledge of running social media pages and following trends
- Experience writing blogs or newsletters
- To be a team player and self-starter with a sense of fun and creativity
Desirable:
- Experienced in sales
- Photography
- Tutoring
9 . Cabin Operations Manager at Unplugged
Salary: Upon application
Location: London
What does the organisation do? Their mission is to give people true time offline from their digitally dependent lives. They do this by building beautiful off-grid cabins close to city life for busy folk like you to lock their phones away and truly switch off for a 3-day digital detox.
What does the role involve? As Cabin Operations Manager you will be the central point of managing the rollout process of each new cabin & keeping us on pace for our cabin targets. You'll be figuring out systems, managing suppliers & local cleaning teams so that every cabin is perfect & guest-ready.
Requirements:
- 2+ years experience working in operations
- Entrepreneurial problem-solving mindset
- Proven record of implementing & improving operational processes
Read the full job description.
10 . Head of Impact at Who Gives A Crap
Salary: Upon application
Location: Los Angeles
What does the organisation do? Who Gives A Crap make eco-friendly toilet paper (as well as tissues and paper towels) and donate 50% of their profits to help build toilets for the 2.3 billion people in need.
What does the role involve? As Head of Impact, you will lead the defining and executing of our social impact strategy, ensuring we’re making as much impact as possible with our donations. As the impact expert, you’ll be the go-to person for all questions related to impact and you will lead initiatives to connect our team and customers to our impact in new and meaningful ways.
Requirements: - You’re a professional optimist with experience in International Development
- You’re passionate about teaching and inspiring others.
- You’re a natural storyteller, and you’ve mastered the art of public speaking.
- You’re a champion for ethics
- You’re an amazing collaborator
- You’re as comfortable in rural Kenya and New Delhi as you are exploring the shops in Silverlake or strolling Central Park.
- You give a crap
Read the full job description.
11 . Organisational Designer at Ideo
Salary: Upon application
Location: New York
What does the organisation do? Ideo is a global design company committed to creating a positive impact.
What does the role involve? You will work as a member of IDEO’s interdisciplinary project teams to help clients achieve bold and meaningful change by designing, testing, and evolving strategies and solutions that build creative capabilities within an organisation. This includes:
- Crafting a research plan comprised of internal and analogous inspiration to understand an organization’s working dynamics and surface opportunity areas and new ideas for change
- Developing new operating models, competency and capability models, and career journey frameworks for companies in times of rapid talent change
- Developing experimental approaches for our clients to prototype new ways of working in their organization
Requirements:
- 5 - 7 years of organizational design and strategic experience working on transformation in large business and corporate environments
- Experience structuring and guiding transformative efforts within organizations — you are an expert in the prevailing organizational theories and can apply, adapt, or completely rethink them as appropriate to different contexts
- Experience in management consulting, human capital consulting, or internal organizational consulting — you can articulate clear and compelling organizational strategies and plans that cultivate capabilities for the future, rather than ones that primarily optimize for today
- Bachelor’s and/or master’s degree in a related field, including but not limited to business administration, organizational psychology, or organizational behaviour
View the full job description.
12 . Chief Investment Officer at Big Issue Invest
Salary: Upon application
Location: London
What does the organisation do? Big Issue Invest is the social investment arm of The Big Issue and a key player in social investment in UK. Set up in 2005, it is founded by social entrepreneurs for social entrepreneurs and supports early-stage businesses right through to some of our leading growth social enterprises.
What does the role involve? The Chief Executive Officer and will be responsible for day-to-day management of all investment areas of the business. This will include both the current FCA regulated Fund Management operation and the Lending operation of the non-FCA regulated Big Issue Invest entity.
Requirements: The ideal candidate will be someone used to engaging in strategic thinking and operational delivery both in lending and fund management. You will lead our talented and committed staff team in a positive and forward-thinking manner.
Read the full job description.
13 . Head of Learning Experience Design at Nesta
Salary: Upon application
Location: London
What does the organisation do? Nesta is an innovation foundation turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. They use their expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.
What does the role involve? You will focus on both the big picture and fine detail, collaborating with internal and external subject matter experts and commissioning external providers where needed. You will work with Nesta’s Learning Experience Designers to build a repository of learning experiences and programmes that equip learners with the knowledge, skills, confidence and support networks to strengthen their innovation capacity.
Requirements: You will have a strong education background and possess a successful track record of designing and delivering learning or capacity building programmes for professionals, plus direct practical knowledge of, and experience in, using innovation practices across different sector contexts, especially in public and social innovation contexts.
An outstanding communicator, you will also have a proven background of supporting practitioners on innovation challenges, while excellent prioritisation, organisational, presentation and facilitation skills are essential.
Read the full job description.
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