Programme Director, Europe

• Grade: Programme Director (Europe)
• Type: Full-Time (37.5 hours/week)
• Term: Indefinite (permanent)
• Location: CPI is remote-first, meaning that we support candidates to live wherever they live. This role would require geographic residency within Europe.
• Salary: Our salaries are benchmarked to the country of residence, please find our scales for 2024 here. To counter pay inequity, salaries at CPI are non-negotiable. If you’re based in a country not mentioned in our salary scale, please refer to our ‘salary and benefits’ section below.
• Reports to: Regional Director, Europe
• Closing: Jan 3, 2023, 23:59 GMT

About the Centre for Public Impact (CPI)

At the Centre for Public Impact (CPI), we believe in the potential of governments to bring about better outcomes for people. We are a global not-for-profit organisation, founded by the Boston Consulting Group, that serves as a learning partner for governments, public sector leaders, and the diverse network of changemakers leading the charge to reimagine government. We work with them to hold space to collectively make sense of the complex challenges we face and drive meaningful change through learning and experimentation. CPI currently operates in 4 regions of the world, all stewarding CPI’s mission in different geographies: Europe, Asia, Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand and North America.

CPI Europe (CPIE) was founded in August 2020 and has built a rich portfolio of programmes working with public sector organisations, governments, academic institutions, charities and philanthropy organisations across Europe to explore how we can make government more effective and trustworthy. We work in 20+ European countries, supporting a diverse network of changemakers and through these partnerships, have supported leaders with issue areas ranging from digital and urban transformation and climate action to leadership practice and Collective Imagination methods and leveraged Human Learning Systems approaches. We have also grown from a team of 7 to 20 and have been expanding our work as a programme delivery organisation working directly with governments, philanthropies and organisations on the ground. Our team at CPIE supports people to work in relational ways, recognising the inherent complexity of seeking to improve outcomes for people.

As a learning partner, CPI Europe supports leaders with:

• action research and storytelling for systems change;
• developing leadership capability in learning, experimentation and collaboration;
• supporting leaders to create cultures of learning and experimentation in their organisations
• convening public servants and supporting learning communities within and across sectors; and
• partnering to deliver impact through public sector innovation and stronger relationships with communities.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for an outstanding Programme Director who will take responsibility for leading engagements with philanthropy partners and government agencies at the intersections of the public sector innovation and social innovations space. We are developing a strategy around digital, AI, innovation and imagination at CPIE and have a number of partners that we work as a learning partner with in this space already. But there is a huge potential to intentionally advance CPI’s mission in Europe in this space and re-imagine innovation in its broadest sense – beyond the confines of technology – to encompass transformative shifts in organisational cultures and mindsets. It’s about placing learning and collaboration at the forefront, valuing diversity, and enabling communities to shape solutions.

Governments have outgrown their old role as mere providers of services; they have to be a catalyst for societal well-being, orchestrating efforts that benefit both people and the environment. Our vision for innovation in government is one where governments:

• Embrace stewardship: Governments take responsibility for nurturing healthy innovation systems that enable collaborative and dynamic approaches to solve challenges and build a better future.
• Cultivate imagination: Governments develop foresight and imagination skills to anticipate and shape the future. Placing humanity and our planet at the very centre of policy-making to ensure our collective journey forward is sustainable and inclusive.
• Foster inclusive engagement: Governments create avenues for all to contribute to dialogue on the issues that matter most. Citizen involvement is centred in the innovation lifecycle, particularly to elevate the voices least heard.

This isn’t just about rethinking the role of government; it’s about reactivating the heart of democracy, where every voice is heard, every idea valued and every action taken serves the greater good.

