Type: Full-Time (40 hours/week)

Reports to: Director, Global Development Initiative

About the Centre for Public Impact (CPI)

At the Centre for Public Impact (CPI), we believe in the potential of government to bring about better outcomes for people. Yet, we have found that the systems, structures, and processes of government today are often not set up to respond to the complex challenges we face as a society. That’s why we have an emerging vision to reimagine government so that it works for everyone. 

A global not-for-profit organization founded by the Boston Consulting Group, we act as a learning partner for governments, public servants, and the diverse network of changemakers who are leading the charge to reimagine government. We work with them to hold space to collectively make sense of the complex challenges we face and drive meaningful change through learning and experimentation.  We have regional teams in Europe, North America, Australia/New Zealand, and India as well as a Global Hub team that provides people and culture, operational, and communications support across the regions.

CPI’s core values are: 

• courageous - we have the courage to speak the truth, to challenge without fear, and tackle the difficult questions

• respectful - we respect differences, we seek to understand them and we look out for one another

• optimistic - we are positive about what we and governments can do for our societies

• inclusive - we are non-partisan, we work together and seek ideas and solutions across the divides

About CPI’s Global Development Initiative (GDI)

The international development community has long-acknowledged that we must Do Development Differently (DDD), recognizing that development practice should be both more adaptive (to respond better to rapidly changing contexts) and place more power in the hands of those it is intended to benefit. Much exploration has been undertaken of the ideas and practices required to support this shift, for example, at a transnational level, the UNDP’s Strategic Innovation Unit (SIU) and Accelerator Labs (ALs) have been exploring the role of learning and innovation in development practice. They have created deep dive sandbox experiments to address complex problems, and created the world’s fastest and smartest learning network of development labs. 

Despite these successes, and a wide acknowledgment of the merits of the DDD vision, the broader goal of shifting development practice more fundamentally remains unfulfilled. CPI joins a growing group of reform-minded individuals and organizations who are championing and experimenting with alternative approaches to public management. We believe our approach to re-imagining government can be adapted toward the outcome of changing the public management context for international development. 

What You’ll Be Doing:

As a Program Manager in the Global Development team,  you’ll be working closely with the rest of the team, spreading your time across client delivery, programs, research, and thought leadership. Program Managers across all CPI teams are expected to:

• Independently hold and manage strong and trusting client relationships

• Lead discrete projects and/or own workstreams of larger projects and develop high-quality deliverables

• Drive analytical and intellectual depth in work products and proactively share our work with broader CPI teams

• Identify and proactively propose ideas around how we can work together more effectively as a team

More specifically for this role, we’re looking for someone who will take responsibility for leading engagement with global development agencies based in New York City. We are seeking to be a Learning Partner to these agencies to help transform their programs/organization. This will require superior program management capabilities, skills in navigating complex programs and building engagements that meet client needs as well as feeding back learning into the organization that helps us to further develop our offer and thinking around different learning partner approaches.

The person we’re looking for will:

• Be passionate about CPI’s vision for reimagining government

• Be comfortable leading projects and running programs with clients/funders

• Have outstanding written and communication skills

• Have a strong understanding of how government works, and in particular how our Vision for Government translates into the global development sector. Knowledge and experience of working within international development is also highly advantageous 

• Have excellent organizational skills and experience with balancing competing priorities

• Have excellent interpersonal skills, including feeling confident building new relationships, and negotiating challenging conversations with stakeholders and partners, if necessary

• Be highly self-motivated and capable of taking initiative and working autonomously

• Demonstrate an empathic and humble leadership approach

• Be a strategic thinker, who will actively contribute to shaping the development and vision of the Europe team, and CPI more broadly

• Be comfortable with ambiguity and the complexity of our work, where anything is possible but not always known in advance

• Feel excited about joining an international organization and be willing to make the effort needed to build relationships and stay connected with colleagues in different time zones

• Be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and feel excited about the idea of working in a startup environment and with a small but growing team

• Be curious and eager to learn

• Be committed to cultivating a culture of equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace

• Be committed to exploring and experimenting with different ways of working and how to build our culture into something we are all proud of, even if this sometimes feels a bit confusing!

We are interested in candidates who have skills or expertise which are particularly relevant to our vision. This includes experience and familiarity with complexity and systems theory; co-design skills; experience working with relational methods; learning design expertise; experience working in government; and experience with complexity-informed evaluation approaches. However, while these skills will be considered a valuable asset, they are not essential and we certainly welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds with unconventional skills or experience that may still be relevant and valuable to our work.

We expect applicants for this role will have 5-8 years work experience. Experience of working within the Global Development space, in particular within international development institutions and/or developing country contexts is desirable

Salary, Benefits, and How To Apply

The salary range for this role is $89,040-137,800 annually. While we are a global social impact/nonprofit organization, the Program Manager for GDI will be employed by CPI’s North America entity. Due to our existing partnerships in this work, we have a strong preference for candidates who are based in New York.

CPI North America offers comprehensive benefits to its employees including a range of high-quality health, dental, and vision plans for individuals and their families; 401(k) contributions with 3% employer match; dedicated professional development funds; generous paid leave (4 weeks per year of vacation time, plus a year-end office closure, paid sick leave, and paid cultural and religious leave); paid parental leave; and summer hours.  We are a remote-first workplace and can provide optional co-working space for candidates who prefer a dedicated workspace outside of their homes.

CPI is deeply invested in creating an experience of equity, inclusion, and belonging for everyone on our staff. We actively seek to recruit, develop, and retain a team of talented staff that represents diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences.  

CPI is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

To advance our purpose of reimagining government so that it works for everyone, CPI seeks to attract and support a diversity of backgrounds, experience, talent, and thought. For this reason, we encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply. This includes candidates that have previously found it hard to be considered for other positions on the basis of their qualifications, disabilities, personal background, or life events. If you would like to apply for the position but see a barrier to joining us, please do apply and we will work with you to understand how we might be able to accommodate your needs. You can also read our full Diversity Equity and Inclusion Policy here.

We are using Applied in order to debias our hiring process and ensure that we are shortlisting candidates based on their skills. Your application will be anonymized for review. Although we ask for your CV, it will not be looked at until further down the process. Please apply by July 8th.