Director, Political Strategy Operations, Campaigns and Partnerships at C40 Cities

Position description:

• C40 is looking for a team leader and highly skilled professional to join the PSA department, reporting to the Department's Managing Director.  The role will be critically focused on leading and managing the global campaigns, partnerships and youth functions - enabling internal strategy, operations and effective partner outreach for these functions. The Director will enable the team and wider organisation  to provide timely and effective support to cities to build capacity, know-how and effective tactics to mobilise coalitions and build public support for climate action locally, regionally and globally.
• This will also include overseeing C40’s Youth Programmes. In addition, the Director will critically serve as Chief Advisor to the design of C40’s political strategy and leadership priorities and responsible for turning the strategy into execution, driving the day-to-day operations to ensure successful achievement of leadership and milestones’ outcomes and approaches. The ideal profile is for a strategic thinker with excellent planning, organisational and managerial capability.

The key functions the Director will oversee are: 

Campaigns

• C40 Campaigns empowers mayors to build the public and political willpower necessary to accelerate climate action. By aligning with local policy timelines and priorities, it designs bespoke strategies that bridge the gap between technical assistance and community mobilisation. The multi-disciplinary approach leverages campaign design, engagement tactics and tools to drive change across different climate topics, from transport to resilience, from clean energy to air quality. The work includes: Horizon Scanning, Local Campaigns, Multi-City Campaigns, Campaign Tools and Rapid Mobilisation & Response.

Campaign Partnerships: 

Campaign partnerships help bridge relationships between partners and mayors to accelerate ambitious climate action. This includes: 

• Local Coalition Building: Provide deep dive support to cities to identify and mobilise partners in support of local climate action to reach new audiences, demonstrate the breadth and diversity of support, and boost the resilience of mayors as climate leaders. 
• Global Platforms: Develop and deliver global activations that bring together mayors and civil society partners at C40’s global milestones to increase the capacity and confidence of mayors to deliver climate action.

Youth Programmes: 

C40’s Youth Programmes cover a number of networks and initiatives, including the City Youth Engagement Network, Youth Hub, Reinventing Cities, Youth Climate Action Fund as well as work on resilience and adaptation in the Global South. The work broadly aims to:

• Enable collaboration between youth and mayors and amplify global leadership, especially on resilience.
• Empower cities and young people to co-create and co-deliver climate solutions through Youth Climate Councils.
• Build local support for climate action and facilitate finance for youth-led climate initiatives in cities aligned to city priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

Team leadership & management:

• Oversee and direct C40’s campaigns, campaigns partners and youth functions, workplans and related teams
• Working with the Department's Managing Director and the team, and building on existing programmes of work, design/update strong strategies and workplans for the above functions and define how they contribute to C40’s Leadership Standards, Leadership Priorities and to C40’s overall Business Plan and KPIs
• Ensure timely and effective strategic and operational guidance to the campaigns, partners and youth function, enabling growth and development of the team and ensuring effective, measurable and timely outcomes and impact 
• Lead or support fundraising efforts for the Political Strategy and Advocacy Department
• Oversee effective Budget and Grant management
• Enable strong engagement with cities and partners on local and global campaign delivery driving the team and working closely with Regional and Policy teams

Political Strategy Operational delivery:

• Drive day to day operations on political strategy delivery, inc. translating into effective processes, operations and delivery plans strategic and political recommendations, initiatives and priorities 
• Working closely with the Director of Priority Initiatives & Events oversee delivery & implementation of political strategy and leadership priorities
• Working closely with strategic leads across the organisation on organisational leadership priorities, ensure effective implementation and operations of leadership and political initiatives and deliverables, navigating day to day political and strategic hurdles and ensuring timely escalation  
• Ensure the right operations in place to deliver on the political approach and outcomes for key milestones
• Ensure the building of coalitions and alliances at the global, regional, and local level to deliver C40’s missions, and mobilise partners and youth to support cities at key moments
• Possibly directly manage some key partner relationships

Political strategy Chief Advisor: 

• Chief advisor to Managing  Director on the development and update of C40’s political strategy and leadership priorities
• Define and understand broader political context: responsible for analysis, assessment, reporting, and embedding in C40 work - providing internal guidance on key political developments
• Advise and support the development of political messaging, content and outcomes
• Advise  and support the development on strategic and political outcomes for C40 milestones 
• Deputise Managing Director when needed 

Mainstreaming across organisation: 

• Mainstream the overall political strategy across C40 internally, working across key teams to ensure strong internal communication and coordinated delivery against key targets
• Ensure appropriate alignment and coordination across the organisation on partners engagement with regards to key strategic global partners
• Provide support and strategic engagement to Regions, Policy and Communication teams on delivery of Leadership priorities and related projects
• Oversee and guarantee effective engagement of the campaigns, partners and youth functions in cross organisational processes and boards (ie. Funding Development Board, Operational Management Team and Senior Leadership Team) to build alignment, highlight successes and increase collaboration
• Participate in the internal Leadership Priorities Board

Person specification:

• Minimum 8-10 years of experience working in government, political and/or civil society organisations
• Proven experience of designing and delivering campaigns, political initiatives and/or strategic programmes for government or civil society organisations, including programme design and operations, resource and financial management, ensuring high quality delivery within time and resource constraints
• Strong political analysis skills, including the ability to spot opportunities and threats to climate action and deliver responses.
• Strong experience and track record of highly skilled project, budget, operations and stakeholder management
• Strong experience and proven track record of building, leading and managing both specialist teams and cross-functional matrix teams to deliver organisational goals
• Exceptional ability to influence (even without authority), motivate teams, and bring clarity to complexity.
• Analytical ability and subject-matter knowledge needed to provide effective, strategic advice and steer to senior leadership, team and peers. 
• Excellent team player/collaborator with strong relationship management skills.
• Skilled in building trust, aligning diverse stakeholders, and driving action in matrixed environments.
• Strong judgement and comfort operating at pace under pressure.
• Outstanding interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills.
• Experience of climate and youth movements is ideal. 
• Experience of fundraising and funder management is ideal but not essential.