Innovation Practitioner

Salary: £33,000-£45,000 per annum (dependent on experience)

Location: Remote – UK based. Our offices are in Toynbee Hall, East London, but we welcome applicants from across the UK who do not wish to relocate. You should be willing to travel to our London office for team and project meetings up to six times per year. Project related travel costs will be reimbursed.

Hours: Four or five days a week (flexible – minimum 28 hours / week).

The Young Foundation supports a 4.5 day working week and staff work this, wherever possible (pro rata for those working less than a 35-hour week).

Contract: Permanent, starting ASAP

Benefits: 25 days annual leave plus three office closure days between Christmas and New Year. We also provide two wellbeing days per year. Staff are signed up to one of two pension schemes and a personalised wellbeing budget through Better Space.

About The Young Foundation

The Young Foundation is a national charity with a long history of innovating to create social change. We are a ‘think and do’ tank, working with people and communities to shape a fairer future, together.

The UK’s public services are in acute crisis. Political trust is on the floor. The struggles people and communities face are many, and deeply knitted together. Consequently, our mental health is often poor, and our resilience weakened. We must be prepared to unravel and reweave for the common good.

That requires working together in new ways, empowering radical acts of co-creation across communities, sectors and boundaries. For The Young Foundation, this is a moment to embody the spirit of our founder, Michael Young. To embrace collective effort and work collaboratively to show that, with the Power of Participation, we can redesign the social contract between people, communities, state and business to shape a fairer, greener future.

About the role

We are looking for an Innovation Practitioner. 

Through our work, we connect with diverse partners to create collaborative spaces for learning and experimentation, to shape a fairer future together and achieve greater social impact. We work with communities, organisations, public systems, and private enterprise nationally, regionally, and locally. We draw on a range of systems change and innovation methods and practices to design and deliver an ambitious, progressive portfolio of work. 

The successful applicant will design and deliver programmes for our clients that will support social impact and contribute to The Young Foundation’s mission to shape a fairer future, driving positive change and supporting collective action to improve people’s lives. We are looking for someone who has an interest in the role that business can play in supporting better outcomes for people and communities, and who has a good awareness of the tensions organisations face when balancing financial, environmental and social ambitions. 

The role will offer a unique opportunity for you to work across a range of programmes that could include:

• Developing a social impact strategy for a private organisation that reimagines the way traditional business is done and focuses on achieving long term social impact through the unique levers that businesses possess. 
• Working with public sector leaders, frontline practitioners, and communities to test principles and approaches that reimagine the future, and take practical, collaborative action to design and test new ideas, new ventures, and new ways of organising and mobilising to increase social impact. 
• Working alongside community leaders to grow their confidence and capabilities to influence change in their organisation, their community, regionally and nationally.
• Collaborating with diverse communities to enable business involvement in local areas to have positive impacts for traditionally marginalised communities

Please note that this role will require regular travel to London and at times elsewhere within the UK.

How to apply

Please click apply for further instructions on how to apply, applications close on or before 11 April 2025 at 5pm.

The two-stage selection process will consist of a first-stage virtual interview and final stage (in person) interview and task. Candidates will be advised if they have been invited to interview by 22 April 2025.

First stage interviews are currently scheduled to take place between 28 April 2025 and 2 May 2025 via video-call and second round interviews will take place between 6 May 2025 and 9 May 2025 (likely in person in London).

The Young Foundation is an equal opportunities employer and as part of our commitment to increasing the diversity of our team we actively encourage people from Black and Ethnic Minority or other under-represented groups to apply for this role. We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity.

You must have the right to live and work in the UK. Applicants who require a work permit in order to take up employment will not be considered.

Please complete our online Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form. This information will not be seen by the hiring manager or impact your application.

Upon submitting your application, you will receive an automated response to say we have received your application.

Please note that we review applications after the closing date and we regret that we will only be able to reply, and give feedback, to short-listed applicants.

Job description

This role is open to people with varying skillsets. We are interested in hearing from people who - first and foremost - are creative and passionate about social impact. The Young Foundation staff come from a range of backgrounds. We value diversity and are keen for people to demonstrate their passion for this work through a range of different experiences. Our team is based all around the UK, and we aim to accommodate a range of working styles and patterns.

