Contract: Permanent  

Location: 3rd Floor, 22-26 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4QE 

This role is based in our London Hub with flexible working from home arrangements. We are willing to consider someone who wants to primarily work remotely, provided they are based in the UK and able to regularly travel to London for team sessions.  

The post holder would need to be able to travel both domestically and internationally on occasion.  

Candidates must have a valid right to work in the UK.  

Benefits: various opportunities for flexible working, generous time off policies, and other sector-competitive benefits. 

About Forum for the Future 

Forum for the Future, one of the world’s leading international sustainability non-profits with a 27 year track record, works to influence the arc of change towards a just and regenerative future. We inspire change-actors to step up their ambition, stretch their vision and find pathways that are systemic, strategic and tackle root causes of our current crises.   We focus on influencing the shape of 3 transitions: to renewable energy, to a sustainable food system and a transition in the purpose of business in society. We partner with influential organisations in business, civil society, government and philanthropy and host national and international multi-stakeholder projects from our 4 geographic offices: (Americas, UK/Europe, India and South-East Asia) driving deep systemic change.  We operate as a global team, delivering both international and local projects. As a dynamic, international leader with a deep commitment to creating a better future, you will play a pivotal role in creating this change. 

About the team 

We are a multicultural team of 80 people, with offices in London, Mumbai, New York, and Singapore.  

This post, Global Lead - Purpose of Business, will work with teams across all four of our offices. The person will hold the technical expertise on our work to transform the role that businesses play in society and will use our systems change approaches and futures tools. 

 About the role 

Forum is at an exciting time in our evolution, offering opportunities for unprecedented impact.  At Forum we updated our strategy during 2022, with the new strategy for 2023 – 2025 now moving into the implementation phase. The post-holder will be responsible for driving, shaping and adapting this strategy for impact.   The post is an exciting opportunity for anyone who can see the potential of a systems approach to unlock deep and transformative change makers.  It requires someone with significant experience of working in or with businesses and fabulous team-working skills, combined with a vision for how different the future can be, and how we can inspire others in change. 

About you 

To succeed in this role you will have: 

• extensive experience of working with or in the private sector, ideally with some consultancy or business-advisory experience  

• a deep passion for transforming the role that business plays in society to make a hopeful, liveable future possible, in a way that is just and regenerative, 

• a flair for collaborative leadership, 

• ambition to be part of a team working for fundamental change, for a just and regenerative future, 

• demonstrated ability to lead the shaping of an ambitious strategy, agreement of priorities, the follow through into implementation, with a laser focus on impact. This will include an intimate familiarity with how business operates currently and ideally content knowledge on governance and executive team engagement, rethinking value chain models and market mechanisms, transforming resource consumption and how the finance system can accelerate or hinder business transformation towards social justice and regeneration.  

And to further thrive in this role you will: 

●  be effective at highly distributed and networked ways of working, and skilled at using digital platforms 

●  enjoy working with people from different cultures and across geographies and your preferred ways of working are embodied by Forum’s values (being courageous, adaptive, empathetic, inquisitive, playful and respectful). 

●  be an effective communicator, writer, presenter and speaker able to engage effectively with different audiences and clearly communicate complex sustainability information to non-expert audiences in a way that compels action 

If you do not meet all of the requirements outlined in the job description but still believe you have the right mix of skills and experience to thrive in this role and further Forum’s ambitious goals for change, we encourage you to apply. 

In return, we offer a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of systems thinking and change making, continually learning and experimenting to identify how we deliver the most impact working in a collaborative multi-cultural team environment. 

Forum for the Future works in a space of complexity where there are no easy answers – an ideal candidate will be comfortable with uncertainty and be able to hold space for exploration and innovation. Resilience is a key personal attribute that is necessary to the role.  

Our work environment 

We believe in being courageous, adaptive, inquisitive, respectful, empathetic and playful. You can read more about our organisational values here. These values help build our common culture, shape our shared purpose and guide us in all actions and decisions.  We are inspired by the world in which we live and those with whom we share it and seek to act justly in all we do. 

We enjoy working in teams, collaborating, and learning from each other. We are a dynamic, flexible and supportive team of people who care about each other’s wellbeing and the world around us. 

At Forum, we aspire to foster positive team spirit and to provide the best possible working environment for all our staff; one that is based on the highest standards of ethics, honesty, integrity, openness and transparency. 

We are an inclusive organisation that encourages applications from across our diverse communities. We’re committed to building a team of capable and thriving people from all walks of life. 

Together we can reinvent the way the world works. 

 Application process 

To find out more about this vacancy, please download and read the full job. description. 

Job Description

Application deadline  11.59pm 7 January 2024 

We use the Applied platform because it is designed to reduce bias in our recruitment process. To apply for this job, we ask you to answer a few work-based questions. Please therefore read the application questions carefully and answer them in the space provided (250 words) to clearly demonstrate your understanding of the role, and how your skills and experience will enable you to thrive and deliver in this post in Forum for the Future 

Please note: 

If you do not already hold the right to work in the respective countries and/or require sponsorship in order to continue working in the country, you should think carefully before applying. This is because we will be unable to sponsor you. 

Equal Opportunities 

Forum for the Future wholeheartedly supports the principle of equal opportunities in employment. We promote and support equality, diversity and inclusion both in our own workplace and through our work with our partners and the wider public.  We actively support and promote diversity as an essential component of sustainability, and as a key element of our organisational values.  We oppose all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, age, disability, caste, religion or belief. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, including those who identify as disabled, LGBTQ, ethnic minorities, and come from diverse social and educational backgrounds