Director of Strategy

Are you an exceptional leader looking to make a difference? Citizens Advice is seeking a Director of Strategy & Impact. This role will be pivotal in developing our Transforming Together strategy. At the centre of our strategy are our missions to:

• Provide advice fit for the future - we’ll be there for people when they need us in the ways that help make the biggest impact
• Close the gap - we’ll end the disparities in access and experience for marginalised people
• Take early action - we’ll prevent more people reaching crisis by addressing problems earlier

The Director of Strategy & Impact will be instrumental in owning and leading the ongoing development of our strategy and strategic framework, overseeing its implementation and establishment and then measuring the impact of our work. A significant component of this work will be ensuring that we are prioritising the right portfolio of work, have a clear understanding around progress and impact, are robustly managing the risks related to this work and helping to unblock and overcome challenges to ensure we have the impact we need to.

The Director, and their teams, will work to:

• Ensure Citizens Advice has clarity on its future direction and plans to fulfil it
• Orientate national and local Citizens Advice more fully towards achieving our missions;
• Create, nurture and maintain strategic connections between national teams and across the network, developing new opportunities and mechanisms to experiment, scale innovation and learning across the service
• Effectively prioritise, plan, manage performance and evaluate our work - ensuring that we are doing the right work that has the impact it needs to.
• In collaboration with other teams ensure that strategic work is properly funded, supported, measured and performance is clearly understood and articulated
• In collaboration with other teams, ensure that all colleagues and teams are energised and motivated by their contribution to the strategy through great planning, prioritisation, communication and engagement.

The ability to mobilise a range of stakeholders - gaining input, insight and participation - is a fundamental part of the Director of Strategy & Impact’s role and colleagues in the national organisation and the wider service of local Citizens Advice organisations will look to the postholder and their team to provide direction, guidance and support in this space. The role will be key in supporting and enabling Citizens Advice to operate as one service with many leaders (we are an ecosystem with over 240 organisations that are part of the Citizens Advice service), and will play a highly instrumental role in creating the conditions to build common purpose, coalesce around shared and systemic problems and opportunities, and find ways forward together. The role must navigate a complex landscape, and considerable ambiguity, to create direction and common purpose to help CA become ever more effective at meeting the needs of clients and ensure its longer term sustainability so we can continue to do this in the future.

Reporting to the Executive Director of People & Strategy, the post holder will work strategically and collaboratively as a critical member of the organisation's wider senior leadership team, and be expected to work closely with our CEO, Executive Committee, senior leaders and trustees.

Please provide details in your cover letter to evidence the following essential criteria. Please make sure your cover letter provides evidence for the essential criteria succinctly.

• Significant and demonstrable experience of successfully leading strategy development, systems change and/or transformation across a complex organisation.
• Clear understanding of the strategic context affecting Citizens Advice and the ability to apply a client-focused approach to their work where the determination of impact is key.
• Proven experience of operating at a senior level in organisations of comparable scale, and/or complexity and context, including during times of transformation and change.
• An understanding and affinity with our purpose as a charitable organisation, with a demonstrable commitment to our values and to equity, diversity and inclusion.

Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives from debt to evictions to trouble at work and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.

Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We follow the social model of disability. We will offer an interview to disabled candidates who indicate they wish their application to be considered under our Disability Confident Interview Commitment where they meet our selection criteria in their application. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances where it is not practicable or appropriate, we may limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates. We will provide reasonable adjustments as needed.

We’re a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who’d prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we’re open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.

The National Citizens Advice operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.

Our commitment to colleague wellbeing is reflected in us being awarded Gold in the Health & Wellbeing category, as well as Overall Winners, at the Employee Experience Awards 2022.

Please be aware that Citizens Advice is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.

Citizens Advice seeks to redeploy internal staff who are at risk or under notice of redundancy and will prioritise them in the recruitment process where necessary. If you have been confirmed as at risk or under notice of redundancy please ensure you indicate this in the at-risk box in your application.

In the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close the application early.

This vacancy closes at 23.59 on the closing date.

For more information about the organisation, our values and benefits please see the following link - Information, values and benefits

Need help with your application, see our useful how to guides on the following page - Guidance notes for applicants