Director, Delivery

Focus of the Role

At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), we work at the highest levels of government to help leaders go further and faster to make their citizens’ lives better. Moving the dial on the great global challenges of our time requires engaged, incentivised, focused and motivated leaders.  When political leadership is relentlessly deployed, at the highest levels, incredible things can be achieved.

Using our distinctive expertise and global outlook and guided by the unique insights and perspective of our Executive Chairman Sir Tony Blair, our dedicated experts and embedded teams advise governments all over the world in strategy, policy and delivery, underpinned by technology.

Our new Global Client Solutions team is at the heart of how we define “what we do” and then distribute the best of the Institute and our networks to global leaders through our country advisory teams.  As a centre of excellence, Global Client Solutions is comprised of our centrally situated global and regional experts – functional and sectoral.  Our experts provide valuable counsel, technical support, thought partnership, strategy, and surge capacity and lead the development and evolution of our solutions, methods, and offers in the service of our partner governments. Through our country teams and embedded advisors working hand-in-hand with government, we assemble, tailor and distribute our offer to address specific and ever-evolving needs in the various contexts we operate across the world. 

Our functional offers include Strategy: supporting political leaders to identify the barriers to progress, Policy advisory: finding the right solutions, Delivery: making change happen, and then harnessing the transformative power of Technology to support leaders to engage with forward-looking opportunities.  Sectorally, we work on the topics at the heart of senior political agendas from economic prosperity, climate change and energy, health and education, to peace and security. We also lead our internal communities of practice bringing our expertise together regardless of “boxes and lines”.

Government Delivery is about the processes, tools and techniques used by political leaders to steer more effective and faster implementation of government priorities. Delivery is at the heart of TBI’s origin story and offer, beginning with Mr. Blair’s time in Downing Street when he established the first government Delivery Unit. We are driven by outcomes and have a laser-focus on making government work. ‘Getting things done’ or ‘making change happen’ in complex delivery ecosystems is something that we take very seriously and are constantly leveraging lessons from the frontline and innovating to offer best-in-class delivery solutions to our clients.

Role Summary

We are hiring a Director, Delivery to lead our global government delivery capability and anchor team. In this new, globally situated leadership role, you will drive the evolution of TBI’s cornerstone Delivery Pillar which supports senior political leaders deliver change through innovative Delivery Mechanisms. This is an opportunity to create tangible impact at scale across several nations and with multiple Heads of State including those who have recently been elected and must generate rapid impact.

Working with global advisory leadership and colleagues you will lead a nimble team of Delivery experts who provide expert support and guidance to TBI teams supporting Heads of State to set up or enhance Delivery Mechanisms. To deliver your remit, you will need to effectively engage across the Institute tapping into the knowledge and resources across including with other GCS pillar leads to effectively bring full range of delivery solutions to complex sectoral challenges ranging from economic prosperity to health to climate, to digital transformation at the heart of government.

You will evolve TBI’s initiatives, assets, and tools, including working with our Global Innovation Unit and Digital and Technology Transformation anchor team to bring in the best of innovation thinking and use of data for improved decision making.  Some of the global initiatives our Delivery practice is driving include:

• Conducting a global study on the Future of Delivery reflecting on evolving best practices
• Building on user experience to drive the 2.0 version of our delivery dashboard
• Developing a toolkit on using performance data to guide decision-making leveraging advanced analytics
• Planning for our next global delivery exchange, a platform to assemble expertise and exchange lessons on delivery from practitioners across the globe.
• Evolving a partnership with a globally recognised university school of government to support the next generation of political leaders

This is a senior leadership role requiring exceptional candidates with relevant expertise, deep networks and hands-on experience leading Delivery Units and mechanisms in government. Global experience, or experience translating your expertise in diverse contexts is a must.

We welcome applicants who have an existing right to work in one of our office hubs in London, Abu Dhabi, or Athens from which you will be based.

