DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND IMPACT
Contract type: Permanent
Hours: Full Time (37.5 hours per week)
Salary: c£80,000
Location: Whitehall, Greater London (Hybrid)
Reports to: Chief Executive
Welcome
Thank you for your interest in this exciting position of Director of Policy and Impact at Demos. In this role, you will nurture the intellectual heart of Demos, bringing your own unique ideas to inspire fresh and bold thinking that rises to the challenges of this political moment. You will be hungry to achieve real world change through our work, ambitious for your colleagues, and collaborative to the core.
As Director of Policy and Impact, you will work closely with myself and the rest of the executive team, leading our policy portfolio spanning our Public Service Reform and Citizen Economy pillars, building the funding routes to achieve it, and the impact muscle to make sure our ideas convert into action.
Demos is a leading cross-party think tank producing research and policies that have been adopted by successive governments for over 30 years.
Our strategy is to upgrade democracy, with a new deal to mend the broken relationship between state and citizen and build back trust. This mission is big and ambitious; our methods are practical, bold and hopeful.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is ambitious about the change we can make. We are an influential, well-established think tank, but there is plenty of room to grow, and the scale of the challenges the country faces today requires even more ambition and new thinking.
The ideal candidate will have experience in devising policies with demonstrable impact, a strong political network, a thirst to improve the political system, and a commitment to do so differently: by working out ways to prove the value of democracy.
You will be a creative and inspirational thinker, looking for novel ideas that capture imaginations – but that are backed by the rigour and evidence to achieve change. You will have a strong instinct to shape our policy portfolio for impact, a proven ability to bring in funding to support policy and research work, and a strategic approach to how you do it. You will inspire and support our talented and committed team. You will take responsibility as a member of the executive team as well as deputise for the Chief Executive as needed.
If you believe you have the experience and passion that we are looking for, then I would very much like to hear from you.
Polly Curtis, Chief Executive
Download a copy of the job description here.
About Demos
Founded in 1993 in response to a shortage of new ideas in British politics, Demos is the leading cross party thinktank. We’ve spent three decades cementing our place as a trusted expert, political convener and generator of ideas. Movements, ideologies and governments have come and gone. Yet in this moment of global democratic emergency, Demos’s work could not be more urgent or relevant.
The Democratic Doom Loop
Trust in institutions is falling, public debate is polarised, and too many people feel democracy no longer delivers for them. As trust declines, participation drops, discourse hardens and institutions struggle to respond. This is the democratic doom loop.
At Demos, our overarching mission is to upgrade democracy in the UK and build a system powered by trusting relationships, information and technology, fit for our times. We are designing the practical foundations of a new deal between citizen, state and the institutions that shape daily lives.
Our work focuses on four pillars that span the interface between state and citizen: Everyday Democracy, Public Service Reform, the Citizen Economy, and Resilient Information Ecosystems – with technology and AI shaping each.
About the role
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is ambitious to be part of our executive leadership and lead our influencing work. You will be excited by the opportunity to work across a broad portfolio. You will be ambitious about the impact we will have in the world.
This is a core leadership role for Demos, working directly to the Chief Executive. You will be central to the development of the organisation in years to come, as we grow in size, reach and impact. You will oversee two of our four core policy pillars that shape our voice and impact in the world, as well as run the impact team which ensures all of our work is reaching the right audiences.
What you’ll be doing
Policy
- Responsible with the Chief Executive for overseeing the policy portfolio, the influencing strategy, how it comes together and developing new funded programmes of work
- Contribute intellectual leadership, and supervision of policy development across our team and portfolio
- Delivering some select projects directly
- Ensure that our policy making is grounded in rigorous research and participatory processes, working closely with the Director of Research and Participation and wider executive team
- Directly responsible for policy outputs in quality, efficiency and timeliness for projects and programmes
- Managing our programme of fellows, enabling us to engage a wider network of policy thinkers in our work.
