Do you want to use your relationship building skills to support deep organisational and systemic change? At the Forward Institute we’re all about being an impact business – helping senior leaders in influential organisations become more responsible leaders. We are therefore growing our Partnerships team to support us in building deep and purposeful relationships with our partners.

If you are driven by business as a force for good, want to deliver meaningful work and would enjoy working alongside a talented team and with a diverse range of organisations (from the Government, Army and Cancer Research through to bp, John Lewis and Tesco) then we want to hear from you.

We are looking for an exceptional Partnerships Manager to join our Partnerships and Comms Team to manage strategic relationships, surface insight and drive impact through and within our partner organisations.

You will be responsible for:

• Manging relationships with ~15 of our existing partner organisations, some at a deeply strategic level, bringing insight back into the organisation. This will include engaging with a number of different stakeholders in each of our partner organisations, typically members of the C-suite, Heads of Leadership and Heads of Talent.
• Developing tailored strategies for each partnership to ensure that we are working with each organisation in the most effective way, and with a long term, rather than quick-win mindset. This will include collaboration across all levels of the Institute to drive impact.
• Building genuine relationships with leaders in your partner organisations to ensure we continue to support them do purposeful work. This includes tracking impact progress in relation to their organisational strategy, reviewing and using feedback to drive improvements in our work, keeping data up to date in our CRM and ensuring diligent and energetic partner management.
• Collaborating with our delivery teams to support strategically important work with partner organisations.
• Developing and building relationships with new partner organisations, thinking creatively about who we should be bringing into our community, including through our bursary programme.
• Collaborating with our finance and operations teams for procurement, invoicing, compliance and contracting, ensuring that terms and conditions and partner commitments are upheld from both parties.

We don’t expect the person we hire to have ALL the following but hopefully this gives you a sense of what would enable you to thrive in this role and in our team:

APPLY IF…

• You have experience building and holding relationships; You can quickly build rapport and hold trusted relationships with a wide range of stakeholders
• You have demonstratable experience communicating with senior leaders.
• You understand that each of our partner organisations are unique; you have a keen interest and curiosity in our partner organisations, and you’re able to draw out real insights into what our partners need from us as well as keeping abreast the context and how the organisation fits into what’s happening in the world.
• You have experience working in or with large organisations. You hold 4+ years professional experience and it will be a bonus if you have an understanding of Corporate HR programmes and processes.
• You have managed significant responsibility in your area of work; you have demonstrated you are able to independently manage your competing priorities with a high level of organisation and minimal supervision.
• You have strategically built your own processes and systems to effectively manage competing priorities with a strong attention to detail.
• You have experience managing partnerships end to end; covering both the operational and relationship side of a partnership from procurement, contracting and compliance to developing key insights and priorities to maximise our impact with our partners.

YOU’LL LOVE IT HERE IF YOU…

• Are fascinated by different organisations and sectors – and would appreciate the responsibility of having access to some of the UK’s most influential institutions
• Have a curious mind and are always open to the insights and perspectives of others
• Love the idea of working somewhere people share your values and are fully focused on making a meaningful impact on the world
• Would enjoy working in a dynamic environment, are happy to work without a big support structure around you, and would like to grow with a small but ambitious organisation as it develops over time.

CORE DETAILS

Salary: £40-44k based on experience

Start date: To start as soon as possible

We want to make this recruitment process as inclusive and accessible as possible. Please get in touch with us to discuss any specific requirements or queries you have that relate to inclusion.  This might be related to a protected characteristic, accessibility requirement or communication preference

We are based in London, one of the world’s most diverse cities, with a workforce that’s 40% ethnically diverse and where 39% of the working population is of working-class background. We want our workplace to reflect the community we belong to. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet all of the role criteria as we are committed to investing and training our team.

We envisage this being a full-time role

OTHER BENEFITS

• Private health insurance with Vitality (which also provides discounted gym membership)
• Pension allowance (5% employer contribution)
• Generous holiday allowance (30 days paid holiday + bank holidays) and 5 volunteer days per year.
• We have a hybrid work environment and split time between home working and our office in Chancery Lane 50:50, we also provide an allowance for setting up your home working environment.
• Working for an organisation where we take our values and purpose seriously, and work hard to practice what we ‘preach’
• An opportunity to observe systemic change as it happens and be part of the team working out how big business can have a positive impact on the world
• We invest in our people: not just through benefits but through training and development and promoting our team.
• All our team have access to world-class development opportunities and an amazing range of speakers – from senior leaders like Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller (former Director General of MI5) to entrepreneurs like Sir Tim Smit (Founder of the Eden Project) to thought leaders like June Sarpong (Head of Creative Diversity at the BBC)

LOCATION

Our office is in Holborn, within easy walking distance of several over- and underground stations. We expect the team to split their work between the office and home.