Salary: £79,879

Closing date: Monday, 4 September 2023

Contract type: Fixed Term Contract , c.12 Months (Oct.24)

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation. We improve health for everyone by funding science, leading policy, and advocacy campaigns, and building partnerships.

We plan to spend £16bn over the next ten years, funding new discoveries in life, health, and wellbeing, and taking on three global health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health.

These challenges need the bold science we support, but they won’t be solved by science alone.

We are looking for a Strategy Lead, to join our team to do a fixed term contract of c. 12 months – expected end date October 2024.

Where in Wellcome will I be working?

You will be leading the Strategy team within the Strategy & Programme Office reporting to the Associate Director, Strategy & Programme Office

You will be managing the team (2 Strategy Managers and 2 Strategy Advisers) and working within Wellcome’s Strategy and Programme Office and will work across a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to develop and implement Wellcome’s new strategy. Find out more about our strategy here: Our vision and strategy | Who we are | Wellcome

What will I be doing?

We are seeking a Strategy Lead who is experienced in leading, developing and implementing organisation- wide strategies. You will support Wellcome’s ambition to tackle the urgent health challenges facing everyone by leading on developing strategic initiatives within a fast-paced environment across a range of stakeholders. You will work with senior leaders across the organisation and appropriately phase the work of the strategy team to advance Wellcome’s strategy.

As the Strategy Lead, you will :

• Work closely stakeholders with senior and executive leadership roles to continue the work on Wellcome’s approach to developing strategies that look to the future and the communities it is trying to impact. Create stimulating, inclusive approaches and discussion forums for Wellcome’s teams, the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and Board of Governors to gather, share and learn from these external insights. Unlock Wellcome’s potential by providing advice, challenge, independent support and thinking. Partner with Wellcome teams to identify, examine and bring resolution to cross cutting topics that will enable Wellcome to have a greater impact e.g. developing new and evolving organisational positions and processes.

• Lead strategy development processes across Wellcome where required (e.g. the team has recently been working with the challenge areas to develop their medium term strategic goals)). Remain up to date with strategic approaches and priorities for both international and organisations across UK

• Work in partnership with interdisciplinary teams (in particular Wellcome’s data insights team) across Wellcome to bring in expert research and analysis and support teams in the delivery of their strategies, ensuring they push the boundaries of what they are trying to achieve, use Wellcome’s differentiators and contribute to Wellcome’s overall unified strategy

• Identify and ensure consistent and proportional application of appropriate standards, technical methodologies and/or frameworks are used to define and deliver outcome focussed strategies for programmes of varying nature, scale and complexity – ensure those frameworks provide a structure that supports strategies that are outcome focussed, evidence based and their impact can be measured whilst being simple and flexible enough for clear communication and real world decision making.

• Bring diverse perspectives in. Engage with diverse thought leaders and apply an inclusive lens to scan the external horizon for major global trends, opportunities and alternative future scenarios that cut across Wellcome’s strategic priorities, geographic locations, areas of work and society itself which may shape its ways of working, long-term impact and direction. Incubate new ideas and strategic initiatives as needed, ensuring they are ‘mainstreamed’ in the appropriate part of Wellcome at the right time in the development process.

• Contribute to a diverse and inclusive culture across the organisation, collaborating across departments.

Is this job for me?

Candidates will ideally have experience in working for charitable foundations, health research funders or research organisations in a Strategy Lead or equivalent role.

Experience in working in partnership with Senior Leadership teams and Executive Leaderships teams is also desirable.

Experience of managing a diverse team, who work on a broad range of programmes at a given time.

If you enjoy working across multiple stakeholders to develop strategic initiatives, and have a good understanding of the impact of global health challenges then this is the role for you.

We are looking for someone with:

• Substantial experience of a broad range of strategy work (such as research and analysis, idea development, scoping, options appraisals, decision making framework development, outcome definition and iteration, strategic problem solving and issue resolution and creative facilitation) in a large organisation to create significant value ; Substantial experience of working within or with scientific research organisations, with knowledge of a range of biomedical research fields.

• Experienced in developing strategy within a complex organisation, including working with internal and external stakeholders. Experience of working closely with and presenting to senior officials in a large organisation to set and track the impact of organisational strategy and delivering corporate strategic initiatives, employing appropriate project and/or programme methodologies. Experience of managing or assuring delivery of corporate priority programmes.

• Has experience a team through both line and matrix management. Proven ability to build, manage, lead and motivate a diverse team, ensuring that people with the right range of skills and experience are recruited and retained, and that their skills and professional capabilities are maximised within an inclusive work culture

• Substantial experience of bringing simplicity to complexity, setting standards and supporting flexible strategy development for major, interdisciplinary programmes in complex systems; Experience identifying, successfully rolling out and ensuring effective use of impact measurement systems to inform decision making. Experience of delivering work priorities at pace, where no direct power is held, and success is only possible by building the active support of others.

• Commercially astute and comfortable working with significant organisational risk and ambiguity. Rapid information gathering, assessment and decision making, while working across multiple stakeholders in senior leadership and executive roles, including at Board level

To apply please upload your current CV and complete our short application.

Interview dates: w/c 21 and w/c 25 September

You can view the full job description on our website

You can read more about the benefits we offer our employees on our website

Our Hybrid Way of Working

We understand that our colleagues have commitments and personal interests outside of work and we strive to build a flexible working environment, in which people can perform at their best. We are currently working 2 days per week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) from our Euston Road offices (as part of our hybrid Ways of Working) with the remaining 3 days from home.

Diversity and Inclusion is at the heart of everything we do

Diversity and Inclusion is a priority at Wellcome . We are committed to cultivating a fair and inclusive environment, where everyone can be themselves and thrive. We are happy to discuss flexible working options for all roles. We work to ensure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible to everyone. This includes making adjustments for people who have a disability or long-term condition. Please visit our website for more information on adjustments and accessibility, or contact us at jobs@wellcome.org.

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