• Duration: Fixed Term – 12 months (Parental Leave Cover)

• Salary: Circa £55,000 per annum

• Job Level: 3

• Hours: 35 hours per week. Other flexible arrangements will be considered.

• Disclosure Level: Basic. This role involves no direct or indirect work with children.

• Reports to: Director of Innovation

• Location: Working from home and at 1 Westfield Avenue, London E20 1HZ

At the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK), we pull together to achieve the best possible results for children in danger around the world. We believe in an inclusive workplace and in the power of fulfilled colleagues who share the same values and goals, enjoy their work and are motivated to do their utmost for children.

Our work is guided by the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognise the universality of children’s rights.

ABOUT THE TEAM

The Innovation Team sits in the Innovation, People and Strategy Directorate.

The Innovation Team exists to bring a structured approach to developing new fundraising and campaigning products, and to foster an entrepreneurial spirit that allows everyone to innovate with confidence, wow our supporters, and thrive in a future we don’t yet know.

This passionate and collaborative team is driven by audience insights and exists to drive growth in income, influence and impact for children. The small but essential innovation team cuts across all the fundraising teams to uncover and incubate new product ideas for growth. We have recently written a new Innovation Strategy and identified key areas for growth, so it’s an exciting time to join the team and explore these new opportunities.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Senior Innovation Manager’s primary purpose is to oversee the development of new products by using a structured approach to innovation to achieve our strategic objectives.

What we will expect you to achieve

Leadership

• Manage the relationship and potential for funding with our global fundraising Innovation team.

• Ensure innovation remains high on the agenda across UNICEF UK, as reflected in the strategy.

• Be part of the cross-organisation innovation collective to drive innovation across UNICEF UK.

  Innovation project management

• Lead the process of regularly reviewing innovation projects and priorities with key internal stakeholders.

• Identify challenges, blockers and potential risks and recommend solutions to overcome these.

• Use trends and insights to identify new opportunities that could form part of the pipeline.

• Offer consultation and support to teams across UNICEF UK on an ongoing basis, to ensure projects progress through the pipeline.

Product development

This role works with internal and external stakeholders to develop new propositions and opportunities, and to embed innovation across the organisation:

• Develop focused briefs for new projects beyond the core activities of UNICEF UK, ensuring strategic relevance and clear objectives.

• Use insight on our supporters, key trends, and competitors to identify potential new offers and opportunities.

• Select and deploy appropriate prototyping techniques to test and iterate ideas and use learnings to inform a business case for further development.

• Embed the use of a structured approach to innovation that utilises supporter insight to ensure that new products meet the needs of the identified target audience.

• Ensure appropriate controls are in place to manage operational risks associated with innovation.

• Seek support for internal investment, leading on the development of proposals and associated business cases.

• Establish and embed targets and KPIs and continue to monitor performance through the product development process.

• Work with relevant teams to scale up and fully launch products to market.

• Demonstrate and model a commitment to our shared values, behaviours and inclusive practices as set out in Our Shared Commitment.

Creating a Culture of Innovation

• Support the implementation of the Innovation Strategy by leading key strategic activities.

• Coach UNICEF UK’s innovation champions to drive small scale innovation initiatives, support the development of the innovation pipeline, and to facilitate creative thinking workshops.

• Influence stakeholders across UNICEF UK to foster a culture of testing, learning, and failing fast.

BEHAVIOURS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

This section contains the essential behaviours, experience, knowledge and skills needed in order to be effective and successful in this role. All criteria in this section are essential.

Effective behaviours

Supporter driven and mission aligned

• Is committed to children and their rights and motivated to work towards achieving a world that is fit for every child.

• Uses in depth knowledge of supporters, the market, the charity sector and cross-industry innovation best practices to predict future trends and develop a deep understanding of audience needs.

Communication

• Present complex and difficult messages clearly and with impact.

• Confident in challenging people’s thinking at all levels across the organisation.

Creating and innovating

• Builds a network of relevant individuals outside UNICEF UK to gain alternative perspectives that improve performance.

• Empowers people to innovate and welcomes new ideas that are focused on the delivery of strategic priorities.

• Challenges the status quo and influences people to gain buy in for developing and piloting products that are new to UNICEF UK and new to the charity sector.

Good management

• Uses a flexible management approach: coaching, supporting or guiding for best results.

• Creates and encourages a cross-organisational teamwork and collaboration.

Resilience

• Takes a solution focused approach to problem solving to succeed in difficult circumstances.

• Works independently across the organisation with a range of different people.

• Relevant experience

• Demonstrable success of developing new mass market products.

• Experience of using a structured approach to innovate new products that successfully meet the needs of the identified target audience.

• Experience of audience research and deriving insights from a variety of data sources.

• Evidence of managing a creative, innovative team/product development team focused on the delivery of strategic priorities.

• Experience of managing cross-organisational projects and engaging a range of different stakeholders.

Specific knowledge and skills

• Excellent project management skills and ability to plan, prioritise and effectively monitor and evaluate performance.

• Strong analytical skills and ability to derive insights from complex data.

• Deep knowledge of innovation techniques (e.g., using a Design Thinking approach, the 4D/Double Diamond approach).

• Strong presentation skills to effectively pitch new ideas to internal and external stakeholders.

• Ability to lead and motivate others to deliver results at pace.

• Budget management.