
Senior Associate - 6-12 months (with the possibility of extension)
Centre for Public Impact
- Closing: 12:00am, 13th Feb 2022 GMT
Job Description
Term: Fixed Term - 6-12 months (with the possibility of extension)
Type: Full-Time
When: No deadline. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and therefore individuals are encouraged to apply early.
Reports to: CPI Europe Director, but within a flat structured, self-managed organisation
About the Centre for Public Impact (CPI)
CPI is a not-for-profit founded by the Boston Consulting Group. We work with governments, public servants, and other changemakers to reimagine government, and turn ideas into action, so that government works for everyone.
We are a small organisation, and just over six years old, but already our global footprint is expansive and we partner with some of the biggest names in government, academia, and public sector innovation in the world. As well as the Europe team, we have a team in Australia/ New Zealand and North America, and a very new team (of one) in India. We are all supported by the Global Hub team who provides operational and communication support across the regions.
Our values:
courageous - we have the courage to speak the truth, to challenge without fear, and tackle the difficult questions
respectful - we respect differences, we seek to understand them and we look out for one another
optimistic - we are positive about what we and governments can do for our societies
inclusive - we are non partisan, we work together and seek ideas and solutions across the divides
To advance our purpose of reimagining government so that it works for everyone, CPI seeks to attract and support a diversity of backgrounds, experience, talent, and thought. For this reason, we encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply. This includes candidates that have previously found it hard to be considered for other positions on the basis of their qualifications, disabilities, personal background or life events. If you would like to apply for the position but see a barrier to joining us, please do apply and we will work with you to find a solution. You can also read our full Diversity Equity and Inclusion Policy here.
About CPI Europe
CPI Europe was established in January 2020. We are a team of six (and growing!) and over the last 2 years have been working hard to build a presence, develop strong relationships, and secure a pipeline of work across the UK and Europe. In line with CPI’s mission and vision for government, CPI Europe has been exploring what that means in different European public institutions. Our initial discovery phase has led us to support changemakers to bring about a transformation in public management practice and we believe this transformation in public management practice is necessary for our vision for government to be realised. Currently, CPI Europe’s programme portfolio is built around three core objectives:
CPIE is helping public institutions reimagine and strengthen relationships between government, communities, and the planet.
CPIE is helping to ensure that public services are redesigned so that relationships are prioritised and people's needs are put first
CPIE is working with organisations to ensure they have the tools and frameworks needed to optimise for learning and build learning environments.
On the basis of this success and anticipated further investment in 2022, CPIE is looking for Senior Associates who are as excited about reimagining government as we are!
Most of the team is based in London, but we are looking for candidates to join us from anywhere across the UK/Europe. As we are still in start-up mode, we need someone who is willing to work across the full spectrum of tasks - from administrative work to blue-sky thinking. Most importantly we are refining our approach as Learning Partners and seek individuals who have experience working with partners to build their learning, adaptation, and experimentation muscles so that we can ensure the long-term success and sustainability of our work.
How we work
CPI Europe is also a self-managed team. While self-management is a continuous process of development and improvement, we think it means (amongst other things) adopting a “tight on values, loose on delivery” approach to our work; working as a team to collectively set our vision and priorities; and thinking hard about who makes which decisions, and why - we don’t default to “decision-making from the top”.
You can read more about what it feels like to work in a self-managed environment in this blog by Carmella, who is part of our Global Hub team.
What you’ll be doing
As a Senior Associate in the CPIE team, you’ll be working closely with the rest of the team, spreading your time across client delivery, programs, research and thought leadership. Our work is a blend of thinking and doing - we spend part of our time developing and sharing new ideas, and part of our time working with partner organisations to apply these ideas in practice. If you want to get a better sense of what we do, you can visit our CPI Europe landing page.
Senior Associates across all CPI Regional teams are expected to:
Independently hold and manage strong and trusting client relationships
Lead discrete projects and/or owns workstreams of larger projects and develop high quality deliverables
Drive analytical and intellectual depth in work products and proactively share our work with broader CPI teams
Identify and proactively propose ideas around how we can work together more effectively as a team
More specifically for this role, we’re also looking for someone who will take responsibility for leading engagement with our partners and clients who are seeking Learning Partners to help transform their services / organisations. This will require superior programme management capabilities, skills in navigating complex programmes and building engagements that meet client needs as well as feeding back learning into the organisation that helps us to further develop our offer and thinking around different learning partner approaches.
We expect applicants for this role will have 3-7 years work experience.
The person we’re looking for will
Be passionate about CPI’s vision for reimagining government
Have a solid understanding of how government works
Be comfortable contributing to and leading research projects, running programs, as well as projects which incorporate both research and programmatic elements (which most do!)
Have excellent interpersonal skills, including feeling confident building new relationships
Have strong organisational skills and experience with balancing competing priorities
Be willing to take initiative and work autonomously
Be curious and eager to learn. Be comfortable with ambiguity and the complexity of our work, where anything is possible but not always known in advance
Feel excited about working in a startup environment and with a very small team. Working in an international organisation and be willing to make the effort needed to build relationships and stay connected with colleagues in different timezones
Be willing to stretch beyond the comfort zone to the growth zone
Be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, and in ways which look quite different to a 9am-5pm style of job
Have excellent written and communication skills
Be committed to exploring and experimenting with self-management, even if this sometimes feels a bit confusing!
We are using Applied in order to debias our hiring process and ensure that we are shortlisting candidates based on their skills. Your application will be anonymised for review. Although we ask for your CV, it will not be looked at until further down the process.
If you have any questions about this position or for information, Amy Noonan, Global People and Operations Manager, is happy to help.
Removing bias from the hiring process
Applications closed Sun 13th Feb 2022
Removing bias from the hiring process
- Your application will be anonymously reviewed by our hiring team to ensure fairness
- You’ll need a CV/résumé, but it’ll only be considered if you score well on the anonymous review
Applications closed Sun 13th Feb 2022