Why work for us?
There’s never been a better time to start your career at Zero Waste Scotland. As Scotland’s Circular Economy experts, we have a vital role in helping communities, businesses and public bodies explore the economic and social benefits of making things last. And this is where you come in.
Enabled by our brilliant culture and driven by our values, you'll use your expertise and passion to help us achieve even greater reach through valuable collaborations and partnerships. You’ll work hard to make an impact and help us solve some of the toughest challenges on the planet. You’ll do this by being bold and challenging the status quo.
Everyone at Zero Waste Scotland plays their part in helping Scotland and its people use products and resources more responsibly – whether they conduct research and influence Government policy, work with business leaders and local service providers, promote our work and share campaigns, provide access to and release funds, improve our internal systems, or look after our people. Let's change the world together.
Work isn’t a place we go, it’s a thing we do
For us, making meaningful progress towards our mission is more important than where we set up our laptops. To inspire, influence and inform Scottish communities, businesses and public bodies, asking you to work from a fixed location (or have a fixed mindset) could actually become a barrier to progress.
In a café, at home, in our well-equipped office or a combination of them all, the decision is yours.
We embrace equity at Zero Waste Scotland and recognise everyone has different circumstances. That is why we cultivate a culture of flexibility and strive to make work-life balance a reality.
Flexible Working at Zero Waste Scotland
As a pioneering digital-first organisation, with great modern office space to provide human contact and opportunity for collaboration, you're empowered and trusted to deliver your outputs in the best way possible.
We also provide;
- An agile and flexible output-focused culture. We’re a matrix organisation, so you’ll often work on more than one interesting project.
- We have a flexible approach to working, so you can choose to spend most of your time working from home or other remote locations. However, there is an expectation that you will attend our office in Stirling on occasion, to collaborate with your colleagues or attend meetings. You may also be required to travel to meet with stakeholders. We’re happy to explain more about our approach to flexible working during your application process.
- Flexible working patterns in all roles
- Part-time and full-time working hours options
- 35-hour working week (for full-time colleagues)
- Working from abroad option (up to 2 weeks per year)
We provide growth – not just development
Growth isn’t one-dimensional at Zero Waste Scotland. We work in multiple sectors and play a leading role in connecting communities, businesses and public bodies and because of this we can provide a variety of growth opportunities.
We are an inclusive organisation, that encourages you to thrive and grow professionally and personally. The world, our organisation and you are evolving so it’s only right that we invest in you and help build your confidence and capabilities for today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.
Growth and Development at Zero Waste Scotland
When you work for Zero Waste Scotland, you should expect to keep learning. Some of your learning will be traditional courses, but there’s much more on offer to help you grow. We provide great project experience, the opportunity for secondments, and in-role skills development to support you to advance your career.
We also support your growth with;
- Online learning, giving you the flexibility to learn at a time that suits you.
- Project opportunities that allow you to learn from others across the organisation.
- Learning frameworks, so it’s easy to know what’s relevant for your role and your future development.
- Career paths, so your learning and development supports your career goals.
- The opportunity to represent Zero Waste Scotland at conferences, and hone your public speaking skills
- Coaching practice
- Mentorship programmes
- Colleague sharing forums
- Colleague drop-ins
Be your authentic best self
We care, and that is why health and wellbeing is a top priority at Zero Waste Scotland. We actively engage with and listen to colleagues to ensure we offer focussed wellbeing offerings and benefits that are useful and promote a healthy body and mind.
To help colleagues focus on what matters most, we work hard to make work-life balance a reality at Zero Waste Scotland. We offer flexibility, meaningful work, competitive remuneration, growth opportunities, useful benefits and an inclusive and safe working environment.
Explore our Benefits
We believe people do their best work when they can be at their best. From our mini mindfulness and exercise sessions, access to mental health first aiders, to our competitive salaries and generous annual leave, we encourage our colleagues to use all their benefits. We offer paid time off for all colleagues to help others by volunteering their time for causes that are important to them.
Here’s some more about our benefits.
- We have a competitive and transparent pay structure which is monitored internally to identify any diversity gaps.
- We offer a very generous pension to help you save for your retirement. You’ll automatically be enrolled into our pension scheme if you are eligible and if you pay 3% or more into the scheme, we’ll contribute 10% of your basic salary. You can make your contributions via salary sacrifice or by net monthly salary deductions.
- We have an online and app-accessible Rewards platform (offering you discounts through a wide range of retailers and service providers, wellness advice and guidance on sustainable consumption).
