Director of policy jobs in washington d c, district of columbia

This new role, partially funded by the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund, builds upon the work of the previous Partnerships and Engagement Officer role with an expanded focus on reaching people from multiply marginalised communities.

The main focus of this role will be to increase engagement with our flagship service, the Wizzybug Loan Scheme, expanding the reach of the scheme and ensuring that all children who could benefit from early years powered mobility are aware of the loan scheme and how to apply. Following a gap analysis of existing service users in 2024, this role will seek to create new partnerships and inclusive marketing and communications that will help us reach families with whom we are not currently engaging. 

This is a fantastic opportunity to join our dynamic team at an exciting time of growth across our charity, and to make a meaningful difference through our work supporting disabled people to live with greater independence.

You will be driven by achieving excellence in your work, living and breathing the Designability behaviours every day; Reflective, Tenacious, Collaborative, Curious and Honest.

Essential Criteria for the role

· Commensurate experience in an applicable role.

· Relevant experience in community engagement, partnership working and building networks

· Experienced networker able to identify new prospects and establish relationships with a focus on long term support

· Experience of recruiting and managing volunteers

· Experience of partnership and stakeholder management

· Experience of working with or delivering services for multiply marginalised communities

· Experience of booking and managing stands at exhibitions and events

All applicants must be willing to undergo safeguarding checks, including checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service and employment references. 

All applicants must have a legal right to work in the United Kingdom without the need for visa sponsorship - Designability is not able to provide visa sponsorship.

Benefits that come with working for Designability

Looking after its employees is important to Designability – supporting everyone to be happy and healthy means that we live our values of being creative, practical and inclusive and in turn meet our mission to enable disabled people to live with greater independence. We offer a range of employee benefits, including flexible working, a generous annual leave allowance and substantial employer contribution pension scheme.

Designability is a Real Living Wage and Disability Confident Employer. We are committed to recruiting the best person for the job, based solely on their ability and individual merit as measured against the criteria for individual roles; through a process that is fair, open, consistent and free from bias and discrimination.

All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, disability status or length of time spent unemployed. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to making reasonable adjustments.

‘Offer an Interview’ Scheme:

Designability welcomes applications from disabled applicants and is committed to offering an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role, as set out in the job description.  If you wish your application to be considered under the ‘Offer an interview’ scheme’, please indicate this in your covering letter.

To apply:

Please submit your CV and a covering letter (detailing how your skills and experience meet the essential criteria detailed above and in the Job Description.

We are happy to provide information about this role in alternative formats where possible and receive applications in alternative formats.

Recruitment Timeline

1. Applications open: Tuesday 3rd June 2025

2. Applications close: Tuesday 1st July at midnight, however we will close the vacancy if we have received sufficient applications, so please apply at your earliest convenience.

3. Interviews will be held in early July at our offices in Bath at a mutually convenient time.

Join our friendly and mission-driven team at NFER, where you’ll help bridge the gap between research and classrooms. This is your chance to bring vital insights directly to schools – raising awareness of the NFER Classroom brand and increasing the reach and impact of our research findings within the education community.

Pay: £36,000 - £40,000 (FTE)
Contract: 18-month fixed-term contract
Hours: Part-time (21 hours)
Location: Remote within the UK, with occasional visits to our Slough office (approx. 6 times per year)
Annual Leave: 30 days plus 4 paid closure days FTE
Pension Contributions: 10% employer contributions
Family Support: Enhanced maternity/parental leave and paid compassionate leave

What you’ll be doing
In this role, you’ll be at the heart of our mission to connect schools with powerful, practical research. You’ll take a leading role in shaping how NFER communicates with educators, using your creativity and insight to bring our work to life across digital channels.

One day you might be crafting social media content that sparks conversation among teachers, the next, you’ll be writing an email newsletter that lands just right with a headteacher seeking evidence-based ideas. You’ll help turn research into engaging, accessible summaries, so schools can quickly grasp key insights and put them into action.

You’ll also update and improve our For Schools website pages, ensuring every word is useful and user-friendly. Behind the scenes, you’ll track performance using analytics, learning what works and what could work even better. And throughout it all, you’ll collaborate with researchers, designers, and communications experts to deliver thoughtful, impactful campaigns that schools actually want to read.

