About the role

Dark Matter Labs is looking for an experienced policy practitioner to lead its policy and regulatory innovation work within NetZeroCities — the Mission platform delivering the EU Mission for 100 Climate Neutral Cities by 2030.

This is a role for someone who can both coordinate a portfolio of policy work and get into the practice of it. You will hold relationships with NetZeroCities consortium partners, frame and triage challenges that cities face on their pathway to climate neutrality, design and deliver policy processes, and bring in the right expertise at the right moment. You will need to communicate the underlying logic of mission-driven policy innovation — how power works in multi-level governance, what the real constraints on cities are, how you move from identifying barriers to actually brokering change — with confidence and credibility at EU, national, and city level.

The role is for an entrepreneur as much as a practitioner. It requires end-to-end ownership, comfort with ambiguity, and the judgment to make good decisions in politically complex environments without getting consumed by them. Even though this role description focuses on NetZeroCities only and is therefore fixed term, we envisage that policy innovation will always play a critical role within DML’s work in cities and beyond. Therefore, depending on the candidate, the role may stretch into other aspects of DML’s policy innovation work beyond NetZeroCities. We imagine that candidates who bring deep leadership and entrepreneurial energy to the role would support the building out and delivery of a wider DML / cities transition policy portfolio beyond the term of the NetZeroCities funding. 

Context

Over the past three years, Dark Matter Labs has built a distinctive approach to mission-driven policy innovation within NetZeroCities. Working across EU-level policy  labs, national-level policy studios, regulatory sandboxes, and city-level engagements, we have developed a body of tested practice — formats, methodologies, and hard-won relational capital — for helping cities move beyond barrier identification into genuine policy and regulatory change to accelerate the transition to climate neutrality.

We are now entering the fourth grant agreement (which has been scoped)  and preparing for the fifth and final grant agreement, where our work supporting  cities is evolving toward a more challenge-led model: organising around a smaller number of mission-critical challenge spaces, building deeper pathways for cities and national-level conversations, prioritising key EU levers for change, and making the practice more legible and replicable. This is a pivotal moment. The architecture is partly built. The task is to carry it forward, sharpen it, and help shape what comes next.

The person stepping into this role will inherit an active portfolio, established relationships, and a set of tested tools and formats. They will also need to bring their own judgment, navigate a dynamic consortium environment, and contribute to delivering and further building the next phase of the work.

About Dark Matter Labs

Dark Matter Labs is a purpose-driven organisation working at the intersection of systems change, institutional design, and public innovation. Our work spans urban transformation, governance design, public-private collaboration, and mission-oriented policy. NetZeroCities is one of our flagship programmes, and the policy innovation work sits at the heart of our contribution to it.

We are committed to building diverse, capable teams and welcome applications from people with non-traditional career paths who bring the right combination of depth, judgment, and practical experience.

About your location

Remote-flexible; European base preferred. We are able to employ in the UK, Netherlands and Sweden via our entities based there. We are also able to employ within Europe through Employer of Record Services (we currently have employee hubs in Spain, Germany and Denmark). Please note that due to employment investment disparities across geographies, we are currently unable to hire in France.

What you will do

Hold and develop the policy innovation portfolio

Maintain oversight of the full range of policy and regulatory innovation work within NetZeroCities — across EU labs, national platforms, city-level engagements, and emerging challenge spaces. Track what is happening, identify gaps and emerging opportunities, and make sure the right support is reaching the right places. Coordinate internal team members and external partners around specific workstreams without pulling specialists away from the work they do best.

Broker relationships and build delivery teams

Serve as a primary point of contact for consortium partners on policy and regulatory matters. Know the dynamics of each relationship well enough to get the best out of them. Build and coordinate delivery teams around specific challenge spaces, bringing in specialist expertise — legal, regulatory, technical, local — at the right moment and in the right way.

Design and deliver policy processes

Working with tested formats and alongside colleagues, design and deliver policy innovation settings and targeted workshops at EU, national, and city level. Be confident presenting and facilitating in these settings. Communicate clearly to diverse and senior audiences about what mission-driven policy innovation is, what it requires, and what it can produce.

Navigate the consortium environment with judgment

Understand what NetZeroCities offers as a platform and a leverage point for doing substantive work with cities. Be clear on what is DML's to deliver and what is not. Invest in the relationships and political dynamics that matter while staying oriented toward outcomes. Know when to engage deeply and when to hold the line.

Contribute to strategic development

Help shape the evolution of DML's policy innovation approach as the Mission evolves over the next years. Feed into programme design, challenge space framing, and the broader development of the City Transition Lab portfolio. This is not a role that executes a fixed brief — it is a role that contributes to building what comes next.

What we are looking for

Non-negotiable

• Policy depth. Practitioner experience at the intersection of policy, cities, and multi-level governance. You have worked in or very closely with municipalities, and you understand how policy and regulatory change actually happens — the politics, the timing, the relationships, the implementation realities. Within this, direct experience with climate policy in cities would be strongly preferred.

