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Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a dedicated individual to join us as our Head of Partnership Management to lead impactful partnerships that deliver lasting change, through influencing and advancing our partner relationships for the good of children everywhere.
About Us
Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting change for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.
About you
As our Head of Partnership Management, you will lead a dynamic team responsible for managing our existing partnerships, driving sustainable income growth, and amplifying our impact. Your strategic direction will be instrumental in maximising the value of each partnership, securing vital resources, and ultimately delivering greater impact for children worldwide.
In this role, you will be accountable for:
- Strategic Leadership: Provide vision and direction to the Partnership Management team, ensuring we remain leaders in impactful partnerships with the private sector.
- Team Leadership: Lead and support a team of Partnership Managers, fostering growth and maximising the holistic value of partnerships.
- External Engagement: Represent Save the Children UK externally, driving our profile and networks with key organisations and stakeholders.
- Internal Collaboration: Collaborate across departments to maximize the value of Save the Children in our partnerships and ensure alignment with organisational goals.
- Operational Delivery: Oversee budget management, resource allocation, and strategic planning to achieve partnership objectives effectively.
To be successful, it is important that you have:
- Proven track record of leading seven-figure partnerships with global businesses.
- Experience influencing and delivering results cross-organisationally in a large complex organisation.
- Strong leadership and influencing skills at senior levels.
- Experience in team leadership and strategy development.
- Excellent written and presentation skills, including the ability to engage at CEO level.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills for effective networking and negotiation.
- Understanding and application of commercial and financial principles.
What we offer you:
- Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.
- To have the best (and happiest) employees we focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health, and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
- We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day.
Closing date: 19th May 2024
Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately, once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
Ways of Working:
The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter). This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building.
Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense.
Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.
Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:
Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think.
We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.
ABOUT BOND
Bond is the UK network for organisations working in international development. We unite and support a diverse network of over 400 civil society organisations to help eradicate global poverty, inequality and injustice. We strengthen and champion the sector to make international development more efficient and effective. We work to influence governments and policy-makers, develop the skills of people in the sector, share expertise, and build organisational capacity and partnerships.
MAIN PURPOSE OF THE JOB
The role leads on the delivery of Bond’s corporate and CEO level events. This role is managed by the Head of Communications but also works with the corporate and marketing team, the Director of Membership and Communications and CEO.
The primary focus of this role is to manage and deliver high-quality events for Bond’s corporate partners to help them reach their target audiences, and to deliver high level events for CEOs and senior leaders across our network to help provide senior leaders with the support and skills needed to provide effective and supportive leadership.
MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES
1) Corporate events:
• Manage and deliver a range of events to fulfil contractual commitments with corporate partners.
• Ensure the successful execution of events, including hybrid and face-to-face components, across various locations including potential European venues.
• Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to deliver high-quality events that meet partner expectations and contribute to revenue generation.
2) CEO engagement events:
• Develop and implement a comprehensive program of events targeting CEOs and senior leaders within our network.
• Coordinate logistics, including speaker liaison, venue sourcing, and event planning for CEO events throughout the year.
• Work closely with senior management to align events with organisational goals and strategies outlined in Bond’s membership strategy.
3) Special projects:
• Coordinate special one-off projects and events as required by members or donors, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives.
4) General
• Ensure the successful delivery of Bond corporate and CEO events both online and in person, where appropriate.
• Ensure events logistics, including working with any contractors and with any external booking systems are successfully delivered.
• Develop and maintain the Bond corporate and CEO events schedule and ensure that project timelines are adhered to.
• Liaise with speakers and ensure that speakers are successfully briefed
• Support all digital content of uploading and editing sessions and speakers on the Bond website.
• Liaise and work with external event platforms for any major events.
• Scope and research venues and platforms and tools for in-person, online and hybrid events.
• Assist in-person and hybrid event providing support as and when required.
• Working with the Marketing and Membership Manager and Business Development Adviser, ensure that all events communications are delivered in a timely manner and that delegate queries are answered.
• Ensure the successful delivery, when required, of any post-event communications, including blogs and video, and ensure that each event is evaluated.