- Employee Assistance Programme. We have a free, confidential telephone and online service which is available 24 hours a day, seven days per week. This ensures you get support and advice on legal, financial, consumer rights and domestic situations, as well as confidential counselling services.
- We have enhanced family & other paid leaves.
- We offer a generous holiday allowance and encourage all our employees to switch off and unplug. You’ll be entitled to 30 days’ annual leave from the start of your employment, (three days are to be taken when our offices are closed in December), as well as the eight bank holidays (holidays are pro rata for part-time/fixed term contracts).
- We have a Life Assurance scheme in place giving a death-in-service benefit of three times your basic salary to your nominated beneficiary or your estate.
- To encourage you to cycle to and from work, we have a Cycle to Work scheme which allows you to make savings on the purchase cost of a bike and safety equipment. We also have a secure lock-up for your bikes, showers and a drying room for your clothes. If you are not eligible to join the Cycle to Work scheme, we also offer an interest-free bike loan scheme.
- We’re keen for you to hold membership of any relevant professional bodies, where this is required for your role, either as part of a professional qualification or where there is a clear work-related benefit. We’ll be happy to pay for up to two professional memberships.
- Health and Wellbeing. Your health and well-being are of great importance to us. We’ll help to support you in your responsibility for your own health and well-being through annual eye-care checks and seasonal flu jabs. We also provide access to occupational health assistance and supportive occupational sick pay. Our Healthy Working Lives group share regular well-being information and promote healthy activities.
- We know giving something back is important, so we offer every colleague two days of paid Volunteer leave each year.
Join a team of trailblazers
Working at Zero Waste Scotland is not just a job, it’s a mission. With passionate and driven colleagues with us, we will achieve our goals and make an impact on tackling climate change and accelerate Scotland’s transition to zero waste and a circular economy.
We are in a unique and fortunate position to inform, inspire and influence vital shifts in behaviours of governments, businesses and communities, to accelerate progress in environmental programmes that truly make a difference. But we can only do this by valuing and investing in amazing people.
Amazing people don’t just fit our culture they further it. That’s why we encourage you to be different, to develop impactful solutions and use your expertise and passion to forge new ways of achieving greater reach through valuable collaborations and partnerships.
Be pioneering at Zero Waste Scotland
We’re working together to solve some of the toughest challenges on the planet. To be different, we need to think differently and we can only do this by championing diversity and individuality in our workforce.
We want you to be pioneering. To help you achieve this, we offer:
- Support to attend conferences, webinars and discussion forums
- Opportunities to work with experts across multiple sectors
- Encouragement to be truly innovative and creative and make a difference
- Professional subscriptions - up to two professional memberships per colleague, each year
Current vacancies
Our recruitment portal is the home of current vacancies and your application process.
If you’d like to discuss working at Zero Waste Scotland or for any recruitment queries - Email: recruitment@zerowastescotland.org.uk
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
To have the greatest impact, we must be a diverse and sustainable organisation. We are all unique and yet we come together for a common purpose, to lead Scotland to use products and resources responsibly.
Every role at Zero Waste Scotland is open to applications from all sections of society. We believe in the potential of everyone regardless of; sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic origin, different physical ability, neurodiversity, family structure, socio-economics, age, nationality or citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other aspect that makes you, well you.
We are committed to embedding FREDIE (Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement) principles across all that we do at Zero Waste Scotland, and we do that by listening and learning every day.
We are proud to have achieved the Investors in Diversity Award from the National Centre for Diversity and to be ranked in the top 100 UK’s most inclusive workplaces 2023.
This highlights our ED&I achievements to date but also our continued commitment to fairness, respect, equality, diversity and inclusion.
These are some of the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion actions we’re taking now:
- Delivering Equality, Diversity & Inclusion foundation training to all colleagues, leaders and our Board members.
- Embedding inclusive recruitment practices - so we’re more conscious of our own biases, use gender-balanced candidate assessment where possible and monitor applicant and candidate data to check we haven’t introduced bias at any point in our recruitment processes.
We give a lot of detail about the roles in our job adverts, so if you’re appointed, you won’t get any surprises. We think it’s unlikely that most people will match every criterion listed, so please don’t let that put you off applying. If you’re offered a position, we’ll help you develop to gain the skills and experience you’ll need.
We’re proud to have been accredited to Disability Confident Level 2 status by the Department of Work and Pensions. The programme’s purpose is all about creating a movement of change, encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people.
Being recognised as a Disability Confident employer means we have taken significant steps to offer an inclusive and accessible recruitment process and workplace. As part of our Disability Confident commitment, you'll always be offered an interview if you have a disability and you meet the minimum criteria for the role.