• Clear-headed  judgment. You can read a room, navigate complex organisational dynamics, and make sound decisions with imperfect information. You can spot opportunities and put the finger on what is genuinely needed.

• Coordination and communication. You can hold a portfolio, manage relationships across a consortium, and be a reliable and credible external contact point for partners.

• Confidence in front of rooms. You can communicate clearly and compellingly to senior, diverse audiences at national and EU level — as a presenter, a facilitator, and a conversation partner.

• Entrepreneurial mindset. You take end-to-end responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks. You are comfortable with ambiguity and can build as well as deliver.

• Breadth of ownership. You are willing to do the full range of the work — including the coordination, relationship maintenance, and consortium engagement that makes the substantive work possible.

Strongly preferred

• Direct experience in or with one or more European national contexts relevant to the NetZeroCities portfolio — Romania, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Netherlands, or comparable.

• Awareness of  / experience in EU-level policy processes, particularly in technical areas relevant to urban climate transition — e.g. energy, built environment, mobility, planning, finance, or governance

• Familiarity with EU-funded programmes and consortium environments, ideally Horizon Europe or similar. This is learnable, but prior fluency is a genuine advantage.

• Experience designing and facilitating policy labs, regulatory sandboxes, or similar structured innovation processes.

Nice to have

• Experience working with or within EC-funded environments, national government, or major city institutions.

• Fluency in one or more European languages beyond English.

An honest note on the role

This is a complex operating environment. NetZeroCities is a large, multi-partner consortium with its own dynamics, politics, and demands. The role requires someone who can navigate that environment without being consumed by it — who understands the difference between activity that matters to create Mission-level impact and activity that doesn’t, and who can protect space for the substantive policy work while still doing the coordination that holds everything together.

We are not looking for someone who wants to focus exclusively on deep city engagement and be shielded from the consortium layer. Nor are we looking for a programme manager who does not engage with the policy practice. The right person will see the coordination and the practice as two sides of the same role.

Who you will work with

You will sit alongside Joost Beunderman (DML Director, NetZeroCities) and work closely with:

• Tom Beresford — policy practitioner, specialising in process design and the Finnish national-level Mission policy work

• Ana Méndez de Andés — urban policy and planning, involved in the Spanish policy innovation work

• Alex Anghel — leading the Romanian national policy innovation studio

• A wider set of consortium partners across the programme, including EuroCities, EnergyCities, Climate-KIC, UPM, Demos Helsinki, ERRIN, and others

There will be a structured handover and onboarding period with the outgoing lead, including warm introductions to key relationships across the consortium and city portfolio.

Pay

Our approach to pay has always been a participatory and collective process involving the entire team. Over time, we’ve experimented with different models, and we’ve recently launched our new Base Pay Formula, which is composed of the following elements:

• Geographic living costs

• Tenure at Dm

• Starting assets each individual brings into their Dm role upon joining. For this role, we recognise two types:

  • Must-have:

    • Relevant relationships and networks — active relationships within the ecosystems of urban policy innovation in Europe, climate governance, or EU-funded programme that are directly relevant to the work and that DML and the consortium can benefit from.

    • Applied technical skills — a working body of knowledge across specific fields of urban / national climate policy, multi-level governance, policy and regulatory innovation practice, and EU programme environments. Holding multiple technical skills counts as one asset.

  • Nice to have

    • Renowned and trusted reputation in the field — a visible presence in relevant fields, through published work, speaking, or recognised practice, that lends credibility and reach to the work.

    • Commitment — six or more years of sustained dedication to a mission of system transformation in a relevant field, prior to joining DML.

You can estimate your pay using this calculator. Please note the range given at the top of the job description is the pro-rated amount and does not include pay rebalance, your actual pay will depend on the factors listed above.

We recognize that no formula can fully reflect the unique context of every individual. That’s why we also have a Pay Rebalancing process in place, reviewed annually, to accommodate individual circumstances.

In addition, we offer Shared Benefits and Leave Budgets, which are added to the gross salary. These were set collectively by the team and vary based on statutory provisions in different geographies. We’ll be happy to confirm the specific approach relevant to your location and contract type.

Our holiday policy includes a minimum of 28 days per year (pro-rata), but we encourage you to take as much time as you need to truly rest and recharge.

Your Hiring Journey at Dark Matter Labs

This page outlines how the process will look if you apply. We recommend checking it, and if you have any questions, please reach out at join@darkmatterlabs.org.

For this role, we do not require a CV, as we aim to focus more on your potential than your past experience. In saying that, we are confident this isn’t an entry level role. Instead, you will be asked to answer four sift questions (250 words max each) related to the role, which will hopefully also help you determine if this role truly interests you. We expect to hold three rounds of interviews for this role with the first round commencing September 8th.

Applications will be reviewed and called for interviews on a rolling basis. We are expecting a high number of applications, therefore the sooner you apply the better.

Thank you for your time and energy!