Strategic Lead

An exciting new opportunity has arisen to join British Equestrian (BEF) as we implement our new framework aligned to Sport England’s vision to transform lives and communities through sport and physical activity.

The BEF is the national governing body for equestrianism in the UK, affiliated to the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) and supported by UK Sport and Sport England. The organisation has 18 member bodies who reflect the interests of a very broad spectrum of equestrian sports and activities, ranging from Olympic and Paralympic to grassroots competition, equine welfare, trade, and recreational riding.

**The role**

You will be joining our Participation and Development Team to support implementing our vision, to provide the voice, inspiration, and leadership for all those involved with equestrianism and to encourage and support sustainable growth at all levels to ensure a thriving and increasingly diverse and inclusive sport.

We’re looking for an outstanding, highly motivated, and innovative project manager to join our team to work with us to plan and deliver projects to help the sport to grow and thrive. The purpose of this role is to lead the design, implementation, and delivery of several key projects. Reporting to the Head of Participation, the Strategic Lead for Projects and Programmes will work closely with internal colleagues and wider partners in the sector to develop and manage projects linked to multiple areas work aimed at sustainable growth.

Demonstrating excellent organisational and project management capabilities, you’ll be a skilled individual with the ability to compellingly make the case for the role of equestrian in helping to tackle some of society’s key challenges: addressing inequalities, inactivity, and loneliness, as well as mental health and wellbeing. You’ll be confident in, and have demonstrable experience of, managing concurrent complex projects with multiple internal and external stakeholders. Above all, you should believe in the role physical activity and sport can play in improving people’s lives and the ability to influence people to share that belief.

**Main activities and responsibilities**
- Responsibility for end-to-end project delivery of multiple projects, from initiation and planning through to execution.
- Preparing detailed project plans for all phases of the project and program, including business case, project brief, risk assessment, communication of outcomes, implementation plan, and impact assessments.
- Designing and managing the budgets for each project effectively.
- Responsibility for internal and external stakeholder management, often involving cross functional business units, senior management, and third-party suppliers.
- Engaging and working with specific project stakeholders to confirm project delivery requirements, providing project reporting, supporting decision making, developing effective working relationships, influencing, and negotiating delivery approach where appropriate.
- Managing any change to project scope and schedule, ensuring effective communication with stakeholders and handling project risk and issues.
- Using risk management and contingency planning to ensure projects remain on track.
- Providing project reporting to the Head of Participation and supporting the preparation of Board reports.

**Specific priorities and areas that the Project Manager will lead on**:

- Managing the activation of the BEF’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion strategy action plan.
- Leading on the development of Urban Equestrianism by initiating and delivering innovative projects to engage better with inner cities population.
- Delivery of projects linked to health benefits and social outcomes of being with horses.
- Leading on piloting digital initiatives i.e. working with riding centres on adopting digital and online management systems.
- Managing wider BEF projects from initiation to completion when required. What you need to succeed Experience We’re looking for an experienced individual with a background in project or programme management, specifically in the field of sport development.

**You’ll also need the following**:

- Extensive experience of successful project management; developing, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating delivery plans and budgets for programmes.
- The ability to strategically plan, organise and lead the delivery of complex work programmes, including defining resources, securing project teams and matrix management, across multiple projects/programmes.
- The ability to broker resource including running tender processes for third parties.
- Strong demonstrable skills of listening and building trust to deliver a high quality service.
- An understanding of managing resource and acting as an enabler in a matrix environment to ensure the delivery of projects on time, to brief and within budget.
- The ability to plan, understand, and prioritise across multiple workstreams and teams whilst fo