Director of Strategy and Innovation 

Term: Permanent  

Salary:  £75,000 - £85,000 per annum

Location: Youth Futures office in either Leeds, Birmingham or London, with regular meetings across England. Please specify your preferred office location when applying.  

Reporting to: CEO 

Deadline:  22nd May 2020

Apply on the Be Applied website: XXX 

Transforming youth employment 

The Youth Futures Foundation is a new, independent, not for profit organisation set up to tackle youth unemployment with a £90million endowment from the Reclaim Fund. We are looking for bold and impactful ways to help young people find and keep good jobs. There are over 750,000 young people not in education or employment in the UK. Young people are twice as likely to be unemployed than older adults in the labour market and BAME and disadvantaged young people disproportionately bear the brunt of it. 

We are building an ‘empowerment foundation’ to identify practical solutions that work in a complex world yet are simple and cost effective enough to roll out across multiple locations, to reach as many young people as possible. Youth Futures will apply rigorous evaluation methods to determine what works, then channel resources and funding into sharing learnings and working in partnership to grow good practice.  We recognise that whilst developing and supporting young people will go some way towards tackling youth unemployment and under employment, these are systemic issues. We are seeking a significant change in national behaviour that dramatically improves the number of young people accessing - and progressing in - work.  

The Youth Futures Foundation is committed to: 

• Equipping young people from diverse backgrounds to access and progress in work 

• Removing structural and systemic barriers to employment and progression  

Youth Futures will take an evidence led structural and systems-based approach that recognises the importance of national learnings and local context, as well as promoting strong coordination and partnership working across government, funders, delivery organisations and employers. 

We will work in partnership to close the employment gap by: 

• Building the evidence base 

• Understanding and highlighting structural and systemic barriers 

• Improving the quality of employment programmes for young people 

• Empowering government to carry out evidence-based policy making 

• Equipping employers to improve productivity through hiring the best talent  

Director of Strategy and Innovation – Job Description  

We are looking for a Director of Strategy and Innovation to identify and implement a series of future-looking big ideas that will transform youth employment over the next 10 years. You will build and oversee a team responsible for both the strategic development of these big ideas and the partnership building, policy work and campaigning to get them adopted and implemented. The recommendations you develop will enable us to strategically direct internal and external resources towards activities that have the greatest impact for young people over the long term.  

Purpose 

The Director of Strategy and Innovation will have the freedom to develop and prioritise a wide range of big ideas, from national youth jobs funds and wage subsidy initiatives, to place-based partnerships, targeted interventions for specific cohorts of young people and campaigns to change behaviour. Working closely with the CEO and Board, as a key member of the Executive leadership team, you will not be afraid to grapple with – and overcome - huge social challenges at a time of global upheaval.  

This role will build and oversee a new and growing team that will include a Head of Strategy, Head of Marketing and Communications, Head of Policy and their direct reports. 

Key Responsibilities 

Direct the Youth Futures approach to systemic change through strategy development, coalition building, policy, marketing and communications, including: 

• Design, develop and bring to life a range of evidence based, bold and ambitious, future looking big ideas to transform the youth employment ecosystem, placing young people, the stakeholders and communities around them at the heart of what we do 

• Learn about ‘what works’ through global research findings uncovered by the Evidence and Impact team, observations of good practice made by the Grants and Social Investment team, and through external partners, then bring these learnings together to determine the primary focus areas for Youth Futures transformational change work  

• Provide a clear vision of what good strategic decision-making looks like that can be applied across market transformation, policy and communications to determine which approaches the Foundation should adopt and champion  

• Establish and grow a world class Strategy and Innovation team recognised as the ‘go to’ strategic experts, convenors and problem solvers in youth employment   

• Develop a supportive and empowering culture of creativity, continuous improvement, learning, collaboration and excellence – encouraging questions, teamwork and a laser focus on bringing about positive change in the real world 

• Ensure the Youth Futures Foundation has a strong awareness and understanding – and a single shared view - of the complex stakeholder landscape and how to engage with (and influence) each group effectively 

• Convene networks of young people, employers, funders and government to collectively develop and champion effective approaches to bring about transformational change 

