Director of Grants and Operations

About the Role

The Director of Grants and Operations is a senior role within the Jack Petchey Foundation with responsibility for leading our operations, partnerships and grant-making. You will ensure that our operations are agile, efficient, effective, forward-looking and robust. In addition, you will have strategic responsibility for ensuring our grants and partnerships teams deploy over £10m pa to benefit young people and strengthen the youth sector across London and Essex.

As a member of the Executive Team, you will play a crucial role in delivering our ambitious strategy, expanding our impact and investing more through JPF’s proven grants and partnerships. You will work to ensure that JPF programmes benefit more young people, particularly in areas and groups with the greatest need.

We are seeking an experienced, forward-thinking leader with a proven track record of building and improving highly effective operations functions within complex organisations. You will bring strategic vision and operational excellence, ensuring that our systems and processes are robust, inclusive and future-focused. With significant experience in digital transformation, financial oversight and people leadership, you will know how to create the infrastructure that enables impact at scale. At the same time, you will be motivated by our mission, committed to youth empowerment, comfortable leading high volume grant programmes, developing programmes to fill identified gaps, and skilled at translating strategy into practical action.

Main Areas of Responsibility:

You will provide strategic leadership to our operations, partnerships and grant-making, ensuring that JPF

achieves maximum positive social impact through our programmes, funding and operational delivery.

Key responsibilities include:

Strategic Operational Leadership

 Lead the strategic development and implementation of operational infrastructure, including HR, IT, digital

systems and facilities.

 Lead and oversee digital transformation and the efficient and effective use of CRM systems to support

effective decision-making and operational delivery.

 Ensure robust, efficient and inclusive systems, policies, and procedures that drive organisational

effectiveness and resilience.

 Ensure systems are user-friendly and future proof.

Financial Leadership

 Provide executive-level oversight of financial planning, budgeting, reporting, analysis and reporting.

 Ensure compliance with statutory, legal, and regulatory requirements.

 Work closely with the Finance Manager to ensure strong financial controls and risk management systems.

Grant Making and Partnerships

 Lead strategic oversight of JPF’s small grants programmes (>£5m pa to over 1500 schools and youth

organisations) as well as our 16 partnership programmes (>£4m pa) and paid youth sector internship

programme.

 Identify and develop innovative partnership models that align with the Foundation’s mission, vision,

values and theory of change.

 Lead the management and implementation of JPF’s c£2m new legacy grants programme.

 Ensure grant-making processes are efficient, from application to evaluation.

 Build and maintain strong relationships with delivery partners, funders and with the sector.

People and Culture

 Lead, manage, and support staff across the Grants, Partnerships and Operations functions, fostering a

high-performing, inclusive and collaborative team culture.

 Foster staff wellbeing and bring excellent judgement and good humour to your work.

 Champion continuous improvement, learning and data-driven decision-making.

 Work to embed youth-centred approaches, safeguarding, equity and inclusion across the organisation.

Organisational Leadership

 Actively contribute to strategic planning and organisational leadership as a member of the Executive

Team.

 Represent the Foundation at events and engagements and act as an ambassador.

 Undertake other duties in line with the role as organisational needs evolve.