British Future is recruiting for a new Director of Strategy and Relationships
Closing date for applications: Monday 11th April 2016
Please email the relevant materials to Elizabeth Gibson at info@britishfuture.org
Role title Director of Strategy and Relationships
Role purpose This essential role involves leading on British Future’s strategic relationships with external organisations, to develop the strategy, engage the messengers and raise the resources required to inform and shape public debates about immigration and integration, identity and opportunity, to help realise our organisational vision of a confident and inclusive Britain, welcoming and fair to all.
This role will have a central focus on taking forward British Future’s constructive contribution to national immigration and integration debates, building effective partnerships across economic, civic society and political actors to help secure an approach to immigration and integration which is principled, workable in practice, and capable of securing public consent.
Role description
- To have lead responsibility for extending and deepening the economic, political and civic relationships necessary to maximise the impact of British Future’s constructive contributions to public debates about the future of immigration policy in Britain, alongside related issues of integration, identity and opportunity.
- To generate income to resource and expand our programme of work, from corporations, trusts and foundations, individual donors, and other relevant sources.
- To work closely with partners to develop tested approaches which do effectively engage public concerns about immigration, building relationships with existing and new messengers which can extend the public reach of effective approaches, including seeking to develop new and unusual alliances.
- To contribute directly to both the public-facing and stakeholder-facing outputs of the organisation as relevant.
- To make a significant contribution to the organisation’s business development and growth, by leading on ensuring that strategic priorities for future relationships are aligned to potential sources of funding.
- To contribute to developing and updating the evidence base for British Future’s work, as appropriate, ensuring our work continues to understand the drivers of public attitudes, and engages public audiences constructively and effectively.
This job description is not exhaustive and serves only to highlight the main requirements of the post- holder. Other reasonable requirements may be stipulated by the Director. The job description will be reviewed regularly and may be subject to change.
Person specification
The ideal candidate will:
- Have significant experience of building sustained relationships with high-level stakeholders, in business, politics and civic society.
- Have experience of generating income in a relevant or comparable setting.
- Have a strong understanding of how to influence public policy effectively, whether in migration and integration, or by demonstrating an ability to demonstrate the relevance of comparable experience.
- Be entrepreneurial – with the ability to inspire and motivate alliances and partnerships, including engaging ‘unusual’ suspects with broad reach, and the ability to demonstrate a practical record of doing this (whether on similar issues, or in a different area).
- Good public-facing research and writing skills.
- Financial acumen – and experience of managing budgets and projects.
- Be highly organised – being able to plan, prioritise and deliver to tight timescales, and to manage both strategic and reactive projects effectively.
- Have a high degree of IT competence. (This will be a self-servicing role).
- Understanding of and commitment to the values of British Future.
Conditions
The salary will be in the range £35,000 to £45,000 pa. The remuneration package includes a contribution towards a personal pension plan of up to 10% of gross salary, based on double-matching employee contributions.
The standard office hours are 10am-6pm, Monday to Friday, though a willingness to work flexibly and out-of-hours will be part of the job. Will be some occasional weekend/evening commitments for which time in lieu is given.
Three months termination of contract is required on either side, except during the initial probationary period of six months. The organisation aspires to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes applications from any qualified individual.
The organisation is currently based in central London, near Covent Garden, but the precise location may be subject to change over time.
How to Apply
To apply for the role of Director of Strategy and Relationships, please submit the following materials.
- an application letter, addressing the person specification. Please also state current salary and notice period; and please indicate your potential availability for interview on 19th or 20th April.
- an up-to-date CV, including two referees
- On less than two sides of A4, please set out how British Future should work with economic actors and others in a way which would influence immigration policy over the next 3-5 years, and how you would resource this work.
Please email the relevant materials to Elizabeth Gibson at info@britishfuture.org
About British Future and this role
British Future is an independent, non-partisan think-tank which has charitable status. Its vision is of a confident and inclusive Britain, welcoming and fair to all. We seek to contribute to this by engaging audiences who are anxious, rather than confident, about Britain today, engaging their hopes and fears about immigration and integration, identity and opportunity.
Founded in 2012, British Future has established a significant reputation as a constructive thought leadership voice, developing a sustained public profile in national media debates, and with decision-makers and opinion formers across politics, business and civic society who need to engage in these challenging and often polarised debates. British Future was awarded the ‘one to watch’ award at the Prospect think-tank of the year awards 2015, with the judges citing how British Future was “growing in stature and influence” with its “deep and nuanced engagement with the immigration debate gaining attention at both ends of the political spectrum”.
We now seek to build on influential work, including How To Talk About Immigration (2014) and How (not) to Talk About Europe (2016), by working with partners who can help us to extend the reach of this approach, so as to make a significant practical difference to shaping how future approaches to immigration and integration can effectively address public concerns, promoting approaches which are principled, workable and capable of securing public consent.
British Future was founded with the sustained support of several major trusts and foundations in the Migration Exchange network. Initial funders included: The Barrow Cadbury Trust; The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund; Trust for London; Oak Foundation; Unbound Philanthropy and the Open Society Institute. The post-holder will play a central role in generating new income, as part of our organisational strategy to diversify our funding base for long-term sustainability and future growth. The organisation has a policy of funding transparency, and declares all major sources of funding.
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