Term: Fixed Term (12months), with the hope to extend to a permanent position

Type: Full-Time (37.5 hours per week)

Reports to: CPI Europe Director, but within a flat structured organisation which champions a culture of freedom and responsibility

About the Centre for Public Impact (CPI)

At the Centre for Public Impact, we believe in the potential of government to bring about better outcomes for people. We are a global not-for-profit organisation, founded by the Boston Consulting Group, who serve as a learning partner for governments, public servants and the diverse network of changemakers who are leading the charge to reimagine government so that it works for everyone.

We are a small organisation, and just over six years old, but already our global footprint is expansive and we partner with some of the biggest names in government, academia and public sector innovation in the world. As well as the Europe team, we have a team in Australia/ New Zealand and North America, and a very new team in India. We are all supported by the Global Hub team who provide people & culture, operational and communication support across the regions.

Our values: 

• 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

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 find a solution. You can also read our full Diversity Equity and Inclusion Policy here.

About CPI Europe (CPIE)

CPI Europe was established in August 2020. We are a team of seven (and growing!) and over the last 2.5 years have been working hard to build a presence, develop strong relationships, and secure a pipeline of work across the UK and Europe. In line with CPI’s mission and vision for government, CPI Europe has been exploring how government - at a local and national level - can work differently to work better for people. We support changemakers to bring about a transformation in public management practice; a transformation that is necessary for our vision for government to be realised. You can read more about our programme portfolio here.

At CPIE, our culture is founded on the values and principles within our vision for government. So in everything we do we aim to be humble, open, empathetic, authentic, trusting and trustworthy, curious and to champion diversity and inclusion. We have experimented with different ways of living these values but in everything we do we aim to share power and devolve decision making to the person best placed to make the decision, challenge hierarchy, be strength based, and to support  each other as much as we can. 

On the basis of this success and anticipated  further investment in 2022, CPIE is looking for a Programme Manager who is as excited about reimagining government as we are.  Most of the team is based in London, but we want to expand across the UK and are looking for candidates to join us from Scotland as we have had a lot of interest in our work from the Scottish government and many public sector organisations in Scotland. 

What you’ll be doing:

As a Programme Manager in the CPIE team, you’ll be working closely with the rest of the team, spreading your time across client delivery, programmes, research and thought leadership - with a focus on our programmes in Scotland and advancing our mission there. 

Programme Managers across all CPI Regional teams are expected to:

• Independently hold and manage strong and trusting client relationships

• Lead discrete projects and/or owns 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 our partners and clients in Scotland who are seeking Learning Partners to help transform their services / organisations. This will require superior programme management capabilities, skills in navigating complex programmes and building engagements that meet client needs as well as feeding back learning into the organisation 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 - ideally in Scotland

• Have excellent organisational 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 organisation 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 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 working in the Scottish government, or in Scottish public sector organisations or working with the Scottish government as a consultant is desirable.

If you have any questions about this position or for information, please contact recruitment@centreforpublicimpact.org.