Director of Programme Partnerships

The job of a Save the Children’s UK Director of Programme Partnerships is exciting and fulfilling.

• Do you have significant experience securing and delivering high impact partnerships?
• Do you have experience of strategy development and delivery?
• Do you have strong knowledge and experience in development and child rights issues?
• Are you motivated by our vision of creating a world where every child doesn’t just survive but thrives and can go on to change the world – and of inspiring and leading others to do the same?

If the answers to these questions are yes, we would love to hear from you!

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.

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 results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

Job Purpose

Reporting directly to the Executive Director of Global Programmes, you will be responsible for leading the Programme Partnerships Department with the aim of securing and delivering high impact partnerships and funding for the Save the Children movement.

You will be the key link in Save the Children UK’s accountability and risk management chain and you will be responsible for providing assurance to our Board that our programme risks are managed and mitigated effectively.

Key responsibilities will include leading on Save the Children UK’s relationships with institutional donors and in building strong partnerships that deliver both funding, technical collaboration, and influence for the Save the Children movement as well as ensuring the effective delivery of our programmes through Save the Children International, and other Save the Children Members.

As a rights-based organisation, we are committed to anti-racism and actively opposed to systemic oppression of any form. You will support our commitment to celebrate diversity, challenge inequality, and build an inclusive environment for every one of our employees so we can better represent the children we protect.

Main Accountabilities

The Director of Programme Partnership’s key duties will be to:

Provide Funding & Partnership Strategic Leadership

• Work closely with the Director of Philanthropy & Partnerships to deliver on the financial and non-financial objectives of Save the Children UK’s Partnerships for Impact strategy

• Ensure that ambitious partner strategies and targets are in place and being met for the key institutional accounts that SCUK leads on behalf of the movement

• Ensure that we are future facing in our partnerships approach, ensuring that teams are looking ‘outwards’ and looking ‘forwards’

• Build and maintain influential relationships with senior level counterparts across Save the Children UK’s partner organisations and represent Save the Children UK at strategic external events

• Work with counterparts from across the Save the Children movement to strengthen Save the Children’s overall partnership capability, ensuring the necessary investments and reforms to ensure that Save the Children is fit for the future and remains a partner of choice

Provide Effective Programme Design, Delivery & Risk Management

• Ensure effective oversight of delivery of SCUK’s funding portfolio including ensuring excellent risk management procedures are in place, and that you are ensuring a strong focus on quality and impact

• Build strong and effective relationships with colleagues at SCI Centre, Regional Offices and Country Offices to address both award specific as well as systemic risks, whilst ensuring effective reporting of SCUK’s international portfolio risk to the Executive and to the Board

• Contribute effectively to improved country-level delivery, through effective engagement with movement-wide risk and performance improvement initiatives, including the Right First Time initiative

• Contribute to building a ‘Culture of Impact’ at Save the Children UK, through ensuring high quality programme design for new projects, through encouraging a learning and reflective culture, through ensuring effective data systems to improve management decision-making, and through sharing impact stories

Provide Team Leadership & Management

• Provide excellent leadership to and management of the Programme Partnerships Department, including people, processes, partnerships, programmes and financial resources

• Provide effective line management to direct reports; and ensure effective line management across the wider department, including delivery of diversity & inclusion, and learning and development plans

• Take a strong people focus, ensuring that colleagues across the department feel empowered and supported to deliver at their best, and feel agency and pride in the work that they deliver.

• Play a leadership role in the Global Programmes Management Team and wider Corporate Senior Leadership Team, helping drive a Culture of Impact, supporting cross-organisational initiatives and taking collective responsibility for making Save the Children UK a great place to work

• Role model a commitment to Save the Children’s workplace behaviours and champion Save the Children’s commitments to safeguarding children.

Person Profile

• Demonstrable understanding of development and child rights issues, including a good understanding of the international aid architecture and how partners such as FCDO, UNICEF and the World Bank influence it

• Significant experience of delivering development and/or humanitarian programming at a senior level both at the country level and at a HQ level

• Proven ability to lead and manage a large team of people at a senior level, creating a high-performance culture that matches our ambitions for children with support for staff development and wellbeing. Ability to engage staff effectively when working remotely and in person, including split site teams.

• Experience of strategy development and delivery – including turning high level plans into practical and feasible programmes of work and managing multiple stakeholders., including internal change programmes

• Strong track record of the robust management of significant financial resources and operations, including experience of ensuring compliance with donor and regulatory rules

Aptitude

• A demonstrable commitment to the principles of diversity and inclusion and their practical application and integration in the work environment

• A commitment to Save the Children UK’s aims and core values of accountability, ambition, collaboration, creativity, and integrity

Save the Children UK is committed to diversity and equality of opportunity in all aspects of our work both external and internal. We strive to be an inclusive employer and particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups such as returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people who are LGBT+, from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-term condition, with caring responsibilities, from different nations and regions, and from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.

Remote Working:

The majority of SCUK employees are currently working remotely within the UK in line with UK Government guidance. Commencing July 2021 we will transition to flexible and hybrid ways of working (i.e. a mixture of remote/home and office-based working) as social distancing restrictions ease.

We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview**.**

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

Save the Children UK is committed to diversity and equality of opportunity in all aspects of our work both external and internal. We strive to be an inclusive employer and particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups such as returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people who are LGBT+, from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, with a disability, impairment, learning difference or long-term condition, with caring responsibilities, from different nations and regions, and from less advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.