DIRECTOR GLOBAL ECOSYSTEMS

Department: Strategy

Location: One of Luminate’s registered hubs

Reports to: Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer

ROLE

As the Director of Global Ecosystems, you are a system-sensing, future-oriented strategist. You make recommendations on strategic resource allocation, proposing appropriate balance of risk and impact to the Executive team. You enable and coordinate activities shaping the foundational infrastructure in which our work takes place, including incubating new ideas through experimental funding and managing residencies.

Primary System Focus

The sphere of opportunity – ideas and networks that have meaningful potential to expand our reach and influence.

Secondary Systems Focus

Internal strategy and learning systems – translating external insights into tools and frameworks that can be used in different contexts.

Foundational infrastructures – including global convenings, public information and public policy spaces, civil society infrastructure, and innovation partners.

HOW YOU CREATE CHANGE: LEVERAGE POINTS

Your role shifts systems through:

• Strategically allocating and co-ordinating resources for enabling infrastructure globally.

• Seeding and stewarding high-potential experiments through dedicated funding channels.

• Bringing outside-in through structured experimentation.

• Representing the organisation’s vision and values to key audiences in line with partnership, brand and programmatic goals.

• Offering strategic scaffolding (i.e. knowledge, frameworks) that helps regional teams move from reactive / fixed planning to proactive/ adaptive strategies.

MENTAL MODELS WE VALUE

Luminate expects its leaders to embrace key mental models that reflect our values and global best practices. In this role, the following mindsets and behaviours are critical:

• Foresight over forecasting: you think in patterns rather than extrapolations, anticipating multiple future scenarios.

• Infrastructure as leverage: you see foundational systems (e.g. safety, storytelling) as catalysts for long-term programmatic success, and invest in strengthening those systems.

• Power-awareness: you understand how narratives, policy, convening power and your own – and colleagues’ – behaviour can entrench or shift systemic inequities.  You use this awareness to act responsibly and inclusively.

• Disciplined experimentation: you are at ease with both divesting from less effective initiatives and scaling successful ones when necessary, viewing both as essential to learning.

• Building capability pragmatically:  you are mindful of the capacity of internal and external stakeholders to absorb new strategic initiatives, and you build capabilities at a pace and scale that stakeholders can sustain.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Individual

You are responsible for:

• Developing, maintaining and delivering a clear strategy for grant making into enabling infrastructure.

• Designing and managing experiments that advance our mission and building and refresh our knowledge capital.

• Managing Central Fund allocations with strategic discipline.

• Representing the organisation in external convenings with infrastructure partners, innovators, and thought leaders.

• Managing a small team of programmatic staff, including setting and upholding performance and behavioural expectations.

Shared

Together with your director colleagues, you shape:

• The organisation’s agility and responsiveness to learning & system change.

• The organisation’s long-term strategic direction and adaptability.

• Cross-functional coherence between infrastructure, policy, and programmatic work.

DAY-TO-DAY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Convene internal and external actors around shared foresight and infrastructure goals, organising meetings and workshops that drive collaboration and long-range thinking.

• Steward experimental funding initiatives by identifying promising pilots, overseeing their implementation, and capturing learning from successes and failures.

• Represent the organisation in global and multilateral platforms, presenting Luminate’s approach to enabling infrastructure and forming connections with potential partners.

• Support organisational planning cycles with futures thinking and strategic alignment – translating future directions into practical resources and tools that regional teams can use in their contexts.

• Support and supervise a cross-functional team of staff, coordinating efforts between strategy, programme, and partnership colleagues to ensure synergies.

• Ensure effective spend-down of the Central Fund in line with strategy, monitoring expenditures and adjusting plans to maximise impact.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE & EXPERTISE

Core

• Strategic planning and foresight: Strong skills in strategic planning and systems mapping across global, regional, and national contexts, including the ability to apply scenario development and foresight methodologies to anticipate change.

• Adaptive strategy execution: Proven experience in adaptive strategy design and implementation, adjusting plans in response to learning and shifting conditions.

• Facilitation and convening: Excellent facilitation skills with a track record of convening stakeholders across diverse geographies and disciplines, building collaboration and shared purpose.

• Alliance-building: Demonstrated ability to build trans-regional alliances and lead multi-stakeholder processes, uniting different actors around common infrastructure or innovation goals.

• Financial acumen: Solid budget and portfolio management skills with a long-term perspective, ensuring resources are managed efficiently and strategically to support innovation.

Expert

• Innovation management expertise: Experience in innovation management, including incubating new ideas and scaling successful pilots in the social impact or philanthropy sector.

• Infrastructure strategy knowledge: Deep understanding of infrastructure strategy development in relevant domains (such as digital infrastructure, civic tech ecosystems) and how these underpin broader programmatic success.

• Geopolitical navigation: Ability to navigate geopolitical dynamics and advocacy ecosystems, particularly as they relate to technology and governance issues, to position Luminate’s work effectively on the global stage.

REPORTING & RELATIONSHIPS

• Reports to: Chief Strategy Officer

• Manages: A small team of programmatic staff (Global Ecosystems team).

• Works closely with: Strategy Team colleagues (e.g. Director of Philanthropic Practice), regional Programme Directors (to integrate infrastructure initiatives with regional strategies), and strategic communications partners (to share learnings and shape narratives around infrastructure work).

TRAVEL & WORKING CONDITIONS

The role is based in one of Luminate’s regional hubs, with flexibility for hybrid working. It requires occasional international travel (approximately 2–3 trips per year) across Luminate’s priority regions, plus routine cross-time-zone collaboration.