About the role

What does this role involve?

The Runnymede Trust has come a long way over the last few years. There's been a significant expansion of the Trust’s income, and the team has grown rapidly. This has created new capacity, new partnerships, and much greater awareness of the Trust’s work in public and political contexts. We have become the go-to organisation for those in both public and private sectors who are seeking sound, evidence-based policy on which to base their strategic and practical responses to structural racism. We are proud of our exceptional and respected track record, and incredibly excited about our future role at the heart of what has become a thriving ecosystem of social justice organisations.

Your role will be to lead us as we refine our operations, maximise our impact, and make the greatest possible contribution to the mission of racial justice in the UK. Working closely with our new Chair and our outstanding board, you’ll shape an ambitious strategy, define what success looks like, and set the direction of travel. This will be a crucial and foundational deliverable of your first year.

Over the medium term, you’ll ensure that we have the capacity and nuance to play a range of roles. Sometimes we’ll be setting the agenda and showing sector leadership, while in other scenarios we’ll be convening courageous conversations between new partners, or providing the class-leading research and insight that others can use to amplify the case for doing things differently. In every case, our contribution will be distinctive for quality, integrity and a powerful commitment to social change.

As a small and specialist organisation, we need to be well-run, with smooth systems and processes in place to enable us to deliver our expertise. You’ll be the benchmark of professional competence, with a working knowledge of the full management repertoire (finance, HR and people management of people, communications, planning, business development – you get the picture). An understanding of how knowledge and research businesses thrive would be a distinct advantage.

Your personal characteristics must include a passion for the work that we do – a lifelong and active commitment to racial and social equity will underpin your career to date, and you’ll relish the opportunity to take up this visible and influential role. Calm, organised and confident in a range of contexts, you’ll rapidly gain the respect and support of the team and the wider sector, and will play a deft and decisive part in helping it expand its reach. We don’t expect you to be an expert in everything, but we will look for the curiosity to learn quickly, and the generosity to recognise when someone else is better placed to make change happen.