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Job vacancy

ELN Executive Director

Closing date: 30 September 2024

Salary: Salary as set by the ELN Executive Board of Trustees (the ‘Board’); 5% employer pension contribution; 5 weeks holiday a year plus the office is closed for 10 working days over Christmas/New Year. Generous sick pay, maternity leave and paternity leave arrangements. Subsidised business and personal travel insurance, a company laptop and work-from-home allowance, and dedicated travel and personal development training budgets.

Location: London or Berlin. The ELN team work mostly remotely but with opportunities for co-working available. There are five in-person gatherings in London a year, two of them mandatory. All five meetings are mandatory for the Executive Director.

Contract type: Full-time; formally 37.5-hours per week (opportunities for flexible working considered) but in practice the post holder will find themselves often needing to work longer hours.

Contact: charissef@europeanleadershipnetwork.org

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About the ELN:

The European Leadership Network (ELN) is an independent, non-partisan, pan-European network of over 450 past, present and future European leaders working to help prevent existential conflict in Europe and beyond by providing practical, multilateral, real-world solutions to political and security challenges.  In its origin and at its core lies a commitment to support for multilateral nuclear disarmament.

The ELN is a Network, not a think tank. As a charity registered in England and Wales, our purposes are education and conflict resolution.  The ELN’s strategic vision is to deliver these goals effectively through its Network of experienced and emerging leaders, which is at the heart of everything we do.

By drawing on its uniqueness, independence and non-partisan character and on its diverse, intergenerational, pan-European membership, the Network can, for example, go places, convene people, conduct research, develop policy options, publish balanced ideas, press for progress, and create safe spaces for dialogue in ways that governments generally cannot.

 

Purpose of Role:

The ELN’s Executive Director is responsible for advancing the ELN’s goals by providing inspirational leadership and energy, clear vision, direction and strategy, by creating the environment for successful fundraising, and by developing a high-performing, empathetic culture in the core team and across the Network.  The core team and, obviously, the Network are multinational. The ELN Executive Director works for the ELN Executive Board and is ultimately accountable for the performance, management, development, and sustainability of the ELN.

They will play a critical role in building the ELN’s effectiveness, influence and policy impact. The job requires outstanding leadership skills, excellent diplomacy, real fundraising strengths, good networking, and a sharp focus on commitments, resources, and outcomes.  Willingness to engage with people holding profoundly different values and convictions in order to achieve results is a necessity.  So too is support for multilateralism.

 

Accountabilities and Responsibilities:

The ELN’s Executive Director will be accountable for:

  • A focused, ambitious, and effective ELN strategy. They will lead the ELN strategy and business planning process in liaison with the Board and other key stakeholders to build the Network’s policy influence, institutional effectiveness, and resources.
  • The ELN’s fundraising and financial sustainability, ensuring that there is a clear financial plan to underpin our strategy and that fundraising targets are consistently met.
  • Effective performance across the organisation which consistently meets goals and KPIs as agreed with the Board and other key stakeholders (e.g. funders).
  • Governments seeing the ELN as relevant, authoritative, influential, and good to work with.
  • Ensuring that our research and other policy work is evidence-based, influential and impactful and that it balances our ambitions and long-term goals with real-world solutions and pragmatic wins.
  • Ensuring that our intergenerational Network of leaders is at the centre of all that we do.
  • A collaborative approach to work by placing the organisation’s goals and needs rather than personal preferences at the forefront of decision-making. They will lead a team with the same values.
  • A high-performing, inclusive and impact-focused working culture where colleagues are empowered to be at their best.

The key responsibilities of the Executive Director will be to:

  • Lead a positive and inclusive culture across the organisation by ensuring that the team, and as far as possible the Network, is aligned to the aims of the ELN and role-modelling its values and inclusive leadership behaviours.
  • Ensure our values and policies are reflected and brought to life in all aspects of the organisation and our work.
  • Work with and support the Impact Director to drive the engagement, alignment, and effectiveness of our Network and its policy impact.
  • Work with and support the Research Director to ensure we develop evidence-based, impactful research and policy that provides real-world solutions to tackle the gravest risks to European security.
  • Work with and support the Senior HR and Operations Manager in developing plans and policies for operations and systems management, including people, project tracking, finance, governance, and IT /digital.
  • Support the team in mobilising Network members so that the Network becomes an increasingly capable institution and community of purpose in pursuit of the ELN’s goals.
  • Support, advise, and guide the ELN Board, making clear recommendations on strategy, sustainability, and the long-term direction of the organisation.
  • Establish and manage productive relationships with high-level strategic stakeholders within international organisations, governments, foundations, businesses, political institutions, thinktanks, philanthropy, and academia – using these to build the capacity and influence of ELN.

 

Please see the attached document for the full person specification.