Key Responsibilities

Key responsibilities for the role include:

Strategy and Offer Leadership

• Lead the overall offer strategy evolution and thought leadership of TBI’s Delivery offer and methods
• Identify and implement game changers and lead creative, context specific processes to push the frontier on delivery solutions
• Ensure effective linkage of our delivery offer with critical functions like strategy, policy, strategic communications and private office operations
• Work with other the sectoral team (e.g. Economic Prosperity, Health) to strengthen our delivery offering when a sectoral lens is required
• Champion and directly support the design, mainstreaming, and adaptation of new delivery solutions in various contexts. (e.g., data analytics for granular targeting), combining design thinking, behavioral insights and data science with delivery planning tools (e.g., delivery labs and sprints), and clear line of sight and tools to scaling up results (e.g., pay-for-success contracts, outcome funds, results-based financing).

Delivery initiative quality assurance and impact

• Lead the central anchor team of delivery experts who will distribute TBI’s Delivery capabilities at scale working through and with TBI country teams and embedded advisors to ensure end-to-end impact of Delivery projects and utilization of TBI Delivery best practices and tools, methods, approaches
• Provide expertise input, thought partnership, and advise to Regional Directors, Country Directors and Advisors on their strategic plans, performance management and resource planning for delivery projects throughout and at critical milestones
• Working with the Knowledge and Learning Director, support TBI learning and development programmes and curriculum development to ensure colleagues in advisory are well-trained in TBI delivery methodologies.
• Be a spokesperson for TBI on the key topics of Delivery.  Be a recognised thought leader among the sector ecosystem including participating on panels, writing blogs and articles, and networking strategically

Thought leadership and portfolio growth

• Continue to position the practice and TBI as a thought leader in this space.
• Facilitate senior-level discussions with government counterparts on TBI’s support areas and jointly define and agree on TBI’s scope of work
• Lead, or contribute to scoping exercises and develop a clear understanding of governments’ overarching vision, implementation challenges and opportunities
• Support business development efforts with technical expertise and inputs in collaboration with the Business Development & Income team, Regional Directors, Country Directors and other sectoral teams
• Maintain intelligence on market needs, competition, and market gaps in the Delivery ecosystem

Strategic Partnerships and networks

• Develop annual plan to support implementation of strategic partnerships relevant for delivery practice
• In collaboration with the Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives team, lead productive partnerships by ensuring TBI’s proprietary delivery methodology, impact on the ground, and strategic priorities are well reflected in the program of work
• Build strategic relationships with global leaders and political changemakers
• Strengthen TBI’s network of exceptional external advisors and senior counsellors.

Person Specification

This is a senior leadership role requiring an exceptional candidate, expert, and people leader:

• Extensive senior level experience leading a government Delivery Unit and supporting the set-up of Delivery Units in multiple countries with demonstratable success in achieving tangible outcomes for citizens
• Extensive experience in a leadership role, cutting across centre of government, delivery, and/or management consulting globally
• Ability to work and interact at the highest levels of political decision-making structures in Governments and to support the emergence of trusted relationships
• Strong political acumen and able to rapidly develop an understanding of the needs of senior officials
• Highly developed analytical skills that can be deployed in a range of contexts
• The ability to work in the face of a range of competing views and priorities, possessing highly developed negotiation skills
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, drafting and presentation skills
• Strong people leader with excellent soft skills, and not afraid to be hands-on and pull out all the stops to achieve exceptional results
• An ability to work independently, think strategically and translate strategies into concrete and implementable plans; an acute attention to detail, as well as organizational and communication skills
• Proven ability and experience leading and managing people and teams
• Experience with project development and project management
• Able to motivate and influence others, including TBI country specific roles, as well as funders, government counterparts and partners
• Willingness to travel extensively (~30%), sometimes at short notice, to TBI’s countries of operation
• Fluency in English is required. Fluency in French, or other relevant business languages is desirable

#LI-Hybrid
 

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

TBI believes embracing diversity and inclusion make us a better place to work.  It’s our goal to reflect everyone in society and we actively welcome applications from individuals and groups who are under-represented in the workplace. We celebrate difference be it ethnicity, religion, age, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation or disability. We will only ever assess you on your abilities and fit for a role. We’re happy to discuss any adjustments you need to ensure a level playing field during recruitment and, if you\'re successful, discuss any adjustments you might need to thrive in your role.