The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) is a not-for-profit organisation which supports governments on strategy, policy and delivery through its advisory practice and policy work. As the Institute grows, partnerships are a strategic path to deliver greater impact at greater scale by bringing expertise, resources and technologies that will accelerate economic and social development and secure lasting change for countries.

The Director, Global Partnerships, is critical to delivering TBI’s ambition. The role will be responsible for establishing and building a portfolio of impactful, scalable landmark partnerships which will enable TBI to be the ‘go to’ organisation for progressive leaders and governments for whom we deliver: Policy, Strategy Delivery, with Tech as a horizontal. This role will lead a team capable of triaging, seizing and delivering high impact opportunities; incubating the partnerships for delivery with TBI’s Policy & Politics and Advisory teams; and managing the partnership relationships for value on both sides.

Job Introduction

The Director, Global Partnerships, will build and manage a team to manage a portfolio of high impact, global partnerships. The Director will be expected to grow the team and operating model, in line with a growing portfolio. Under the guidance of the Executive Director, the team will develop strategy and execute and incubate landmark partnerships at pace, eventually handing off to other departments to mainstream and sustain. Success will be measured by the quality and impact of landmark partners engaged to deliver. The Director and their team will work in highly matrixed organisation and the ability to collaborate and deliver with colleagues across structures will be crucial.

Priority portfolios for our landmark partnerships include TBI’s flagships:

• Under The Tomorrow Partnership, we partner with governments, experts and innovators to bring about transformative change by supporting leaders, countries and communities to harness the power of technology for good
• Our “Future of Britain” policy work aims to find the ideas and policies needed to prepare countries for a new era. Find out more on our flagship The Future of Britain at https://www.futureofbritain.com/

TBI is looking to hire two Directors at this level to manage our expanding portfolio of landmark partnerships. Who can bring specialised skills, networks and interests in at least one of the following priority areas: technology and innovation, digitisation, life sciences, progressive politics, and/or government delivery. The portfolio under each Director’s leadership may change/evolve over time. The post holder should be a natural convener and networker able to creatively find synergies and pathways for partnerships.

These roles report to the Executive Director, Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives and sit within the Strategy & Partnerships (S&P) Department of TBI. S&P is one of 3 external facing business critical departments – the other two being Policy & Politics and Global Government Advisory. The S&P department leads and oversees the Institute’s strategic direction and growth, with specific responsibility for futureproofing growth, developing scalable partnerships, innovating in tech and securing financial resources to measurably advance the Institute’s operational goals and drive sustainable impact. The post-holder, under the guidance of the Executive Director, can expect to work closely with the Executive Chairman on our global and landmark partnerships.

Relocation assistance will be provided for the successful candidate if required.

Key Responsibilities

Reporting to and working closely with the Executive Director, Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives, responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Develop partnerships strategy for a dedicated portfolio of landmark global partnerships that meets TBI’s ambition
• In line with strategy, develop and enhance our network, relationships, and partnership with leading innovators, technology and life science companies, implementation partners, and thought leaders which enhance our understanding of emerging innovation and improve our offer to governments. This should cover global providers as well as prioritise solutions providers in and from the Global South
• Set and deliver annual OKRs for the division
• Work closely with other teams across TBI to understand the needs, opportunity impact, and delivery models. This will include some travel and interaction with our global team;
• Hire, lead, develop and support a high performing team to account manage and deliver impact through scalable partnerships
• Lead prospecting, solicitation, partnership development and stewardship for key accounts
• Working with TBI’s CRM and related tools, develop and maintain a clear, organised means for tracking partnership pipeline and engagement
• Lead the team responsible for managing the strategy, incubation, relationships, and iteration of landmark partnerships for maximum impact
• Work closely with TBI teams and partners to troubleshoot implementation challenges and lead teams toward solutions to deliver greater impact, escalating to c-suite leadership as appropriate
• Oversee transfer of mature partnerships to teams for their effective delivery and scale
• Pay special attention to what the portfolio offers as a platform for TBI and our participating partners
• Lead partner impact reporting for your portfolio and manage to key performance indicators for portfolio
• Represent TBI at external events
• Serve as a strong leader for TBI’s culture and values
• Thoughtfully manage your team and grow talent

Key internal relationships: S&P department leaders; Exec Director, Global Client Solutions and subject-matter Directors; Regional Directors and Country Directors, Global Advisory; Executive Directors and Directors Policy & Politics; key country teams; Legal department.

Person Specification

This is a senior leadership role requiring an exceptional candidate who is looking to expand their experience across a growing portfolio:

• Extensive experience as a lead for partnerships and/or high level relationship management, and working with contracts
• Bachelor’s or postgraduate degree or equivalent practical experience
• Strategic thinker who can challenge the status-quo and develop plans for successful delivery of challenging objectives
• The ability to operate in rapidly changing and growth business environment
• Proven ability to oversee numerous projects and initiatives, delegating and performance managing the details
• A track record of cultivating and maintaining partnerships and alliances across diverse organisations
• A natural networker and convener and can manage a multitude of external relationships navigating a matrixed internal organisation
• Brings experience in the mechanics of partnerships, related financial models and can ensure the partnerships cultivated operationally function across portfolio need
• Proven leadership capacity — able to set strategic direction, inspire teams to collaboratively achieve exceptional objectives, and not afraid to be hands-on to achieve results
• Skilled communicator and influencer, from executive office level through to technical level, is adept at speaking to senior leadership
• Impact focused, you will have a background of delivering operationally with a positive impact
• Demonstrated ability in problem analysis and problem resolution at both strategic and functional level
• Proven experience of providing creative and innovative approaches in developing new initiatives/systems that contribute towards set goals
• With experience and a strong network of actors in at least one of the following prioritised areas for TBI’s partnership portfolios: tech & digitisation; life sciences and health innovation; progressive politics; and/or government delivery
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• A proven self-starter and is entrepreneurial in spirit
• Open to travel and curious to learn from colleagues across our global team (10% – 20%)
• Keenly interested in the work of TBI and share in our mission and values

About The Institute

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is a mission-driven not for profit organisation. We exist to equip political leaders and governments to build open, inclusive and prosperous societies. We work hard, every day, to make a difference. When governments work well they are able to create economic and social change in a way that promotes fairness, social justice and opportunity. We work relentlessly to support leader and governments with the challenges they face. Giving them practical solutions and actionable insights, that once implemented, can be transformative for their people

We do this within two connected divisions:

Government Advisory

Our Government Advisory teams work directly with political leaders and governments around the world to implement reforms that improve the lives of their citizens. It works with a variety of partners and its outputs cover a range of disciplines and projects across countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia.

Policy Futures

Our Policy Futures work encompasses three broad areas:

• Renewing the Centre: developing a bold and innovative domestic policy programme to help renew the centre ground of British politics;
• Tech and Public Policy: exploring the policy challenges and opportunities presented by the technological revolution; and
• Extremism Policy Unit: creating solutions designed to tackle the threat of extremist ideologies in the UK and around the world.

As an organisation, the core beliefs we all embrace are:

• Open and Progressive: you’ll believe in the value of teamwork
• Bold and Pragmatic: you’ll approach everything you do with integrity and authenticity
• Optimistic Changemaker: you’ll be focused on results