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.

Under our flagship programme, The Tomorrow Partnership, we partner with governments, experts and innovators to bring about transformative change. We support leaders, countries and communities to harness the power of technology for good, leaving no one behind.

Within this portfolio we have a handful of ‘landmark partnerships’ with leading global technology companies. For example, our portfolio includes a leading cloud infrastructure and PaaS, SaaS provider to support the development, evolution, and delivery of existing and new technology solutions which meet the needs of governments, predominantly but not limited to LMIC’s and UMIC’s, to yield better outcomes for public service delivery and citizens.

Job Introduction

The Engagement Manager roles are a critical leadership role for the success of the Tomorrow Partnership. Each Engagement Manager will work closely with leadership in TBI and with a landmark tech partner to build the landmark partnership, trouble-shoot challenges, expand its impact, and evolve our strategy.

The Engagement Manager will report directly to the Director, Global Partnerships, and can expect to work closely with senior leadership across TBI, including the Executive Director, Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives; the Director, Global Innovation Unit; and the Director, Tech and Digital Transformation. On a day-to-day basis, the Engagement Manager will work closely with colleagues across our embedded Global Advisory Country Teams serving senior political leaders and in our Advisory Global Client Solutions Team. GCS brings the best of TBI across sectors and partnerships at scale to support country teams deliver impact and house solutions manager for incubated, “market-ready” partnerships.

The Engagement Manager will work in highly matrixed organisation and the ability to collaborate and deliver with colleagues across structures will be crucial.

This role sits within the Strategy & Partnerships (S&P) Department of TBI. S&P is one of three 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.

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

Key Responsibilities

The Engagement Manager has sight of and captures the status of all comms/activities between the landmark tech partner and TBI, ensuring we are escalating issues as needed and driving progress against shared goals and objectives. This role is critical in helping define and align the necessary “flying formation” to ensure the partnership and necessary leaders (in TBI and at the tech partner) get the critical info at the right time to keep us advancing at pace.

Strategy setting

• Support joint partnership goal setting (OKR’s and quarterly reviews) to define shared objectives
• Identify new strategic opportunities for the partner and TBI’s joint offer
• Support TBI Solution Managers on strategy and relationships with the tech partner, as required
• Support strategic review and evolution of the partnership strategy and engagement to accelerate impact, including as part of TBI’s wider partnership ecosystem
• Provide direct support to emerging growth opportunities, particularly in new markets and with new products, with opportunity for travel to project countries to support client engagement
• Lead process of assessing new market and client opportunities for the partnership

Relationship Management

• Working closely with counterpart relationship manager at the tech partner, develop and manage systems for coordination across multiple teams and projects, including trackers and regular leadership meetings
• Manage coordination systems for TBI, ensuring timely inputs from all TBI Solutions Managers for the partnership and TBI teams
• Develop and consolidate inputs for partnership meetings
• Support the collation and gathering of client/product and user requirements
• Working with appropriate teams in TBI and with the partner, tell a joint story of impact for the partnership
• Escalate issues to Director, Global Partnerships, and ED, SPI

Partnership Delivery

• Lead weekly project meetings with tech partner and relevant TBI colleagues which align key actors to progress, blockers, and next steps
• Develop, improve and maintain partnership management tools (currently in Monday.com) which enable joint visibility on tasks/tickets and progress/backlogs. Encourage and lead a culture of agile ways of working for our team
• Work closely the Director, Global Innovation Unit, and his team on co-development of solutions with the landmark tech company
• Trouble-shoot and escalate issues across delivery with the tech partner’s counterpart and within TBI to the relevant leadership

Internal Enabling Systems

• Support TBI’s leadership to enhance the organisational strategy within TBI which supports the growing partnership
• Advise TBI leadership on the health of the portfolio and provide briefings for leadership on the partnership
• Develop and support internal TBI communications on the partnership, including to work with TBI and the partner’s teams to oversee the development of materials and resources that deepen TBI’s understanding of our joint offering and value proposition for governments
• Proactively identify challenges internal to TBI and lead teams to solutions
• Coordinate sit reps for TBI leadership on the partnership (eg weekly update for Executive Chairman, OKR reviews, DEI outputs, etc), working with relevant delivery leads across the Institute responsible for their updates and delivery
• Set agenda and content for weekly internal leadership meeting on the landmark partnership, to be chaired by the ED, SPI
• Input into TBI’s impact reporting on the partnership through appropriate channels and support TBI’s strategic communications on the partnership

Person Specification

This is a high profile role requiring an exceptional candidate who has:

• Comprehensive experience as working on the delivery of technology solutions. Product development and delivery for public sector clients would be a bonus
• Bachelor’s or postgraduate degree or equivalent practical experience
• Demonstrated project management experience, with ability to keep multiple trains running on track
• A natural networker and convener who can manage a multitude of relationships navigating a matrixed internal organisation
• Strategic and 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
• Brings experience in the mechanics of partnerships
• Ability to translate technical concepts into language that others understand and can relate to
• 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
• Skilled written and verbal communicator and influencer
• 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.