• Working with the corporate partnerships team, advise and support on the successful delivery of webinars.
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with event delivery, including changes in corporate needs or unexpected challenges.
• Ensure compliance with budgetary constraints and explore opportunities to optimise event-related expenditures.
• Maintain a portfolio of venues (both free and paid-for) that Bond can use when an in-person event is required.
• Ensure that all events meet insurance, legal, and health and safety obligations.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
The ideal candidate would:
• Have at least 2 years experience of events organisation and management in a similar or comparable setting
• Possess strong communication and interpersonal skills to build relationships with sponsors, event partners and participants.
• Be able to engage effectively with senior stakeholders and manage relationships with Bond’s network of members.
• Have a good understanding of how events can generate income
• Be entrepreneurial and flexible, with the ability to identify potential opportunities and partners.
• Be highly organised – 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.
• Have an understanding of and commitment to the values and objectives of Bond
BENEFITS
Bond offers a competitive salary and benefits package including:
- 27 Days Annual Leave + Bank Holidays, with additional staff privilege days, normally between Christmas and New Year
- 7% pension contributions (staff pay 3.5%)
- Flexible working hours (Hybrid working – 1 day, minimum in the office per month)
- Staff Development days
- Perk Box access
- Employee Assistance Programme
- WeCare (Health and wellbeing services, including access to 24/7 online GP services, second medical opinion, mental health support such as counselling, guidance from health professionals, burnout prevention, life event counselling, get fit programmes, nutritionist advice, etc. – for staff and immediate family)
- Interest free season ticket loan
HOW TO APPLY
To apply submit your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for this role by midnight on Wednesday 15th May 2024.
Please note that this advert may close early if a large number of applicants are received.
BOND AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Bond values diversity and works to advance equity and inclusion. All staff have a responsibility to ensure that they are being open, accepting and respectful to all that they come into contact with within their work at Bond, regardless their protected characteristics. Acting in accordance with the EDI policy, Bond staff must contribute to our inclusive organisational culture ensuring that they are aware of and respond appropriately to micro-aggressions, racism, sexism, LQBTQ+ misconduct and disability equity. Bond Staff must not be bystanders, and must report when they witness any unacceptable behaviour.
In order to assess and ensure the continued effectiveness of Bond’s Equal Opportunities Policy, all applicants are asked to complete a short questionnaire when applying. You are not obliged to answer the questions but the more information you supply the more effectively we can monitor our equal opportunity practices. Completion of all questions is voluntary and failure to answer any question(s) will not affect your application in any way.
The information you supply will be treated in confidence and will not be seen by any member of the selection panel responsible for the appointment. The questionnaire will be detached from your CV and cover letter, stored anonymously and used purely to provide statistics for monitoring purposes.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job title: Regional Director, East and Southern Africa
Principal Location: Nairobi (other strategic locations in East Africa negotiable)
Role Purpose:
Street Child is a rapidly growing, child-focused, humanitarian and development organisation. In 2023, Street Child celebrated reaching over one million children across 25 countries over its fifteen years of existence. This was accomplished with and through a growing network of more than 200 national and local actors. The Regional Director will be a standard bearer of this ambition in East and Southern Africa, providing leadership across all countries where Street Child is operational while monitoring and pursuing growth opportunities across the region. As Street Child’s most senior representative in the region, the Regional Director will guide and drive the organisation to deliver on the objective of ensuring all children are safe, in school, and learning.
As Street Child actively seeks opportunities to expand its support for the most marginalized girls and boys, the Regional Director will be responsible for providing outstanding leadership and for resourcing and delivering high impact programming across East and Southern Africa. The Regional Director will work to identify and advance partnerships with regional, national, and local actors, as well as donors. This will require bringing a strong network to the role along with energy to represent Street Child in organisational, regional, and global forums. As Street Child country teams drive delivery for girls and boys, the Regional Director will work with country directors to develop high-functioning teams to deliver and resource ambitious regional and country strategies.
The Regional Director will manage one regional programme coordinator and will progressively assume responsibility for line management of country directors in East and Southern Africa.
