Chief Executive Officer

ActionAid UK is an international charity that works with women and girls living in poverty. Our dedicated local staff are changing the world with women and girls. We are ending violence and fighting poverty so that all women, everywhere, can create the future they want.

Our vision

A just, equitable and sustainable world in which every person enjoys the right to a life of dignity, freedom from poverty and all forms of oppression.

Our mission

To achieve social justice, gender equality, and poverty eradication by working with people living in poverty and exclusion, their communities, people’s organisations, activists, social movements, and supporters.

Our values – Federation wide

• Mutual respect, requiring us to recognise the innate worth of all people and the value of diversity.
• Equity and justice, requiring us to ensure the realisation of our vision for everyone, irrespective of gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, race, ethnicity, caste, class, age, HIV status, disability, location and religion.
• Integrity, requiring us to be honest, transparent and accountable at all levels for the effectiveness of our actions and our use of resources, and open in our judgements and communications with others.
• Solidarity with people living in poverty and exclusion shall be the only bias in our commitment to the fight against poverty, injustice and gender inequality.
• Courage of conviction, requiring us to be creative and radical, bold and innovative – without fear of failure – in pursuit of making the greatest possible impact on the causes of poverty, injustice and gender inequality.
• Independence from any religious or party-political affiliation.
• Humility, recognising that we are part of a wider alliance against poverty and injustice

Overview of the role

This role represents an exciting opportunity to help create a world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys the right to a life with dignity. You will be building on a strong foundation and working with a talented, passionate, and innovative team across ActionAid UK, the Board and the wider Federation to make this a reality.

Reporting to the Board of Trustees, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be responsible for leading our activities in the UK whilst playing a ‘dual citizen’ role within the wider Federation, ensuring that UK interests are represented in a respectful way acknowledging and being mindful of the power dynamics in all relationships.

These activities include raising funds, campaigning, and lobbying those in positions of power for change, as well as building a strong organisational profile externally, and building recognition of our work with communities focused on the rights of women and girls living in poverty in the Global South.

The CEO will play a key role as an ambassador for ActionAid UK within the UK and internationally as part of the global ActionAid Federation and will be responsible for developing relationships with key stakeholders including donors and partners in the UK and across the wider Federation. The CEO will directly manage the Senior Leadership Team and will be ultimately responsible for circa 210 staff in the UK and the sustainable generation and growth of our annual income (currently circa £50 million).

How our CEO will spend their time

• Demonstrating commitment to AAUK’s mission, vision, values and strategic aims.
• Inspiring buy-in to ActionAid UK’s vision and strategy and leading the organisation to ensure we deliver.
• Raising our profile and representing ActionAid UK’s work compellingly to external audiences to help achieve our aims, including generating income and driving advocacy.
• Building support for AAUK’s work and impact within the Federation so that engagement across the organisation remains high and all teams are aligned behind the charity’s vision and strategy.
• Providing clear direction, decision making and support to colleagues.
• Forming and nurturing partnerships and coalitions with other NGOs, both in the UK and globally to strengthen the impact of our work and campaigns.
• Creating an inclusive culture that embodies our feminist behaviours, where everyone feels respected and valued so they can thrive by being their authentic selves. This includes always acting as a positive role model.
• Championing our approach to diversity, inclusion, and equity, including in the representation of our work.
• Leading the development and implementation of ActionAid UK’s strategy to ensure we are financially viable and able to support the work of ActionAid in programmatic countries. This includes ensuring that the strategic planning approach produces aligned, robust and deliverable plans to bring in sustainable income, demonstrate value for money in expenditure and use funds effectively to enable the delivery of key goals.
• Holding colleagues to account for delivering against the strategy and key decisions. This includes developing and supporting Directors and colleagues through constructive challenge and holding them accountable for performance and innovation in their areas of responsibility.
• Ensuring that ActionAid UK is prepared for new challenges and open to new opportunities
• Playing a leading role in supporting and influencing the strategy and direction of the ActionAid International Federation in line with our feminist behaviours and the ‘dual citizen role’ a Country Director plays. This includes 9 playing a full part in developing a shared culture across the Federation and further improving the effectiveness of the Federation.
• Ensuring good governance and accountability in line with regulatory, legal and contractual responsibilities.

• Enabling the effective decision making of the Board and measuring and reporting on ActionAid UK’s organisational performance. This includes working closely with the Chair to ensure effective communication and coordination with the Board.
• Undertaking any other appropriate duties in accordance to agreed procedures and guidelines.
• Proactively engaging with and taking responsibility for seeking appropriate development opportunities personally and taking part in learning.

For further details on the role, please read through the CEO Candidate Pack

The salary range for this role will be £92,000 – £105,000.

This role is based in London, UK.  We are open to International applications.

For any enquiries or to apply, in the first instance please write to Tim Wingrove [email protected] with an email subject – AAUK_CEO for further details on the process and next steps.