Location: Global

Department: Global Impact Department

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Contract type: Open-ended

Grade: UK Grade G or equivalent adjusted based on cost of living in employment location

About HelpAge

HelpAge International works with partners and a diverse global network of more than 170 organizations over 90 countries, supporting millions of older people to live safe, dignified, and healthy lives. Through our partnership and collaborations, we work to ensure the inclusion of older people across society and strive to deliver a just and fair world for everyone, whatever their age.

Our work is driven by our desire to deliver real impact for older people, to be inclusive, to work in partnership and to learn from our shared experience. Our 2030 strategy Ageing in a Just World sets out how we will work together to shape the future we all share. By ensuring that all our work promotes wellbeing, dignity and voice, we can be a positive influence in the lives of current and future older people.

HelpAge International is entering into an exciting phase of its evolution as we fundamentally transform what we do, how we do it and how we are organised. Driven by our commitment to the localisation agenda, we are evolving the way we partner and deliver value at the country and local level. In the coming 3 years, we will localize our country offices and programmes, and develop new and diverse forms of partnerships globally. We seek to give primacy to local agents for change. To this end, we will replace all programmes delivered by HelpAge staff and resources on the ground with implementation by partners. This will apply across all our work -humanitarian and long-term development. Going forward, our value is framed around supporting, convening and thought leadership. A key way of creating value and bringing impact is collaborating across boundaries and by bringing different perspectives, skills and talent together. We will deliver our work through agile teams and a global operating model, with regional roots, to focus on impact and maintain the relationships at the national level to help build collaborations and support others to set their own agendas.

About the Portfolio / Department

The Global Impact Department contributes to the 2030 Strategy as follows-

• To achieve positive impact on well-being, dignity and the voice of older people by inspiring a movement for change, through implementing the strategic approach of support, convene and thought leadership.
• Leading, advocating and partnering on initiatives that support and transform systems, challenge attitudes and social norms, and influence laws, policies and practice at national, regional and global level

About the Job

This senior leadership position is a member of the Executive Steering Group of HelpAge which provides overall direction and leadership for the whole organisation. It also leads a wide range of projects and initiatives that cover 4 main areas of focus – Inclusive Humanitarian Action, Healthy Ageing, Income Security and a Society for All Ages.

The Director is required to represent the organisation at the highest level externally including with donors, supporting members, government, UN bodies and other actors in the development and humanitarian space.

It is a critical role for HelpAge that will also ensure that as an organisation we deliver on our 2030 Strategy and transform how we work going forward.

Key areas for impact/influence and responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Global Impact team, agreeing ways of working, key principles, business planning and processes, milestones and targets working with other teams
• Build and develop diverse portfolios (Income Security, Healthy Ageing , Inclusive Humanitarian action , Society for all ages) with new financial opportunities and programmatic partnerships that provide timely, impactful and sustainable interventions for older people.
• Build, develop and deploy a diverse pool of talent with broad interchangeable skills and deep specialisms that can support and convene all stakeholders to achieve greater impact for older people and lead the thinking on ageing.
• Collaborate with supporting members to lead on the resource development opportunities and ensure the oversight of overall funding pipeline donor compliance and commitments.
• Lead the work of the team to strengthen capacity and interventions across the HelpAge International network and partners to prepare and respond to the needs of older people
• Lead on the development of HelpAge’s advocacy strategies and global campaigns to influence various stakeholders to drive positive change to older people’s wellbeing , dignity and voice .
• Represent HelpAge International at the highest level to influence external stakeholders, leading on key organizational relationships within the international development and humanitarian communities.
• Engage fully as a member of the Executive Steering Group taking shared responsibility for strategic and operational management of HelpAge and engagement with the board

Skills and experience required

You will be someone with:

• Significant strategic leadership experience within the international development/humanitarian sector including leading staff across different geographies
• Demonstrable experience in identifying, negotiating and building successful organisational and operational partnerships with a range of commercial or non-commercial actors
• Demonstrable skills and/or experience in influencing decision-makers, national and international institutions (e.g. DFID, ECHO,OFDA, UN),
• Excellent programme management skills, policy planning and delivery
• High level representation skills and experience in public presentation and speaking
• Previous experience of driving forward change within an organisation and in building the knowledge and capacity of staff and partners
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally at short notice

Key Behavioural Competencies

At HelpAge International, we believe in the importance of empowering our people to be change makers and leaders at all levels. We expect our people to embrace and live our values, challenging themselves every day to identify issues that are most important to older persons and their communities, and to make an impact that matters.

In addition, as an HelpAge employee you are expected to:

Working Collaboratively with Others: Work collaboratively, building mutual trust and respect, with external organizations and partners to achieve our strategic aims and objectives; being accountable for the work we do together.

Adaptability and Flexibility: Adapt to new directions or opportunities arising within the organisation and in our work area; being flexible in our role, constantly using the feedback to learn more and evolve further.

Supporting and Facilitating Change: Lead behavioural and cultural change through embracing a supportive, collaborative and highly inclusive environment where everybody feels supported, respected and engaged.

Extend HelpAge’s Reach and Impact: Extend HelpAge’s reach and impact by creating and identifying new business development opportunities and building relationships with new partners.

Diversity and Inclusion: Lead and promote a culture of including the voices of older people across our support, convening and thought leadership roles, in a way that is transformative, empowering and highly inclusive of those marginalised by gender, economic status, disability and other factors of discrimination.

Leading Others (for managers): Demonstrate strong leadership to own unit/department and manage people in a well and reputable manner. Create an atmosphere of trust and an enabling environment where staff can contribute their best and develop their potential.

Safeguarding

HelpAge International is committed to safeguarding the communities with which we work, our partners, staff and any others who we come into contact with. The post holder will also be responsible for:

• Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes to anyone that encounters our work.
• Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism.
• Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices.
• Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.

Safer Recruitment

All employments at HelpAge International will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include misconduct disclosure schemes and terrorism finance checks.