Role Description – UK Director

Reporting to: CEO
Work location: London, UK
Salary: £90,000
Contract length: Permanent, with 6-month probationary period
Time fraction: 1 FTE
 Direct reports: Around 5
Additional benefits:

  • 20 days annual leave, plus 5 days company leave and 1 day of birthday leave.
  • Flexible hours and workplace arrangements including hybrid office-home working (at least 2 days in office per week)

Working relationships:

  • Internal – Member of the CEI Leadership team
  • External – Working closely with stakeholders and partners

Assets: Laptop, mobile phone
Criminal record check: Required
Travel: Some domestic and occasional international travel required.
Working with children check: Required

Role purpose

The Director is a key position in CEI’s Leadership Team. The Director is responsible for leading CEI work, with a primary focus on UK and broader European market and leading a dynamic and fast-growing UK team.  (There is a separate CEI Nordic team leading CEI’s work in Scandinavia.) Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Director also has a dotted line of reporting to the Global Managing Director on aspects of the UK team’s financial performance and operations. The UK team is currently approx. 15 staff, including a senior management team of Associate Director and Principal Advisor posts. In the future, additional Director roles may be brought on alongside this role.

Specifically, the primary focus areas of the Director are:

  1. Strategic direction of the UK team – Lead the strategic direction of CEI’s team and work in the UK, and contribute to CEI’s overall strategic direction, working closely with the CEO, Global Managing Director, wider Leadership Team, and UK senior management team.
  2. High quality project delivery – Provide hands-on leadership for projects and provide oversight of UK work (and other projects as required) to ensure high quality project delivery.
  3. Business and client development and stakeholder management – Initiate, develop and maintain strategic relationships, build a portfolio of work in the UK aligned with CEI’s vision and focus areas, and lead large scale funding bids.
  4. Team management – Lead the UK team, ensuring we recruit, develop, engage, and retain excellent staff working to high standards of rigour.

Key areas of responsibility

The Director is responsible for the strategic direction of CEI’s UK office, with primary focus on the UK and broader European market, leading on the delivery of the strategic priorities of CEI and working collaboratively with the global leadership and with the senior management team in the UK office to achieve these. Specifically, the post-holder will lead:

Strategic direction – including

  • Lead CEI’s strategy and work in the UK and Europe, expanding CEI’s profile, presence, and portfolio of work.
  • Drive top and bottom-line business growth for the UK office, collaborating with the Global Managing Director and CEO and UK senior management team.
  • Identify and cultivate relationships with key partners and stakeholders in the region.
  • As a member of the CEI Leadership Team, contribute to the strategic leadership of CEI globally.

High quality project delivery – including

  • Lead a portfolio of high quality and impactful projects in the UK, including acting as hands-on project director for a number of projects (providing project management and oversight of key materials and deliverables), and providing strategic and technical input to other CEI projects in the UK and globally as required. The post-holder is expected to spend around 60% of their time on funded projects.
  • Provide quality assurance across the UK team’s work and ensure excellent project delivery.
  • Actively nurture key stakeholder relationships, including with high-profile clients, partners, collaborators, and others.
  • Ensure and enhance the financial health and sustainability of the UK team and our wider business, through efficient project management and delivery, working closely with the Global Managing Director.

Business and client development and stakeholder management – including

  • Spearhead business development in the UK and more widely, ensuring a strong project pipeline, increased median project revenue, and an increasingly diversified client base.
  • Lead and oversee the development of high quality successful competitive tenders and grant applications.
  • Build long-term, mutually beneficial strategic partnerships with key sector stakeholders and with national and international partners.
  • Use compelling, evidence-informed, and engaging thought leadership to influence stakeholders and the sector.
  • Ensure CEI’s strong presence in the UK and globally, and represent CEI at key forums, conferences, and meetings.

Team management – including

  • Lead the UK team (current headcount 15) as a highly engaged, high-performing, and diverse group, closely tracking staff wellbeing and cultivating CEI’s culture of staff growth and development, sharing of expertise, and excellent teamwork and collaboration across the organisation.
  • Develop a senior management team and staff group with the right skills, capabilities, experiences and behaviours to support a sustainable business where diversity is valued, and employees thrive.
  • Oversee the healthy and efficient functioning of the UK office, working closely with the Global Managing Director.
  • As a member of the CEI Leadership Team, contribute to making CEI an impactful and exceptional place to work for staff globally.