PERSON SPECIFICATION
Essential skills and experience:

• Experience in marketing communications or a related role
• Excellent writing skills and creative flair
• Confidence using digital tools such as social media platforms, Canva, Google Analytics and CRM systems
• Strong time management and the ability to work independently
• A collaborative approach and a clear focus on impact
• Experience working in or with schools is a bonus, but not essential.

If you meet only 70% of our essential skills, still apply; you may have skills we didn’t know we needed.

Other roles you may have experience of include: Marketing Executive, Marketing Officer, Marketing Assistant, Marketing Coordinator, Marketing Specialist, Brand Executive, Communications Executive, Digital Marketing Executive, Social Media Executive, Content Marketing Executive, Email Marketing Executive, SEO Executive

WHY NFER?
At NFER, we are recognised globally for providing trusted research, resources and insights that drive meaningful change. By joining us, you’ll contribute to a mission that prioritises impact over profit, working in an environment where collaboration, flexibility, and inclusion are valued.
What we offer:

• A supportive and inclusive workplace culture.
• Opportunities to develop your skills and advance your career.
• Flexible working arrangements to support work-life balance from day 1.
• The chance to make a real difference in the education sector.

APPLICATION PROCESS
We are reviewing applications on a rolling basis and encourage you to apply early. Shortlisting will commence from 23rd June 2025.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you require any adjustments or accommodations at any stage, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to support
you and ensure a positive experience. For further details, please review the Job Information Pack.

If you’re ready to bring your skills and passion to a role that makes a difference, we’d love to hear from you. Apply now and start your journey with NFER.

Sands exists to save babies’ lives and ensure that anyone affected by pregnancy loss or baby death receives the support and care they need.

Bereaved parents and families are at the heart of why Sands exists. Sharing their experiences of pregnancy and baby loss, and what connects and involves them with our work, is both an important part of their bereavement journey and a way to demonstrate the need for our vision and mission to succeed. This role will help us to show in a real and human, authentic way, what Sands is doing to save babies’ lives and support bereaved families.

Sharing these personal stories in external communications will help us reach more people, bringing to life the work we do in a way that engages diverse audiences, and increasing the likelihood of their taking actions in support of Sands.  

This new role has been developed to support the Communications & Engagement team to develop our story-telling function, build our real stories library and ensure the associated consent and stewardship processes are compassionate, efficient and effective. The Stories Officer will ensure wherever possible, that external communications assets and content created by teams across Sands includes the voices of people touched by pregnancy and baby loss – including those who have been personally affected, and those who are allies of Sands, such as healthcare professionals, corporate partners, research partners, fundraisers and more.

You will have experience of working in a charity stories or communications team, or in a stories-led environment such as journalism.

A good knowledge of compliance and safeguarding issues, including experience of working with vulnerable people in a communications context is required.

With excellent written communication and creative skills, you will be able to produce work that captures and conveys real life experiences in a sensitive and compassionate tone.

You will be highly organised with the ability to multi-task and work across more than one project simultaneously.

Job Purpose

The Senior Project Manager is responsible for strategic and operational oversight of the effective delivery of the Creating Community Connections Pilot, ensuring the successful delivery of the pilot project, balancing the demands of supporting the various partnerships between funders, providers, and stakeholders to collectively deliver the required impact and ensure contract compliance.

Creating Community Connections is a three-year Domestic Abuse (DA) pilot Project, funded by HMPPS. The project is led by a partnership of women’s centre providers - Women in Prison, Anawim, Together Women, and Nelson Trust and aims to connect women in prisons with vital specialist community support services across the country, especially women's centres and organisations providing support around DA. By connecting prisons and women in custody to a network of local women’s services, we hope to aid resettlement and support engagement with holistic support to meet women’s needs, address root causes of offending, improve outcomes on release and intercept cycles of trauma, disadvantage, and abuse, with a particular focus on DA services. The project will ultimately support women who have experienced domestic abuse and work with them so that their experiences do not negatively influence their opportunity of successful resettlement back into the community.

Key Responsibility Areas

1. To lead and take accountability for the delivery of the Creating Community Connections (CCC) project.
2. To actively engage with funders, stakeholders, delivery partners and the internal team(s), to build a solid understanding of the CCC Project.
3. Provide effective leadership to direct reports, fostering a positive, supportive and collaborative team culture.
4. To have oversight on a cross-organisational basis of leading practice in project management methodologies, tools and techniques advising teams and colleagues on suitable approaches to ensure the effective delivery of a range of diverse projects and programmes.