Senior Advisor, Middle East

Focus of the Role

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) advises reforming political leaders and governments on strategy, policy and delivery, with technology as an enabler across all three functions. In so doing we make a significant and positive impact for citizens around the world.

Senior Advisors will be embedded engagement stream leaders within our growing project portfolio (both in-country or supporting from our UAE hub), supporting in business development activities, and helping us leverage horizontal offerings of expertise to our clients. This is an exciting opportunity requiring exceptional candidates with relevant experiences and competencies.

Key Responsibilities

Senior Advisors possess the following accountabilities:

• Management of discrete pieces of client deliverables and operational client relationships occupying the role of “middle manager” between the Project Director and junior team of Advisors and Associates
• Ownership of content/insight development using best-in-class approaches to research, analyses and written syntheses
• Integration and synthesis of written inputs into the development of complex documents in PPT and Word
• Apprenticeship of junior colleagues (i.e. Associate and Advisor) in the core advisory skill-set and key software tools (i.e. Microsoft Office suits, incl. Excel)
• Co-ownership of performance evaluations of junior project colleagues (i.e at Associate and Advisor level)
• Engagement and co-leadership of business/practice building activities targeted at making TBI a more efficient, effective and attractive place to work for all TBIers
• Senior Advisors will be accountable to the Project Director (N-2 regionally) who will own the Senior Advisor’s downward feedback

Person Specification

We are looking for consulting leaders in policy, strategy, and delivery or experienced professionals with relevant backgrounds:

• No less than 6-7 years of professional experience
• More than 3 years of progressive experience working in public sector advisory/consulting industry occupying a post-MBA role with front-line accountabilities to clients, or
• Progressive career path built in government, think tanks, foundations and specialist firms enabling development of vertical depth in international relations, economic development, climate policy/finance, social policy, digital transformation and urban affairs/management
• Willingness to work as more than an “individual contributor” by leading mini-teams within small-to-mid sized project teams comprising a variety of skill-sets, nationalities and cultural backgrounds
• Undergraduate and graduate degrees from globally reputable institutions (MBA, JD, PhD preferred)
• Business fluency in English is required
• Business competency in Arabic, French and/or Mandarin advantageous

It is expected that a TBI Senior Advisor's average work week will require 50 hours or less as part of TBI’s commitment to offering industry leading work-life balance to its front-line project teams.

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 has a variety of partners and  its outputs cover a range of disciplines and projects across countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and 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 Changemakers: you’ll be focused on results