Director of Community Investment

We are seeking a an innovative and creative Director to ensure the delivery of Acis vision, values, and business plan - providing clear direction and effective leadership to support a culture and climate which inspires service excellence. This is a brand new position allowing the successful candidate every opportunity to create and drive their strategy. You will play a critical role in shaping and delivering this new Directorate covering community investment. Having recently launched our Corporate Strategy which will take us through to 2030 you will be joining the organisation at the start of a very exciting journey. As Director of Community Investment, a typical day might include:

• Liaising with Board Members, the Chief Executive and other Directors on matters of corporate management and business development.
• Working on business strategy and policy formulation at Board and Executive Leadership Team level to help achieve the Company's overall objectives.
• Directing the Community Investment teams on matters relating to the delivery of our community investment activities and services across education, employability, wellbeing and student accommodation services - ensuring profitability, growth and effective service delivery to enable us to make a measurable difference in our customers' lives.
• Leading and owning the organisation's strategic approach to growth through developing new complementary products and services in the communities in which we work. This might include new business acquisitions, market diversification, commercial product development, new services or complementary projects to achieve our growth objectives to generate at least 10% of group turnover from social purpose investment (excluding income from student accommodation) or developing innovative services alongside our housing offering to support the changing needs of our customers.
• Turning stakeholder relationships into strategic partners, through owning the group-wide external relationship development with stakeholders at all levels and across multiple organisations.
• Driving change across the organisation to deliver a culture that meets high standards for all our customers and ensures the organisation's growth, in ways that meet the needs of our customers., As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, you'll have experience in the following areas:
• Senior management role with a clear understanding of the social housing sector and how it can contribute to the communities in which it works.
• Direct management of the operational delivery of grant and public funded investments and projects in effective delivery partnerships with others.
• Successfully managing large and complex financial budgets.
• Direct reporting to non-executive boards and committees.
• Representing the organisation in regulatory investigations or assessments.
• Leading complex, high value, investment strategies and teams.
• Implementation of projects and programmes.
• Involvement of service users in the design and delivery of service.
• Highly developed commercial acumen and entrepreneurial skills.
  
  You'll be an innovative and creative thinker able to consider new ideas whilst recognising the constraints of the highly regulated environment in which we work.
• Substantial experience of working in a senior manager role or higher in a medium to large sized organisation - and all that that role entails.
• A clear influencer, negotiator, problem solver and relationship developer - who knows how to get the job done and with the commercial experience to win and grow new business through new funding opportunities.
• A real understanding of social value and how organisations like ours can leverage external funding to deliver more.
• A strong knowledge of how grant, contract and framework funding works including in depth understanding of tendering and bidding processes to ensure we maximise our value for money and drive profitability. Additionally, a background in operational delivery or contract management of these funds, particularly within funded streams such as ESFA, DWP and centralised grant funding.
• Experience of Ofsted, regulatory bodies, audit and compliance regimes.
• A demonstrable commitment to the principles of safeguarding and a thorough understanding of keeping children safe in education.
• You'll not be phased by challenge, resistance and setbacks; as you know this is the path to innovation and continuous improvement - whoever said that change was easy?
• Resilience. Working at Acis is a challenging but rewarding career. You'll be helping to bring real change to our customers' lives.
• Relentless enthusiasm and drive to develop creative solutions. Making a positive difference to our customers is what gets you up every day. Nothing makes you happier than delivering a positive customer impact, knowing you helped to make it happen., An appropriate professional qualification commensurate with the job role or a degree level education in a relevant discipline.
• A formal management qualification (such as CMI, ILM, MBA) is desirable
• Project or programme management qualified, such as PRINCE 2, lean or six sigma.
• A demonstrable commitment to continuous professional development, learning and qualification.
• You'll be adept at change, having got hands on experience living and breathing new ways of working and knowing how to bring your colleagues along for the experience.
  
  Generous holiday entitlement - 25 days annual leave every year increasing by one to a max of 30, plus bank holidays
• Pension contributions up to 10%
• The opportunity to undertake professional training, funded by us.
• One days paid leave a year for volunteering work (in addition to your Annual leave entitlement)
• Staff benefits with Paycare - A health and benefits scheme giving you support and contributions towards various health benefits such as counselling, eye tests, vaccinations and much more
• Benefits with Acis Perkz - a discount scheme giving you savings off hundreds of schemes including discounts on your coffee, weekly shop, days out and much more!
• Employee recognition scheme, where we celebrate and award our Stars within Acis, including gift vouchers
• Long service awards for our loyal employees
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme to give you confidential advice and support, when you need it
• Professional membership subscription to support your continuous professional development
• Death in service benefit