• Identify, analyse, synthesise and interpret information necessary for strategic choice-making and assessment of trade offs, highlighting the critical choices, hypotheses and assumptions the Leadership Team and Board should be aware of 

• Build coalitions and create marketing and advocacy campaigns to create a groundswell of support for change that will transform the youth employment ecosystem 

• Ensure Youth Futures adheres to the highest standards of probity and judgement  

• Manage a large budget diligently, including quarterly forecasts and expenditure tracking 

• Attend Board meetings as required to provide updates, progress reports, financial and impact data, or to present new ideas and recommendations  

Person specification  

Part One - Knowledge and Experience 

• A track record of inspiring leadership in strategic planning, management of complex projects, staff teams and budgets  

• Developing and delivering creative yet practical solutions to highly complex problems   

• Empathy with young people who face barriers to progression as a result of personal lived experience, work or volunteering roles   

• Knowledge of youth employment, the not-for-profit sector and related government policy  

• Strong organisational and project management skills  

• Experience of strategic influencing, advocacy and communications to a wide variety of stakeholders to affect change 

• Experience of setting up and working with complex processes, budgets, cash flow, and performance indicators, including monitoring and taking remedial action where necessary 

• Experience of learning what works and what doesn’t, and effectively applying these learnings  

• Experience of supporting, coaching and developing a diverse team of people  

• Able to provide effective team and line management that facilitates a high standard of delivery; motivating and developing staff to maximise their individual potential and support in build a strong team culture 

• Experience of engaging multiple stakeholders, encouraging connectivity and networks, and being equally confident working alongside both local and national organisations 

Part 2 - Skills and Competencies 

• Ability and energy to think differently 

• As a leader in a newly-forming organisation, fully contribute to: 

• developing the overall strategy of Youth Futures Foundation 

• creating a positive, supportive and effective culture within the organisation 

• organisational development; developing new roles and ways of working; recruiting and developing new team members 

• supporting the CEO to enable Youth Futures to become fully operational 

• establishing Youth Futures reputation in the Youth Employment ecosystem  

• Strategic thinking and analytical abilities: ability to dissect complex challenges, understand root causes and develop creative yet sound approaches to problem-solving and decision-making 

• Execution: strong project management skills, adherence to deadlines, sense of responsibility and accountability and the ability to effectively multi-task and work with diverse colleagues across teams 

• Consultative and advisory skills: experience working in a consultative or advisory role; demonstrated success managing partners or internal teams and ability to achieve impact through others 

• Leadership: possesses the highest professional integrity, comfortable with delivering tough messages, providing objective perspectives, and framing important choices 

• Partnership and relationship building; strong representation of your organisation with external stakeholders and of your team internally, effective relationship management with colleagues at all levels, and intercultural knowledge 

• Decision-making: ability to evaluate risks and opportunities, using analytical and strong problem solving skills. Ability to usher others through an effective decision-making process 

• Integration: ability to identify where complementary skillsets are needed and to pull in those capabilities from within the team and across the organisation. Demonstrates inclusiveness, collaboration and respect for all stakeholders, and represents broad organisational interests 

• Communication: interpersonal communication abilities internally and externally; exceptional listening skills, excellent written, data analysis and oral skills 

• The ability to lead and manage others using virtual working tools, supporting, coaching and developing staff in multiple locations 

• Strong IT skills, including use of MS Office applications in a sophisticated way (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc), shared online folders, calendars and contacts 

Mindset 

• Genuine personal commitment to Youth Futures mission, vision and values 

• This is an exciting opportunity in a newly-forming organisation. As such, many of the systems and processes that are normal in an established organisation either do not exist or are newly forming. To be successful in this role, the candidate will need:  

• to thrive when operating in uncertainty  

• be a highly motivated self starter 

• a proactive and flexible approach, able to identify and take forward opportunities and work effectively in partnership with others.  

• a positive and can-do attitude, willing to roll their sleeves up to get into details where necessary  

• a willingness to collaborate internally and externally to achieve our mission  

• strong leadership communication skills  

Things to know 

• As part of Youth Futures Foundation’s safeguarding policy, all employees are subject to a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check