Group Chief Executive Officer

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)
York
£166,500
Hackney

Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is an independent social change organisation based in York.  Working across the UK, we have offices in London, Glasgow and Belfast. We’re the parent organisation of the JRF-JRHT group, which includes the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT).

Our work is focussed on real world change – working with a wide range of partners and alliances for change, proposing policy interventions that address the causes and consequences of poverty and resourcing numerous forms of social innovation. We seek to influence those with the power to act now, including Governments, and we help support new propositions that challenge what’s possible and allow us to imagine different futures in which people live free from poverty and marginalisation.

THE ROLE

In this role you will be succeeding Paul Kissack, who has recently taken up a Permanent Secretary role in Government following five highly successful years running our organisation. Our group CEO reports directly to our Chair and Board of Trustees and is responsible for the strategic leadership and organisational wellbeing of the JRF organisation, including group-wide shared services.

As we mark the centenary of Joseph Rowntree’s passing this year, we find ourselves at a critical juncture. A visionary social pioneer, Rowntree laid the foundations for our work during a period of profound economic and social change. Today, we face challenges that, while different in specifics, echo the uncertainties and disruptions of his time.

In 2024, we agreed to adopt a new strategy and move to a fully mission-aligned endowment over time. To make that a reality, in the years ahead, we will be moving the wealth we steward into a new mix of social, impact and transformational investments, better aligned with our mission: investments that will strike a new balance between financial return and contribution to mission, giving greater prioritisation to the latter. We will do this alongside investing significantly more on mission-aligned activity and system-changing work, over and above historic levels.

Our new Group Chief Executive Officer will play a vital role in enabling us to make the most of this time of unprecedented opportunity and scope to disrupt entrenched systems and thinking, to bring about real and lasting change for the better.

INFORMATION

Download the candidate brief to find out about the role.

DOWNLOAD    
How to apply

To make an application, please click on the apply now button below, with the following prepared:

  • Your CV (no more than three sides please).
  • A covering letter (no more than two sides please) that sets out:
  • your motivation for applying for the role
  • the specific experience you can bring against Part One of the person specification
  • your perspective on the main considerations for JRF in delivering the strategy.

 

Closing date
Monday 5th January 2026

Preliminary interviews
w/c 12th and 19th January 2026

Final Panel interviews:
Early to mid-February, to be confirmed
(the Panel may also wish to offer a second meeting).

Apply