Director of Policy and Impact
Demos
£75,000 – more for exceptional candidates.
Demos wants to bring about a new era of collaborative democracy, in which our problems are solved in ways which develop citizens’ and society’s ability to handle them. In an increasingly diverse, atomised society, building strong relationships is a new, central role for the liberal state. Making policy decisions for people is a missed opportunity to strengthen relationships between citizens and the democratic system: we need to change the policy process to put participation at its heart.
The Role
As Director of Policy and Impact, you will work closely with myself and the rest of the senior leadership team, leading our policy portfolio, helping to build the funding routes to achieve it, and making sure that we achieve our ambitions to have real-world impact.
Demos is a leading cross-party think-tank producing research and policies that have been adopted by successive governments for nearly 30 years. We do policy work differently: we start by listening to people who are ultimately affected by the policy and believe that involving people will produce better policies that have more legitimacy. In CASM at Demos, we have a world-leading team focused on improving digital policy-making.
Our goal is to change Britain’s democracy for the better: improving the way policy is made, the way politics is conducted, and the way power is shared. As Director of Policy and Impact, you will be central to the development of the organisation in years to come, as we grow in size, reach and impact. You will lead the core policy programmes that shape our voice and impact in the world, overseeing and developing our policy team.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who is ambitious about the change we can make. We are a high profile, well-established think-tank, but there is enormous room to grow, and potential to diversify the work that we do. You will be excited by the opportunity to work across a broad portfolio. You will be excited about being a leading voice of Demos in the media.
The ideal candidate will be a policy-hound, sniffing out weaknesses in policies and looking to improve them. You will be a creative and inspirational thinker, looking for novel ideas that capture imaginations – but that are backed by the rigour and evidence to achieve change. You will have a strong instinct to shape our policy-portfolio for impact, and a pragmatic approach to how you might work with colleagues to obtain the funding to achieve it. You will inspire our talented and committed team. You will take responsibility as a member of the senior leadership team as well as deputise for the Chief Executive as needed.
