JOB DESCRIPTION - Project & Relationship Manager

About us

Collaborate is a social enterprise that supports places and partnerships to collaborate to improve social outcomes for citizens across the UK. Recent partners have included: Save the Children UK, Essex County Council, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and Rochdale Boroughwide Housing.

We do this through:

·      Practical help to partners from all sectors who want to embed collaborative thinking and practice;

·      Openly sharing the learning from our work; 

·      Building and contributing to networks of change makers; 

·      Producing thought leadership that pushes existing practice further.

We believe in the power of multiple perspectives, learning as a driver of improvement and collaboration as a route to social change. To find out more about us, our people and our services, please go to our website, at www.collaboratecic.com.

About the role

Collaborate is looking for a Project and Relationship Manager who will play a key role in managing our exciting work programme. Proven project management and people skills will be matched with a passion for social change.

Through your organisational skills and your communication internally and externally, you will be vital to the smooth-running and high-quality delivery of our projects. 

You will work with a number of different members of the team, being part of a number of different internal project teams, working on various projects, with different areas of focus across the spectrum of Collaborate’s work, that might include: the environment, mental health, early years education, prison rehabilitation and much more.

Managing the whole project process, your day-to-day role will include, but is not limited to:

Project management

·      Coordinating several projects, facilitating the team members to deliver quality work on time

·      Developing and managing project plans and budgets - responding to change and being proactive to identify potential problems to timings or budget and working with the project team to find solutions

·      Coordinating project meetings, capturing key decisions and actions for the team and giving reminders

Relationship management

·      Being a key point of liaison for the project team, ensuring that all are updated and informed

·      Being comfortable dealing with people more senior than yourself, internally and externally, and judging your communication style to suit theirs

·      Communicating with clients, partners and networks

·      Liaising to organise events, workshops and interviews, being mindful of the different contexts of the individuals involved

Project delivery

·      Contributing to the design and delivery of workshops and events

·      Preparing appealing client presentations and project reports, ensuring high quality consistency of style and formatting   

·      Conducting research (desk research, interviews and focus groups), compiling and analysing findings

Your skills

We don't expect that you will already have experience of doing all of the tasks above. We believe in appointing based on potential rather than simply on past performance. You should have some demonstrable experience in the skills below, which could come from a combination of work, voluntary and/or personal experiences.

You could be the right person for this job if you’re:

·      Highly organised, good at prioritising multiple (and sometimes complex) tasks and managing your time to complete them

·      An excellent communicator (verbally and in writing), judging tone appropriate to the circumstance and being confident in dealing with people at all levels.

·      Keen to solve problems, proactive in identifying them and in making recommendations to deliver improvements.

·      Happy working in a strong team culture, building different relationships and being responsive to the dynamics of different teams.

·      Comfortable working with numbers.

·      Confident on different computer packages and quick to pick them up or to adapt to changes.

·      Passionate about improving outcomes and experiences of the public and curious about how to achieve that goal. You are likely to have interests in issues that affect society and perhaps already have some experience (be it personal/professional/voluntary) in trying to achieve social change.

You'll benefit from:

·      additional holiday over Christmas, on top of 25 days' holiday and bank holidays

·      pension contribution

·      flexible working to balance personal needs with organisational ones

·      options for season ticket loans, bike-to-work scheme, eye tests and we're open to exploring more...

·      being part of an inclusive, team-led, learning environment!

Next steps

Please join an online Information and Question and Answer session on 12th October, 12-12.45, where you can hear more about the role and the organisation - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87127085862, Meeting ID: 871 2708 5862, Passcode: 863604.

To start applying, just click in the top right.

You’ll answer questions that are related to your interest in this role and your experiences and skills that would help you to do it. After the job closes, your answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers to ensure that every application is treated fairly and without bias.

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you to an interview, 15-18th November, to meet 2 members of the team to discuss your experience and skills and to complete a short task. The next stage will be a second interview 30th November-1st December with the opportunity to meet 2 more members of our team and to talk about you and the role with us further. We are keen to make an offer before Christmas!

Also, we love giving feedback, so at the end of the application process you'll receive insights into how well you performed.

We are an equal opportunities employer

Collaborate supports flexible working and there will also be the potential for growth within this role and within this growing organisation as a whole. 

We seek to be a genuinely collaborative organisation, sharing ideas and decisions across the team through weekly team meetings and regular learning sessions at Team Half Days.  We collectively consider our broader strategy, examine and share learning across our projects, and explore how we might develop our work and our existing offering to clients.  

As a Living Wage employer, we believe in paying our team fairly and are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all staff and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We aim to create an inclusive working environment in which all individuals are able to make the best use of their skills and are enabled to thrive.

We welcome applicants of all backgrounds and circumstances and are happy to discuss individual working requirements.