Director of Transformation – Role Description

Job details

Job Title: Director of Transformation
Responsible to: CEO

Job Purpose

We are at a critical point in the development of our organisation as we build a new strategy and start a period of transformation.

This executive director role will lead this change by creating the right environment to drive strategic, technological and cultural transformation at NCVO, so we deliver innovative services and long-term systemic positive impact to our members and the wider voluntary sector over the next decade.

Dimensions

This role will join the executive team, reporting to the CEO and the board of trustees.

They will create a new directorate – the transformation unit – which will deliver key strategic projects that have a demonstrable impact on the organisational culture, growth and capabilities. This will include significant investment, and they will be responsible for a large budget.

The strategic decisions they recommend, will impact our resilience and sustainability as an organisation, as well as ensuring we service our membership of over 17,000 organisations. They will support with driving income, looking for commercial opportunities, particularly with how we use our data.

Embedded in all of this will be ensuring we have robust and rigorous organisational design, so everything from our systems and data collection to our policies and processes, meet the needs of our diverse workforce, partners and customers, and adhere to the highest levels of compliance.

Organisation chart

Main Accountabilities of the Post

Technological and Digital 

• Oversee a team to drive technological and digital transformation within NCVO, including overhauling our existing tech stack and ensuring our systems enable colleagues to deliver efficiently in their roles.
• Develop a rigorous governance approach to assessing new requirements to ensure tech, software and systems decisions are made within an agreed framework and adopt the highest levels of accessibility, security and data management.
• Drive a test and learn approach to adopting AI to improve how we work and better support the voluntary sector.
• Keep abreast of technological and AI development in the wider environment and be a thought leader within the voluntary sector on this topic.

Culture

• Lead the development of new working practices at NCVO through exploiting synergies between cultural transformation and technological transformation.
• Oversee the people, culture and inclusion team, and acting as exec sponsor for the people strategy.
• Test, learn and embed agile, matrix, asynchronous ways of working across NCVO that break down silos, promote creativity and make the most of the knowledge and talent across the organisation.
• Act as exec sponsor for a new programme management office and project management methodology within NCVO.
• Oversee a process review at NCVO and drive improvements that streamline ways of working and drive down silos.
• Seek to automate manual processes with technology so that staff time is freed up to focus on relationships.

Organisational Strategy

• Oversee the development, delivery and monitoring of our new organisational strategy.
• Ensure a collaborative, inclusive approach to strategy development and business planning.
• Working closely with the board and CEO, to drive an ambitious approach to strategy development, continually stretching our thinking, balancing impact and commerciality, questioning our assumptions and seeking to innovate.
• Oversee the business planning process, working closely with the finance director and wider executive team, and delivering a reporting framework for progress against KPIs.

Incubation Projects

• Encourage innovation through incubation projects – both internal and external – with rigor around excellent project management and focused outcomes – such as the Vision for Volunteering project.
• Drive a data and insight-led approach to NCVO’s work
• Oversee the day to day work of Insight Hub acting as exec sponsor for our data and insights strategy.
• Drive a insight-led approach to our work so that we better understand our customers and market and continually respond through adapting our offer to the voluntary sector.
• Explore commercial opportunities or partnerships around data and insight.
• Keep abreast of key developments in data and insight in the voluntary sector and wider environment and provide thought leadership on data and insight across the voluntary sector.
• Executive team data protection lead (SIRO), supported by the Insight Lead.

Leadership

• Work alongside of the executive team to lead the organisation, reporting to the board and committees, with regular attendance at the strategy committee, finance and commercial committee and people, culture and inclusion committee.
• Provide inspiring and empowering leadership, modelling inclusive leadership.
• Represent NCVO externally at the most senior levels.
• Lead, manage, motivate and coach staff, based upon NCVO’s values. Regular supervision and appraisal of direct reports; ensuring that learning and development needs are identified.
• Work with the leadership team to create an equitable, inclusive and anti-racist culture, that values diversity.

Work Context

NCVO exists to help charities be the best they can be for the communities they serve. We do this in three main ways:

1. Connecting charities together into a community
2. Providing charities with the right tools, learning and advice
3. Advocating for the sector.

The needs of communities are diverse and ever-changing. This means the role charities play, and what they need, constantly evolve. To fully respond to this, NCVO needs to having a enabling and sustainable culture, underpinned by tools and systems that allow our colleagues to thrive.

Through developing the core foundations of NCVO through culture, systems, tech, insight and design, we can better tailor our products, services and communications so they meet the needs of our customers, enhance our reputation and grow our membership base.

At the same time, much of the voluntary sector are facing similar challenges, and this role will have an external focus so we can lead by example. To achieve responsive organisational design we need to be collaborative and foster close working between internal teams, staff networks, the leadership team, the wider sector and our members themselves.

Our organisation’s credibility relies heavily on our member’s direct experience with us – from the emails they receive to the webinars they attend. We need to gain, nurture and maintain member’s confidence that we understand them, listen to them, respond to their needs and work with them to tell the story of our sector.

Autonomy and Decision-Making

The post holder will operate at a strategic level and will have autonomy at all times referring decisions to the CEO or board only where there will be significant financial, reputational or political impact on NCVO.

The post holder will have decision making authority for all aspects of their teams, including relating to finance and human resources.

Communications

The post holder is required to be a skilled communicator, both verbally and in writing, and is expected to form relationships with:

Internal: The Chief Executive, the Trustee Board, and the executive team, senior management team and staff at all levels across NCVO.

External: Frequent contact with senior stakeholders across the voluntary sector, external consultants, agencies and suppliers.

Main Areas of Difficulty

This is an ambitious new role leading a brand-new business unit within NCVO. The post holder will be responsible for driving transformational change in an organisation where there has already been significant change. They will encourage new ways of working so we are more agile, in an organisation which does not have much experience working in this way.

They will work collaboratively to build trust internally so teams can be assured they will provide sound judgement and advice and provide information that should be used to inform strategic decision making. They may have to use their experience to constructively challenge organisational norms. The post holder must be willing and able to take account of a range of viewpoints and must be skilled in persuading colleagues of the most appropriate course of action.

They will also need to develop the balance between planned activity and a culture of responsiveness and pace so we can pivot to emerging opportunities or issues.

They may have to recommend unpopular courses of action for the best outcomes so will need resilience, be inspiring and build trust to ‘bring people with them’ on the journey.

Diplomacy, influencing and negotiating and detailed technical communication skills are required when working with board members, staff members, and external agencies/contractors.

General Information

To, at all times, adhere to NCVO’s policies.