Director of Programmes (Maternity cover) – London

Director of Programmes (Maternity cover) – London

ClientEarth is a non-profit environmental law, science and policy organisation with offices in London, Brussels, and Warsaw. We provide dedicated public interest legal capacity for the environment, working with environmental NGOs and other stakeholders and acting as legal advocates for environmental objectives. We work at a policy and legislative level to lobby for strong laws and policies that protect the environment, and we pursue litigation that supports our strategic objectives. Our work is based on the development and execution of clear strategies and productive partnerships to ensure our actions to protect the human right to a clean and healthy environment have maximum impact.

We have an exciting and challenging opportunity for an experienced individual to oversee our overall programme strategy and management in a way which continues to reflect our core values and our commitment to positive change. This is a key role in a dynamic organisation offering scope to make a significant leadership and management contribution in a varied and demanding position. This is a maternity cover position for 9 to 12 months.

The Director of Programmes will:

• Provide strategic input and leadership across ClientEarth’s five programmatic areas
• Contribute to development of organisational strategy and direction setting
• Oversee design, development, management and delivery of high impact, high quality strategic programmes of work in cooperation with programme leaders and individuals responsible for work streams 
• Represent the organisation externally and build strong relationships with partners, policy-makers and others
• Contribute to programme fundraising including developing and maintaining good relations with funders, and developing compelling concepts, strategies, proposals
• Ensure effective operational alignment and integration of the programmes with human resources, development and finance functions
• Contribute to governance and board management including reporting and participation in board meetings, particularly on strategic, programmatic and organisational development matters
• Provide effective direct line management to the programme/project leaders
• Lead and contribute to organisational development processes including developing cross-programmatic working, learning and development, operational processes, and quality standards

Working relationships

The Director of Programmes reports to the CEO and is a key member of our Senior Management Team. The Director of Programmes line manages the programme team, including but not limited to programme and project leaders of our five programme areas (currently 8 direct reports). 

Qualifications

• Law or other relevant advanced degree (essential)
• Fluency in English (essential); other European languages (desirable)
• A proven track record of facilitative people management

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years’ senior management experience (essential)
• A minimum of 5 years experience of experience in leading and managing teams across a number of disciplines (desirable)
• Strategic planning and coordination (essential)
• Understanding of public interest law model/non-profit environment sector (desirable)
• Understanding of our programme areas of work (desirable)
• Effective engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders (essential)
• Familiarity with financial management (desirable)
• Fundraising to support programmatic and organisational goals (desirable)

Skills

• Excellent critical and strategic thinking, highly creative
• Practical and solutions-oriented
• Flexible, collaborative leadership style and proven motivational and supportive people management skills with the ability to take colleagues and staff with you
• Excellent planning, organisational and time management skills
• Able to work well under pressure, prioritise a heavy workload and work both reactively and pro-actively with high levels of energy and personal resilience
• High degree of tact, diplomacy and emotional intelligence
• Excellent interpersonal skills necessary to establish and manage collaborative relationships with partner organisations and donors
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to grasp quickly and accurately new and complex concepts and areas of law and programme
• High commitment to excellence
• Highly competent with Information Technology

Other requirements

This position is based in London and involves out of hours travel, mainly within Europe. 
The contract is for 9 to 12 months to start as early as possible in January 2014.
Please note that ClientEarth will only consider candidates who are eligible to work in the UK.

To apply

Please send us your CV and a cover letter explaining your interest in joining ClientEarth and the contribution you believe you could make to the organisation and this position. 
Please include ‘Director of Programmes’ in the email subject line, and identify the documents you are sending by including ‘[your name] Director of Programmes cover letter’ and ‘[your name] CV’ in the file name.

Please address your application to James Thornton, Chief Executive, ClientEarth, The Hothouse, 274 Richmond road, London E8 3QW or send it by mail to jobs@clientearth.org

Recruitment is open now and you should send your application as soon as possible. Applications are scheduled to close on 5th January 2014. We will review applications as they are received and we will interview candidates before the closing date.

If you have any questions about the roles advertised or recruitment process, please contact Patricia Del Rio ( pdelrio@clientearth.org)