• Duration: Permanent

• Salary: Circa £125,000 per annum

• Job Level: Executive

• 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: Chief Executive

• 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 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 Chief Strategic Development Officer is a new role on the Executive Team at UNICEF UK leading the ‘our people and organisation’ pillar of the strategy. They and the entire Executive team provides the culture, working environment and ways of working to underpin the delivery of our ambitions for income, influence and impact. In a sentence, this role will lead our work to be the organisation that sustainably delivers ever-increasing impact for children.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Chief Strategic Development Officer will be the focal point for change, development and learning for the leadership of the organisation, ensuring we are on-track to deliver all aspects of the current strategy and be ready to develop and deliver an even more ambitious strategy for 2027 – 2030.

They will play a full and leading role alongside Executive colleagues and the Board of Trustees in achieving our strategy for 2023 – 2026 and making the next one even more ambitious for children.

What we will expect you to achieve

• A full member of the Executive Team, working alongside colleagues to deliver all aspects of our strategy based firmly on our values. As a member of the Executive Team, they will be one of the spokespeople for UNICEF UK, representing the organisation proactively with colleagues within UNICEF, stakeholders, supporters, fundraising regulators, and sector colleagues, and with the media as appropriate. They will contribute to all aspect of UNICEF UK’s operation.

• Overall responsibility for the cross-organisational innovation processes, change management and strategies to ensure the new approaches, products and cultures needed to build our income, influence and impact for children are embedded in the organisation and delivering the intended outcomes and strong medium and long-term financial returns.

• Sponsorship and strategic leadership of our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion programme. leading activities to continue progress in achieving UNICEF UK EDI goals and ensuring that what we do inside UNICEF UK, also feeds broader change in our sector and beyond.

• Ensure the continued development of a healthy inclusive work environment where colleagues remain engaged.

• Overall responsibility for our strategy development, including our Joint Strategic Plan with UNICEF, prioritisation, project management office and strategic communications.

• Lead the development of UNICEF’s UK 2027 – 2030 Strategy, while embedding the growth and improvement from the current strategy and build the ambition and wellbeing to make the next strategy achieve more for children.

• Ensuring we have the planning, prioritisation, monitoring, and reporting mechanisms in place to support effective strategy delivery and learning across the organisation.

• Ensuring change is effectively envisioned and implemented across the organisation. While we are delivering our current strategy, we are also pushing on numerous fronts to ensure we have the ways of working, systems, structures, processes, and insights to form the basis of our next structure. While this role will not personally lead every aspect of change, they will ensure the combined impact of such programmes is more than the sum of the parts.

• Championing the cross-organisational work to build unprecedented levels of colleague engagement. Leading the team influencing the organisation to embed the values-led approaches to leadership, building trust, empowerment, wellbeing, and kindness into our ethos at the same time as building performance, ambition and effective ways of working.

• Facilitating the development of the Extended Leadership Group, a key group, comprising the Directors of every team across UNICEF UK.

• Demonstrate and model a commitment to our shared values, behaviours and inclusive practices (known as Our Shared Commitment) in all aspects of your work and leadership.

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 creating a better world for every child. 

Leadership

• Works effectively across an organisation in a senior capacity, contributing to the wider vision and strategy. Employs strategic, analytical, and conceptual thinking skills to provide strong, future focused, strategic leadership for UNICEF UK and for their directorate.

• Empowers and develops others by setting clear outcomes and expectations and areas of responsibility.

• Inspires great team-work and cross organisational collaboration, encouraging positive working relationships and removing barriers to effective collaboration.

• Plans and actively leads change, communicating, listening, and engaging with colleagues at all stages. 

• Able to make and communicate unpopular decisions.

• Promotes confident discussion of failure and constructive challenge to enhance innovation/learning.

Collaboration and Positive relationships

• Works collectively with the other members of the Executive team to lead and inspire UNICEF UK’s ambition, innovation, and creativity, and to champion a positive, empowering culture, which can deliver the best results for children.

• Values and diversity, respecting and drawing on colleagues’ different perspectives, skills, experience, and knowledge. Prioritises knowledge and skills over status to make the best use of talent and promote involvement at all levels.

• Nurtures successful professional relationships with colleagues at all levels and with external contacts and partners to support UNICEF UK’s mission and vision.

• Reflects on own thoughts, feelings and actions and is aware of own impact on relationships.

Communication

• Conveys complex ideas using a variety of methods to engage the audience they have. Adapts their communication style, delivery, and tools to win understanding and support.

• Presents complex and difficult messages clearly because of a clear understanding of the specific audience needs.

Results focused.

• Anticipates challenges that could impact UNICEF UK’s work and guides directorate to adapt approach accordingly.

• Promotes a results-focused culture, engaging and guiding and inspiring others to achieve ambitious goals.

• Prioritises and sustains focus on work that will have the greatest impact for children. Empowers teams to looks outside traditional channels to identify new sources of innovation, anticipating, embracing, and managing risk to minimise their impact.

Negotiating and Influencing

• Maintains a win-win approach by balancing achievement of both UNICEF UK’s and our external partners’ objectives.

Achieving change and analytical

• Communicates the reason for change and supports colleagues to embrace it, recognising that people will respond in different ways and at different paces.

• Demonstrates a solution focused approach to overcoming the barriers to change.

• Maintains focus in uncertain or ambiguous situations.

• Analyses available information to make logical and sound judgments.

Relevant experience

• Record of leading continuous growth and building high performing teams in a strongly purpose-driven environment.

• Record of leading an organisation’s strategic development with and through leadership to achieve better outcomes across all activities/ programmes.

• Clear knowledge and experience with leading an organisations approach to innovation delivering sustainable innovation practice.

• Has led and embedded organisational wide change and transformation especially focusing on people and Equity Diversity and Inclusion.

Specific knowledge and skills

• Clear appreciation of and understanding of delivering impact in a UK-based international NGO with links to a global body or organisation e.g., United Nations or similar ecosystem.

• Expertise in inclusive approaches to strategy development that deliver sustainable results over the medium to long term.

• Evidence of commercial acumen through the understanding of key financial metrics required to develop organisations, and a track record of improving performance against such metrics over time.

• An assured senior stakeholder relationship builder able to promote alignment and collaboration in working in a complex international environment.