Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The University of Cambridge is recognised globally as a renowned centre for research, education and scholarship, which is maintained by the diversity of backgrounds, cultures and perspectives of our students, staff and the wider community. Our people are our greatest asset, and it is critical to our continued success that we offer a welcoming and inclusive learning, working and social environment that is underpinned by equality of opportunity and is enriched by a diversity thought and practice. We have the right foundations in place to promote a more inclusive culture, but we recognise that there is still more we can do. We now seek to appoint a passionate and inspirational Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I), who will drive positive cultural change and embed best practice at the University of Cambridge.

The Role:
As the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I), you will lead the strategic delivery of long term ED&I objectives with involvement from key stakeholders and governance bodies. This is an exciting opportunity for you to provide expert advice, guidance and change leadership to the University across all areas of the ED&I agenda. You will ensure that best practice ED&I principles are embedded in the delivery of strategic policies, practices and action plans at an organisational level. Operationally, you will manage the ED&I team, who provide a specialist advisory service to the University, helping them to deliver local and organisational initiatives and implement best practice. As part of this role, we will look to you to:

- Deliver strategic objectives that help foster a thriving community and culture of inclusivity, which includes actions from the ED&I strategy, the People Strategy and other cultural change initiatives across the University.
- Lead the University's institutional engagement with ED&I charter marks, such as Athena SWAN and the Race Equality Charter.
- Positively engage with stakeholders at all levels to embed change cultural initiatives across the University.
- Manage both internal and external relationships and communications on ED&I initiatives, providing trusted and expert ED&I advice to the University's leadership, and relevant committees and governance bodies.

About you:
In order to succeed in this role, you will join us with:

- In depth relevant professional experience, with a track record in building strategic coalitions and serving as a connector across organizational and cultural boundaries to develop and implement new processes and strategies successfully.
- Up to date knowledge of relevant legislation and ED&I best practice
- Experience of managing and developing staff
- Extensive project management and change management experience
- Ability to write formal reports and analyse data
- Creative thinking and problem solving skills
- Political acumen combined with a diplomatic, collaborative style.
- Experience and commitment to promote and foster better understanding of EDI issues, with the ability to communicate tactfully and with sensitivity.

Benefits of working at Cambridge include:

- Competitive rates of pay with automatic service related pay progression and annual cost of living increases;
- Generous annual leave allowance of 41 days paid leave (including bank holidays);
- Flexible and hybrid working opportunities;
- Family friendly schemes
- An auto-enrolment pension scheme, with a generous employer contribution;
- Schemes to support with relocation / the provision of accommodation

The University is supportive of hybrid working, where some work is undertaken on University premises and some in a remote working environment. The aim of our approach is to enable as many staff as possible to work in a hybrid way if they wish and where their role allows.