The Institute for Government (IfG) is seeking a Partnerships Manager to lead the business function within our partnerships team. 

This is a great opportunity for an experienced professional who understands the dynamics of the think tank environment and has demonstrated success in securing funding, sponsorships, and/or strategic partnerships. You’ll play a central role at the heart of this leading think tank, supporting our mission to make government more effective.

In this role, you’ll leverage your expertise to drive income generation, influence policy, and engage senior stakeholders, while supporting the success of the wider team.

The position offers a clear progression path to Senior Partnerships Manager as you take on larger portfolios and more strategic accounts.

Reporting to the Head of Partnerships, you will:

• Drive resource generation and  fundraising activities: Grow externally funded activity that advances the Institute’s mission, owning a personal resource-generation target and contributing to the team target (indicatively £1m for FY26/27).

• Business development: Originate, qualify, and progress a 12–18-month pipeline, including corporates, academia, professional bodies, trusts & foundations, and research councils.

• Project delivery: Oversee sponsored research, public events/webinars (including party conference activity), private roundtables, and IfG Academy work, ensuring IfG’s impartiality, independence and reputation are protected.

• Proposal development: Design and pitch offers across co-branded research, events, workshops, and content sponsorship, tailoring to funder priorities, IfG priorities and current political trends.

• Governance and reporting: Drive weekly funding rhythm, maintaining clean data and contributing to team reports. Oversee contracting, invoicing, and audit standards.

• Strategic initiatives: Deliver against existing trusts & foundations strategy, support research-council bids and pilot new revenue-generating initiatives.

• AI leadership: Champion safe and effective use of Microsoft 365 Copilot and other AI tools to accelerate prospecting, proposal drafting, and reporting, maintaining a prompt/workflow library and applying critical checks to AI outputs in line with IfG policies.

• Team leadership: Line-manage partnerships officers, set objectives, coach business development craft, and model best practice.

This is a varied and fast-paced role where you’ll work closely with colleagues across the IfG – from researchers to event managers – as well as with external partners.

For more details, including a person specification, please read the job application pack available on our website. We recommend that all candidates read the job application pack before starting their application.

This role could suit people with a wide range of different experiences and professional backgrounds. If you are interested in applying but are not sure whether you have all the skills or experience we’re looking for, please do apply and give us the opportunity to consider you as a candidate.

The IfG is committed to supporting greater diversity and inclusion within our workforce, and to fostering an environment in which everyone feels welcome, supported and valued. We welcome applications from anyone who is interested in government and how to make it more effective, and particularly encourage applications from candidates who belong to groups currently underrepresented in the think-tank sector. This includes but is not limited to ethnically diverse candidates, disabled candidates, and candidates from low-income backgrounds.