Key Responsibilities:
- The Regional Director will act as chief motivator, working collaboratively with country, regional, and head office teams to:
- Cultivate enthusiastic and high-performing teams through outstanding leadership:
- Build, lead and motivate an ambitious and enthusiastic team of Street Child Country Directors and Strategic Leadership Teams.
- Oversee and support the recruitment and development of passionate, motivated, and technically excellent Street Child staff.
- Strengthen Street Child’s culture of learning, for both staff and local partners, by identifying professional and organisational development opportunities that respond to self-identified capacity gaps.
- Build a supportive network of learning and information exchange between regional county teams.
- Be a frequent in-person presence in operational countries, sometimes spending extended periods to support leadership at the country level, including in insecure contexts.
- Oversee the management of partnerships in countries in East and Southern Africa where Street Child does not maintain a direct presence.
- Drive resource mobilization across the East and Southern Africa region, for country programmes, regional strategy, and partners:
- In close collaboration with country leadership, identify country-level needs, seek out opportunities, and support in the development of winning proposals for country programmes.
- Across the region, identify needs and gaps, and drive new potential expansion opportunities in line with Street Child’s global strategy.
- Guide programmatic excellence across the region through robust strategy development and high-quality programme delivery:
- Develop a technically robust and evidence-based regional strategy that identifies Street Child’s comparative value and strategic goals in the region, across humanitarian, development and refugee contexts.
- Continuously consult with Country Directors, programme managers and local partners to ensure programme design and delivery is iterative, adaptive and quality-assured and impact is clearly measured.
- Provide support to local partners to develop organisational development plans and their own high-functioning leadership structures.
- Oversee and work closely with the regional finance team in their development and delivery of accurate, value for money budgets and robust operational processes.
- Ensure that operations and programmes in East and Southern Africa are conducted in line with Street Child’s policies and standards, including in the areas of safeguarding, safety and security, HR, finance.
1) Be a passionate representative of Street Child and our partners, across the organisation and in external forums:
- Represent Street Child at the highest level in East and Southern Africa, including pro-active participation in relevant coordination mechanisms at national and regional level.
- Represent Street Child and the needs of children in East and Southern Africa in global for a as required.
2) Advance and diversify partnerships with the local actors who respond to the needs of girls and boys in their communities, and with donors who can resource the work:
- Lead the development of strategic partnerships with relevant actors including donors, INGOs and local/national government, including at the regional level.
- Oversee the development of a resource mobilisation strategy for the region based on Street Child’s expertise and donor priorities.
- Lead and/or support Country Directors in the development of high-quality and highly competitive institutional funding proposals.
- Proactive engagement with Street Child UK head office and programmes team on strategic, networking and fundraising activities.
- The Key Responsibilities provide a high-level view of the Regional Director role. These responsibilities will evolve as the Regional Director expands Street Child’s reach across East and Southern Africa. Street Child operates with an entrepreneurial spirit that may require staff to step-up and step-in to reasonable tasks beyond the initial description of their role. The Regional Director may occasionally be called upon to provide surge or scoping support to other parts of Street Child Programmes as delegated by the Director of Global Programmes.
Qualifications and Experience:
- Significant senior management experience, leading high-functioning programme regional or county teams in the humanitarian and development sector. Previous experience as a country or regional director is preferred.
- Strong strategic thinker, with demonstrated expertise developing, resourcing, and delivering strategic plans at the regional or country level.
- Demonstrable experience of proposal development and/or winning funding; Experience in both humanitarian and development contexts.
- Strong command of the localisation agenda, and commitment to local level leadership and decision-making.
- Strong experience delivering high quality education and/or child protection programming.
- Excellent written and spoken communications in English.
- Experience working in the East and Southern Africa region.
- Demonstrated experience working closely with and in support of a multitude of partners including those from local civil society, government, and the private sector.
- Excellent relationship building skills, with an ability to skillfully navigate both national and international stakeholders.
- Willingness to actively engage in program development with country teams including extended missions to support at country level (significant travel expected).
- Additional language skills with a preference for Swahili, Portuguese, French, Somali, or other regional language
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.