Impact
- Maintain a high-level network of stakeholders and policy makers in relevant political, policy, corporate and civil society organisations
- Support the comms manager to develop the voice of Demos in the media, including by publishing articles and contributing to broadcast media, and enabling others across the team do to so
- Support the engagement manager to systematise our influencing and engagement in parliament, government and across the political parties
- Overseeing our party conference activities
Fundraising
- Personally responsible for bringing in new funding streams to fund policy programmes; working with the Chief Executive to design and deliver fundraising strategy for the whole organisation
- Collaborate with senior leadership colleagues to develop and manage relationships with funding organisations including businesses, government, trusts and foundations
Leadership and management
- Member of the Executive of Demos, responsible with the Chief Executive for growing our influence and impact
- Champion our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Justice (DIEJ) strategy across the organisation, embedding it in all our activities and ways of working
- Support personal and professional development of team members, providing constructive feedback on work and setting goals
- Deputise for the Chief Executive as required.
What you’ll need to be successful
The types of knowledge, skills and experience we are looking for are below. The selection panel will shortlist candidates for interview based on how closely they meet these person specification criteria, so please be sure to address these in your CV and cover letter.
Skills and abilities:
- an understanding of how to navigate the UK policy and political environment, having played significant roles in policy formation and landing recommendations already
- ability to influence successfully at senior levels, including with political stakeholders; experience of building high level, productive relationships with diverse stakeholders
- ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, and keep multiple projects and objectives on track
- skills for planning and running projects on time and on budget, and supervise compliance with diverse funder requirements across the charitable and commercial sectors.
Demonstrable personal experience of:
- thought leadership in a policy area you would want to expand at Demos, as part of our current pillars – we are flexible as to what this might be
- Creative policy design and proven evidence that your ideas have been adopted at a significant level
- Political networks that can be leveraged for policy impact
- Building organisational influence
- Leading and managing a multi-disciplinary team, including providing quality assurance across a range of policy design methods
- Fundraising, with the ability to write, and train others to write successful funding applications and project proposals, and build relationships with existing and potential funders
- Handling competing priorities, working to tight deadlines and delivering results.
Leadership and behaviours:
- Highly collaborative in approach to working with colleagues and external partners
- A passion for the kind of politics we want to promote, coupled with an open mind and inclusive approach to working with people whose ideas and opinions differ
- A demonstrable track record in managing and motivating a diverse team, with a personal record of impactful leadership on diversity, inclusion, equity and justice
- Exceptional leadership and management skills and a commitment to building and developing a team and an organisation.
What we offer
- Generous leave entitlement: 27 days + Bank holidays + 3 additional days off between Christmas and New Year
- Enhanced employer pension contribution of 6%
- Enhanced parental leave
- Enhanced sick pay
- Cycle to Work Scheme through the Green Commute Initiative
- A forward-thinking, supportive and collaborative team
At Demos we centre staff wellbeing as a key priority; we will make every effort to ensure staff feel happy, healthy and valued as part of our integral team.
Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Justice (DIEJ) at Demos
At Demos, we recognise, celebrate and promote the positive contributions that are made by diverse groups. We exist to proactively tackle social and economic exclusion and engaging with and promoting the voices of people whose voices may not otherwise be heard is core to our work. We believe that this should be reflected in our team and we strongly encourage applications from people from minority ethnic communities, people with disabilities, or others with lived experience of disadvantage.
We expect all members of our team to commit to Demos’ cross-party approach. This means we engage with all parties in the democratic system where it will further our charitable aims. Our mission to strengthen democracy and overcome division depends on building dialogue across political divides while upholding our values of diversity, inclusion, equity and justice.
We recognise and value differences and the unique contributions that people make to the way we conduct our work and develop our insights, and encourage people to bring their diverse perspectives and backgrounds into their work on a day-to-day basis. We would be happy to discuss flexible working requirements with any candidates.
Application and selection process
To apply, please submit the following documents by email to [email protected]. Neither document should exceed two sides of A4 in font size 11.
- Your CV
- A covering letter setting out:
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- why you wish to work for Demos in this role, and
- how your skills and experience demonstrate that you meet the person specification for the role
We also ask that all applicants submit a completed copy of our optional diversity monitoring form. This information is collected anonymously and will not be shared with the hiring panel.
We will arrange and conduct interviews on a rolling basis from w.c. 20th April. First round interviews will be held in-person at our office in Whitehall.
Questions?
If you have any further questions or aren’t sure if the role is right for you, please feel free to reach out to us by emailing [email protected] and we would be happy to answer any queries or set up a conversation with the hiring manager.
We look forward to hearing from you!