Core Responsibilities

Programme and Portfolio Management

• In consultation with the Director of CPI Europe, provide day-to-day management and oversight of two or three programmes, and programme teams, in close coordination with our philanthropic or government partners
• Lead communications with senior and executive level stakeholders
• Manage the programme budgets, in partnership with programme managers, to ensure programme costs and timelines remain within scope
• Provide oversight and management of all vendors and contractors associated with the programmes
• Lead teams around the development of strategy, design, and execution of key programme milestones for participants
• Lead team to develop a set of meaningful impact metrics that can be tracked and reported on on an ongoing basis for each phase of the programme

People Management and Development

• Manage, coach and mentor a team of programme managers, senior associates and associates providing constructive, actionable feedback on a regular basis
• Provide structure and direction to the team, and oversee work responsibilities of team members
• Contribute to and support team members’ professional development
• Lead teams that feel supported and nurtured with a sense of belonging and inclusion

Partnership Development and Relationship Management

• Supports overall regional business development strategy and pipeline within the public sector and social innovation space, identifying new project opportunities and preparing proposals/responding to RFPs (Request for Proposal) where required.
• Builds a pipeline of potential formal and informal partners within the public sector and social innovation space, by independently cultivating relationships with prospective partners (government, philanthropic, and community-based, among others) and organisations doing values-aligned work.
• Effectively manages relationships with existing partners and funders, ensuring CPI Europe delivers on its programmatic commitments at a high standard.

Thought Leadership, Strategy and Impact

• Be a leader within the CPIE stewardship team which stewards CPIE’s strategy, programmes, finances and people.
• Distills lessons learned from project work into higher level thought leadership that connects to CPI’s mission to reimagine government
• Ensures that partnerships, procedures and programme offerings align with CPI’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging priorities
• Deepens our understanding of how we articulate our purpose in this space and advances thought leadership and storytelling that promotes key insights from our research, relationships and programmes
• Collaborate with peer Programme Directors helping to drive the strategy and operations of the organisation.
• Support efforts in identifying platforms to help increase the visibility of CPI and share our work with a wider audience

Qualifications:

CPI is deeply invested in creating an experience of equity, inclusion, and belonging for everyone on our staff. We actively seek to recruit, develop, and retain a team of talented staff that represents diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. 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.

• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience, in the public sector and social innovation space
  • Experience specifically in the AI and digital space is an advantage
• Exceptional programme management skills and structured thinking
• Experience in programmatic and vision design in the public impact and social innovation space, particularly at the local level
• Excellent people management and interpersonal skills and a track record of developing people
• Demonstrated senior leadership with strategic, policy, and budget planning experience
• A self-starter with a proven track-record of working productively to meet goals
• Commitment to designing programmes and cultivating a culture of equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace, with an aptitude for working effectively across areas of difference.
• Comfort with ambiguity and the complexity of our work, where anything is possible but not always known in advance
• Ability to communicate effectively and manage senior-level stakeholder relationships

Salary and Benefits

At the Centre for Public Impact, we are committed to countering pay inequality and recently completed a global compensation benchmarking process to ensure that we’re paying our staff fairly and well for the roles that they hold and therefore, salaries are non-negotiable. Salary rises with experience, which includes work experience, educational experience, and lived experience.

We currently have staff based in the UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Sweden, and we have the organisational infrastructure established to also hire staff who are based in Switzerland. CPI is open to hiring staff outside of the countries listed here, and you are encouraged to apply regardless of your country of residence in Europe; however, if you are successful in advancing in your candidacy and live in a location other than those listed here, we want be transparent that we may need to extend our hiring process timeline to allow CPI to assess our ability to expand our infrastructure further to support candidates who may live elsewhere. This means that we warmly welcome your application, and that our timelines will necessarily be more emergent (including the ability to provide transparent salary data for additional country contexts) based on the review of your application and the outcomes of the interview process.

CPI Europe offers comprehensive benefits to its employees including a range of high-quality health, dental, and vision plans for individuals; €1,500 (or currency equivalent) per year in dedicated professional development funds; generous paid leave and public holidays; life insurance, short term and long term disability insurance, paid parental leave and extended illness leave; and a year-end organisation-wide closure.

We are a remote-first workplace and are open to qualified candidates anywhere in Europe. CPI anticipates this position will require approximately 20-30% domestic/international travel with the potential for increased travel during their initial year to build relationships across our regions.