Assistant Director of Impact, Programmes and Partnerships

YOUTH ENDOWMENT FUND CHARITABLE TRUST; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 75,000; Full time

Job description

The Youth Endowment Fund
Assistant Director of Impact, Programmes and Partnerships – Maternity Cover

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer
Salary: £75,000
Contract: 13-month maternity cover
Location: Central London, Hybrid*
Application Deadline: Thursday 24th April by 12pm
Interviews: Week commencing 5th May 2025

About the Youth Endowment Fund
We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

In recent years violent crime has risen significantly. Homicides, assaults, robberies and offences involving weapons have all seen sustained growth. We have also seen large increases in violent crime involving children and young people. This is a tragedy. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence across England and Wales. We do this by funding great initiatives, finding out what works and working for change.

Key Responsibilities
Your role is to ensure YEF’s funding is directed toward the most crucial gaps in evidence – those that, if filled, will lead to meaningful change for young people. You will oversee the selection of the most promising, evaluable interventions to test in England and Wales, ensure trials are set up successfully, and work with our Evaluation team to deliver high-quality impact evaluations.

More specifically, you will:

Provide team and organisational leadership

• Provide inspirational leadership to the Programmes Team of ten people, ensuring they are best-in-class at supporting delivery organisations to engage in robust evaluation.
• Oversee the Programmes team, including direct line management of four Programme & Impact Leads.
• Ensure the expertise within the Programmes Team is embedded in YEF’s wider work, drawing on the team’s experience of working with delivery organisations to help shape policy and practice recommendations.
• Represent YEF externally, ensuring our funding programmes are well understood and aligned with our sectors’ needs.
• Directly contribute to annual and multi-year planning as part of YEF’s operational planning cycle.
• Be responsible for tracking and reporting progress against our key organisational performance metrics.
• Help build and model a culture where it is natural to perform well, and colleagues support one another to do so.

Hold strategic oversight of new evaluation commissioning

• Work with the Assistant Director of Evaluation to shape and implement YEF’s strategy for programme and evaluation commissioning.
• Oversee the team in identifying and developing proposals for new trials within our main sectors.
• Assess the feasibility and strategic value of evaluation proposals, making stop/go decisions on their progression.
• Ensure the Programmes Team effectively supports grantees to work with evaluators to co-design interventions and develop clear, robust plans for trial setup and delivery.
• Oversee the development of high-quality proposals for new trials, assuring quality and presenting clear recommendations for our Grants and Evaluation Committee.

Be responsible for the ongoing oversight of the full portfolio of evaluations

• Lead and be accountable for delivering on YEF’s Race Equity commitments within our funding decisions and grant delivery.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for a portfolio of c.50 live trials, maintaining oversight of progress across our portfolio of live trials and intervening early when we spot risks.
• Oversee the financial management of the team’s project portfolio across c.50 live trials, ensuring effective budget oversight, approving grant payments, and maintaining financial accountability.
• Provide direct advice and guidance to the Programmes Team on the setup and delivery of our most complex trials.
• Ensure the rapid mobilisation of new trials following approval.

Build meaningful partnerships and strengthen the organisation’s influence

• Be responsible for partnership opportunities with central Government—holding key relationships, assessing the strategic value of co-funded evaluation projects, and overseeing Heads of Evaluation to negotiate new partnerships terms.
• Steward strategic relationships with other key stakeholders, including other research and policy organisations, funders, and delivery organisations that will help us influence change.
• Represent the Fund on boards, committees and events, including providing up-to-date information to external audiences on YEF-funded activity, and sitting on the board of external organisations linked to YEF’s work.
• Be proactive in identifying co-funding opportunities and ensuring fundraising targets are met for new and existing evaluations.

About You
You are this sort of person:

• You are inspired by the vision of reducing violence affecting young people: You don’t want your days to pass without making a difference. You are inspired by the goal of tackling violence affecting young people.
• You are responsible, motivated, and thrive in a fast-paced environment: You take personal responsibility for critical decisions and have a proven ability to work in fast-paced, rapidly evolving settings. You have a good track record of overseeing a large body of varied and complex projects, ensuring they deliver on time, on budget, and to a high quality.
• You demonstrate team leadership and coaching skills: You have experience of leading teams, supporting and developing others to perform at their best.
• You are experienced in evaluation and research, including commissioning: You have several years’ experience working in a senior research and evidence role in a related sector, and you have technical expertise in evaluation methodologies. You have substantial experience commissioning or conducting large-scale research and evaluations.
• You have a graduate qualification, or equivalent work experience: Your qualification or experience is in a relevant field such as social science, social policy, public health, or another field with a significant quantitative component.
• You have some understanding of systems and practice in our priority sectors: Our priority sectors: Children's Services, Education, Health, Neighbourhoods, Policing, Youth Justice, and the Youth Sector.
• You are experienced in building partnerships: You have a strong track record of building partnerships that drive change.
• You are an excellent communicator: You produce high-quality documents that communicate methodological and statistical information in a way that is easily understood. You excel at translating complex evidence and analysis into clear, accessible formats for non-experts.
• You are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion: You believe in and act in a way that celebrates and encourages a range of experiences, backgrounds, and values. You promote and encourage these principles.

While it’s not a criterion, we are especially interested to hear from applicants who have lived experience of violence affecting young people.
It’s also important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.

All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well.

Hybrid Working
The office is based in Central London. Those living in and around London are expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you’ll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month. As part of our commitment to flexible working we will consider a range of options for the successful applicant. All options can be discussed at the interview stage.

To Apply
Please click on the "Apply for this" button and submit your CV, your completed monitoring form and cover letter. Please submit your application by 12pm on Thursday 24th April 2025.

Interview Process
There will be a task to complete in advance of the interview. This will be a two-stage interview process. Interviews will take place the week commencing the 5th of May 2025. This will be a panel interview.

PLEASE NOTE: We do not sponsor work permits and you will be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK.

Benefits Include

• £1,000 professional development budget annually
• 28 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24hr phone line for free confidential support
• Volunteering days - 4 half days per year
• Death in service - 4 times annual salary
• Flexible hours. Core office hours 10am – 4pm
• Financial support including travel and hardship loans
• Employer contributed pension of 5%.

Your Data
Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful, and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you. We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area.