Motivation and mindset

We are looking for someone who thrives working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, and a natural collaborator with the ability to quickly build strong relationships. The successful applicant will approach their work with thoughtfulness and work confidently and flexibly in rapidly changing environments. They will have the ability to translate ideas into practical action, supporting us and our partners to take positive risks in complex operating environments. As a ‘remote first’ organisation, the successful candidate is likely to be a strong self-starter with a proven work ethic and capacity to collaborate with colleagues and partners in a range of settings. We are looking for someone who is:

• Curious and optimistic, bringing energy to the work we undertake often in challenging and complex environments;
• Collaborative, comfortable working alongside diverse groups of people with different perspectives;
• Action-orientated, able to translate ideas into practical action;
• Proactive, and comfortable taking initiative and working independently when necessary;
• Experimental, unafraid of failure, able to reflect on and apply learning, and responsive to change.

Methods, skills and experience

The successful candidate will support work across a range of social challenges and opportunities, and have experience in one or more of the following approaches:

• Experience in assessing opportunities, vulnerabilities, risks and threats connected to social impact within business operations;
• Experience of frameworks and practices for social change. We are particularly interested in hearing from people with experience of grassroots work in communities to support local people to lead change from the bottom up;
• Abilities in drawing out insights from various forms of intelligence, including desk research, indicators, stakeholder opinions and financial information and present findings in a concise, appealing and informative way;
• An understanding of systems thinking and person-centred approaches. We are looking for people who can take what we learn from social change at the local level to inform our wider work and national approaches;
• Participative approaches to community engagement and codesign. We are keen to hear from people who are aware of power dynamics, responsive to the needs and voices of people in communities and can adapt their approach for different audiences when needed;
• Ability to create professional and visually appealing outputs (reports, slide packs etc.) that can successfully convey key insights to a range of stakeholders.

Facilitation and communication skills

We are looking for an experienced facilitator and natural connector, with the confidence to work with a range of people – from small groups to large audiences. They will need to be:

• Outstanding at relationship-building and partnership-working with communities and key stakeholders;
• Confident designing and facilitating interactive and action-oriented workshops for a range of people from diverse backgrounds and with different learning styles;
• Experienced in supporting the creation of external publications to showcase the work of the team, including reports, blogs, and proposals;
• A demonstrable understanding of how power and privilege can influence groups and a commitment to inclusive and equitable working practices.

Project management 

Applicants should:

• be highly organised, with the ability to manage and prioritise a diverse range of activities and projects;
• have experience in coordinating the operations and logistics of projects and/or programmes, including working with budgets, delivery plans and meeting contract deliverables.
• be willing to get involved with all aspects of hands-on project delivery from manual tasks to supporting client relationships.

Strategy and business development

As part of the team, the successful candidate will be involved in contributing to the Innovation and Practice team’s business development activities. Ideally, they will:

• have experience of - or an interest in - supporting proposals and the development of strategies
• collaborate across The Young Foundation on shared learning and business development opportunities
• be unafraid to share their ideas and enthusiasm for developing new and existing programmes of work

We are looking for people who have an inquisitive mindset, are natural collaborators, and are able to keep the momentum of change going during challenging periods of delivery. We share our learning across the organisation and work as one team with our colleagues. Exploring what we have learned from our social entrepreneurs and what social innovation can tell the world about the needs and potential of communities is core to our mission.

Application form

Please share your experience to date and reasons for applying to the role. We're looking to understand who you are, your experience, and what you can bring to The Young Foundation. 

Please answer each of the three compulsory questions as directly and concisely as possible, being mindful of the word limit (250 words max per question). 

Please also provide your CV to accompany your application.

Please complete our online Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form. This information will not be seen by the hiring manager or impact your application.

Please send your application by clicking Apply at the top right of the JD on or before 11 April 2025 at 5pm.

Questions

1. What excites you about this role and what core capabilities do you have that would make you a good fit for The Young Foundation? (250 words)
2. We like to think big at The Young Foundation! Please describe something that you would like to change about how social impact is delivered or achieved, and how you might go about taking action. (250 words)

• In this role, you may need to balance the needs of local people and groups with the (sometimes conflicting) needs and ambitions of an organisation. Please tell us about a time you experienced this, how you navigated the situation, and how you arrived at an outcome where everyone remained engaged and on-board. (250 words)