Overview 

At Impact on Urban Health, we’re committed to achieving health equity by helping urban areas become healthier places for everyone to live. We take a place-based approach to improving urban health. This helps us understand how the local environment affects people’s health and to find solutions that work in practice. 

The south London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark have been our home for over five centuries. It is here that we work with organisations, groups and individuals – local, national and international – who are committed to achieving health equity in inner-city areas. 

To drive better health in cities, we pay particular attention to the context in which people live and the wider determinants of their health, from finance and employment to social connections. 

We have four programmes that each focus on one  

of the following health issues: 

• childhood obesity 

• multiple long-term conditions 

• the health effects of air pollution 

• adolescent mental health 

Job description 

At Impact on Urban Health we have a team of Portfolio Managers. Each Portfolio Manager, coached by a Programme Director, builds part of a programme strategy, codevelops projects with partners, and makes recommendations for funding these projects. This is a supported process, with lots of input and ideas shared across the team as you shape your projects. 

We build partnerships with a wide range of partners, from local communities, businesses, charities, the public sector and any other person or organisation that we think can have an impact on heath equity. 

 Our team come from a wide range of backgrounds. While making grants and investments is a big part of what we do, building partnerships is just as important. We’re building a big multidisciplinary team and we don’t expect applicants to be experienced in grant making to apply for our roles. 

What we are looking for are dynamic, passionate people who want to build a career improving health equity. Some of our team specialise in community engagement, some come from commercial backgrounds, some from healthcare, some from entrepreneur support, among many other backgrounds. There are a wide range of skills that you could draw on to be good at these roles. 

The Roles 

We are currently seeking two Portfolio Managers: one to join our multiple long-term conditions programme; and another for our research and development team. 

Our multiple long-term conditions team 

One Portfolio Manager will work on our multiple long-term conditions programme, which aims to weaken the unfair link between precarious work, finances and housing and health. For Black people, single parents, people from Portuguese-speaking backgrounds, and a range of others, living on low income in our urban place too commonly results in ill health. Our programme wants to change that. We partner with other organisations to deliver projects, conduct research and amplify our results with the aim of slowing people’s progression from one to many long-term conditions. 

Our research and development team 

The research and development Portfolio Manager will work on our innovation programmes, leading a series of explorations around some of our focus topic areas which may include: addressing structural inequities through funder practice; building strong local community partnerships; digital-first approaches to health; AI and inequalities; or Covid-19 vaccine knowledge.  

Person specification  

Responsibilities 

• Lead on strategy development for part of one of our urban health programmes. 

• Build a deep understanding of one or more of our programmes and identifying organisations to collaborate with 

• Approach relevant organisations and their teams, engaging them and codeveloping projects. 

• Work with our evaluation team and external evaluation experts, develop evaluation plans for projects 

• Assist organisational development of partners, through commissioning grants plus support 

• Drive an inclusive/non-extractive due diligence process 

• Bring projects through our internal approval process 

• Guide and advise existing project partners as they deliver to achieve our mutual goals 

• Build diverse, cross-sector partnership 

• Collaborate with internal teams across the organisation, such as communications, evaluation and data to deliver and improve our programmes 

• Deliver thought leadership for your area of focus to influence relevant stakeholders, eg. blog writing, attending events. 

 Knowledge   

• An understanding of the foundation blocks for what makes organisations effective and work for people’s needs. 

 What you will bring 

• Strong relationship building skills, these may have been developed through coaching, building partnerships in different professional or personal contexts 

• Inclusive and quality communication skills, comfortable with a wide range of audiences 

• The ability to independently work in uncertainty on issues that are complex in nature and don’t have silver bullet solutions 

• A growth mindset where you look at problems and issues as opportunities to learn and are constantly seeking to help others to grow and overcome their challenges 

• A creative strategic thinker who can look at a complex problem and come up with solutions.