Programme Lead (Social Impact) at Arrival

• Would you like your work to have a positive impact on the lives of thousands of young people? 
• Do you want to make a difference to those who have less access to opportunities than their more privileged peers?
• Do you like the sound of being part of a purpose-driven company who are supporting leading UK businesses in realising the potential of inclusive cultures and diverse talent? 
• Do you enjoy planning and managing large programmes of work, from their inception to completion?

If so, then this could be a great opportunity for you.

Our Early Careers & Social Impact team here at Arrival is hiring for a Programme Lead to manage a number of our fantastic professional development programmes for 16-30 year olds which we deliver in partnership with leading UK businesses. Deadline for this role: Thursday August 8th 2024 (11pm).

Although we are advertising for a full time role, we are happy to consider candidates on a more flexible model (32 hours a week). Please note: this role does involve some early evening work (facilitating workshops online or in person central London) typically up to 7.30pm. Flexible working is available, but candidates must be available for regular evening events (averaging at one a fortnight over a year).

About Arrival

Founded in 2004, Arrival is a leadership development, culture change and social impact organisation working with leading UK and Global organisations. You can find out more about what we do on our website: https://wearearrival.com/

Our Social Impact work has transformed the lives of thousands of ethnically and socially diverse young people, aged 14-30. We’ve been a key part of the social mobility agenda, driving massive change in how businesses view talent; opening up life-changing career pathways and making the playing field much fairer for ambitious, smart and resourceful young people from low income communities. We’ve won awards and built long-standing partnerships with top businesses. Our talent have gone on to build great careers in leading businesses and in-so-doing have become role models for their families and wider communities. Our programmes equip our young people with the  mindsets, behaviours, knowledge, skills and networks to be able to flourish in great jobs in leading businesses. We partner with leading businesses such as Morgan Stanley, GSK and Tesco - hyperlinks to case studies.

You can find out a little more about the programmes we deliver here, and hear from our team and programme participants in our blog here.

About the role

The Programme Lead role sits within our Early Careers and Social Impact team. 

You will be responsible for overseeing the successful delivery of two to four client partnerships annually. 

The role will involve full ownership of the programmes within those partnerships.

This entails the full lifecycle of partnerships - from designing and contracting our partnerships, through to programme delivery, evaluation and renewal. 

You will work closely with key contacts in our client organisations, and internally with Programme Managers and/or Coordinators. 

The key responsibilities break down into:

• Commercial management: overseeing programme scoping, contracting, budget set-up and ongoing management for each of the programmes you are allocated
• Project management: setting and delivering project plans for three to nine months professional development programmes in partnership with our partner organisations (medium to large businesses) 
• Programme design: owning the programme delivery materials for your programmes, seeking continuous improvement and developing new materials on occasion 
• Event management: overseeing successful planning and delivery of the events within these programmes (usually between three and seven events per programme)
• Volunteer management: ensuring all volunteers on our programmes (staff who work for our partner organisations) are well-managed and supported throughout the programme
• Facilitation: facilitating professional development workshop content within our programme events
• Impact measurement and reporting: designing and implementing an impact assessment methodology for each of the programmes you lead
• Managing Programme Coordinators and Managers: providing line management and project management oversight of junior colleagues, who oversee the recruitment and programme experience of the 16-30 year olds who participate in our programmes

In addition to the core day-to-day responsibilities listed above, we also look to Programme Leads to support our Head of Early Careers and Social Impact with identifying and securing business growth opportunities, either with existing or new partner organisations. We welcome applications from candidates with experience of partnership acquisition and growth, and would be open to a broader salary range dependent on your commercial skills.

About you

We are looking for someone who is:

1. Well-organised, able to manage multiple programmes and their project plans, event plans and participant databases at the same time without dropping the ball
2. Comfortable building relationships with corporate sustainability and HR professionals
3. A confident and effective communicator, via phone, email and to large groups
4. Values-driven, passionate about Arrival’s mission and having “purpose” at the core of their work
5. A good team-player. Whilst there are elements of working independently, our programmes are structured around small teams (two to four colleagues per programme), so we are looking for someone who enjoys working in teams. Working remotely can make teamwork challenging - we are looking for someone who is comfortable working in teams as part of a remote workforce. 
6. Able to balance people needs (we are a people development business at heart) with process needs (we manage large plans, databases etc.) - you need to be confident going between the two
7. Comfortable working under pressure and coping with project realities, such as shifting timelines and last minute event changes
8. A self-starter who uses their initiative. We are a small business, without the luxury of having multiple functions to perform different tasks. You need to be comfortable taking on different types of tasks, which might be unfamiliar to you, rolling your sleeves up and giving them a go! These could include database management, social media and marketing, and operational process improvement
9. Able to think and operate commercially in a client-facing environment 

Essential Experience: 

1. Experience managing training and development programmes or partnerships from inception to their completion, owning the project plan and managing senior stakeholders and risks 
2. Experience working with 16-30 year olds in a direct support capacity (i.e. as beneficiaries of a service)

Desirable Experiences:

1. Experience in the social mobility programme landscape, working with teenagers or young adults
2. Experience running programmes directly for or with private sector partners, for example in a corporate social responsibility setting
3. Experience of facilitating learning events, either as a teacher in an education institution, or as a facilitator in a different setting

Working at Arrival

We are proud to offer our team members the following benefits:

• 31 days annual leave (inclusive of the 8 bank holidays), as well as 4 paid wellbeing days
• Additional days leave for those with 2+ years service 
• Fully remote working, with all your expenses for occasional company-wide or team days, as well as travel to and from client events covered by the company 
• Membership of a co-working space in London, Manchester or Reading for if you wish to change up your working environment 
• Flexible working hours (early starts and late finishes) 
• Time Off In Lieu (TOIL) for if you need to work beyond your working hours on client event delivery
• Optional private healthcare insurance through Vitality
• If you choose to pay into a pension (4%), we will match your pension contribution
• Opportunities to progress into our Leadership Consulting business 

About the Recruitment & Selection Process

The recruitment process will likely be split into three stages: (1) this online application form (2) an activity and (3) an interview and psychometric test. The deadline for this stage (online application form) is 11pm on Thursday 8th August, 2024.

The online application form includes two free-text questions. These questions will give us a good indication of whether you have the right skills, experience and values to be a good fit for Arrival. We estimate that these questions will take no longer than one hour to answer. We also ask that you upload an up-to-date version of your CV. There is a “Cover Letter” box on the form to include additional detail about your application if you would like - this is optional however.

We will aim to respond to all candidates by Friday 9th August. For those candidates shortlisted for the next stage, will we ask you to complete a short activity which looks to replicate the type of day-to-day work we do at Arrival, so we can understand how you would approach a task. We estimate that this activity will take between one and two hours to complete - you will be asked to do this independently, in your own time.

For those candidates taken forward to final stage, we are expecting this to consist of an interview and psychometric test:

• An online interview with our Head of Early Careers & Social Impact programmes and one other colleague. This will include a presentation element and competency-style questions, lasting approximately one hour; and
• A psychometric test which will be completed independently

We may include a final interview if deemed necessary.

The closing date for applications is Thursday 8th August. For those taken to activity stage, we estimate August 9th to 15th as the window to complete this, and we anticipate to interviews to take place in the week commencing 19th August. These timelines are subject to change and subject to us finding the right candidate, but all going well we plan to make an offer on or around Friday 23rd August, for the successful candidate to be in post as soon as possible from the start of September onwards.  

If you have any questions about this process, or would like to discuss the role before you apply, feel free to reach out to us directly on contact@wearearrival.com and we will get back to you.