Bridges Outcomes Partnerships (BOP) is a mission driven not for profit social enterprise. We help radically change human services and environmental initiatives to improve outcomes for people, the planet, and value for society. We work with Government, community groups and specialist partners to design and deliver vital services that support people to improve their lives, in areas ranging from housing and employment to education and wellbeing.   

We enable personalised and strength-based delivery through collaborative design, flexible delivery, and clear accountability for improving people’s lives (as outlined in our learning document, People-Powered Partnerships).  Over the last decade, we have supported over 48,500 people in the UK, whilst catalysing £129m of outcomes and, according to Big Society Capital’s Outcomes For All report, delivering over £1.3bn of value to society.  Our work across the UK is now expanding globally. 

The role of Bridges Outcomes Partnerships spans project development (working with outcome funders and others to design and launch the service), project and performance management (coordinating the delivery phase and liaising with the various stakeholders) and project finance (funding the project until it starts to earn outcomes payments). Our own funding comes from a group of pioneering social investors, including The Office for Civil Society, Big Society Capital, Pilotlight, Trust for London, British International Investment (BII), US International Development Corporation (DFC), UBS Optimus Foundation, who, like us, are motivated by improving lives and changing the system for the better. BOP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bridges Fund Management, a specialist sustainable and impact investor. 

If you have the desire to work in a fast-paced environment, with an appetite to become an expert in the technical practice of impact measurement and management, whilst also learning practical ways of improving the sustainability performance of businesses and social investment portfolios - then this role is for you!

The ESG Impact Manager will have overall responsibility for all aspects of our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Quality Assurance and Compliance assessment, engagement and processes across our UK and international projects, defining our approach to this work with the aim of taking ESG from a compliance tool to a key driver of impact and project improvement. 

The role will work closely with our impact colleagues at Bridges Fund Management (BFM).  The Bridges Impact Management team have been global pioneers in shaping the practice of impact management since 2002. Through its impact management function, Bridges not only developed best-in-class approaches for incorporating ESG risks and opportunities into its investment processes, but also created a market-leading methodology to guide the team towards selecting the most impactful opportunities in the UK, and now internationally (predominately focused on low- and middle-income countries) through the SDG Outcomes initiative. 

Alongside the ESG Impact Manager we are also recruiting for a Fund Operations Associate which will have overall responsibility for developing & managing all processes to enable us to deliver on our ESG and compliance requirements across our UK and international projects.  We see these two roles working very closely together as, respectively, the owners and deliverers of processes that are crucial to the effective delivery and management of our projects.

 Key responsibilities:

• Responsible for ESG risk and opportunity assessments across our low and middle income projects and the extension of this work to UK as well, placing ESG at the forefront of all of our work.

• Full end-to-end responsibility for ESG data collection and monitoring. This includes application of leading ESG and impact standards to measure and optimise impact during an investment, working closely with Delivery Organisations.

• Managing coordination during project due diligence so that all the actions identified for impact improvement are executed by the appropriate party post project launch and ensure process is followed.

• Taking responsibility for investor and regulatory requirements and coordinating input from relevant parties (including SFDR and forthcoming SDR).

• Establishing countries and sub-sectors where Outcomes Contracts can add the most value and assessing the risk inherent in these countries or sectors.

• Identification of the project-specific impact thesis, and leading impact diligence workstreams pre-investment / pre-project launch.

• Supporting communication of the impact thesis of potential projects to Investment Committee and external stakeholders.

• Coordination across the Fund’s stakeholder groups to communicate and instigate activities that will lead to improved impact, using available data.

• Supporting impact and ESG reporting to regulators, investors, and other key stakeholders.

Management of the relationships with, and work of, compliance and quality assurance consultants.

Key relationships

This role has responsibility for developing and/or maintaining key relationships with:

External:

• Compliance and quality assurance consultants, Delivery Partners, Other local voluntary sector organisations, Investors supporting our work (where appropriate)

 Internal:

• Investment Team, BFM Impact Team, Fund Operations Associate, Impact Lead, Individual Programme teams, BFM Legal Team, Programme Boards, BOP Enablement team

Experience

•  4+ years of experience working in sustainability, ESG investing or consulting

• Practical understanding of impact and ESG standards and methodologies

• Experience of low- and middle-income country projects and the challenges these present

• A background in compliance

• Understanding of the investment process and/or non-profit management

• Good analytical skills

• Degree level education or equivalent experience

• Exceptional interpersonal skills: adept at working with multiple stakeholders at all levels.

Skills and Abilities

• A passion for impact management to drive social change: We believe in achieving positive outcomes for people and planet.

• Demonstration of research capabilities and a desire to continue to learn, with subsequent ability to embed and execute a range of ideas and methodologies.

• Ability to think differently: BOP is a pioneer in outcomes partnerships, and impact management field. Remaining at the forefront requires logical and analytical rigour, a willingness to question every assumption, and an ability to be creative and solutions-driven.

• Ability to build trust, and work effectively as a team: We can only achieve our audacious goals if we work collaboratively; and this can only be achieved through mutual trust.  Everything we do must be fully transparent and open to scrutiny.  This requires excellent interpersonal skills, a focus on mission over ego, and absolute integrity.

• Ability to be detail-focused and goals driven: We are accountable to all of our stakeholders. This requires the proven ability to prioritise effectively, and be comfortable managing tight deadlines

• Ability to communicate effectively:  This requires the ability to communicate fluently with a wide variety of stakeholders and to incorporate feedback, through the use of excellent written and oral communication skills and a commitment to accuracy.

Compensation and Expenses

The remuneration offered will be commensurate with experience.

• The health and wellbeing of our employees is really important to us. We will offer a range of benefits to you, including enhanced family friendly policies, employee healthcare benefits, employee protection benefits, an employee assistance programme, alongside other well-being initiatives to promote a healthier working environment.

• You will get 25 days’ annual leave, pro rated to reflect the term of the appointment, plus bank holidays, and a 5% contribution to the company pension scheme.

Terms and Conditions of Appointment

Timing – The appointment will ideally be made by December 2023.

Next steps

You’ll answer some questions that are related to the day-to-day job. After the job closes on the 26th November 2023, your answers will go through our sift process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers.

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you to the next step, which will be first and second round interviews with some of our colleagues. Once we have concluded the process, we would like the successful candidate to start as soon as possible following their appointment.