In summary

Shared Assets needs new leadership for its next era. We have a pipeline of committed work, and a real opportunity ahead of us. What we need now is the right person, or people, to step in and deliver that work, and, just as importantly, to lead and reshape the organisation.

This is not a conventional recruitment process, and we're not looking to fill a conventional role. We want to hear your vision for what Shared Assets could be, and how you (alone, or with others) might lead it there.

Read the Recruitment Pack to find out more

What we’re open to

We're deliberately leaving a lot of this open because we want your thinking to shape it, not the other way round. That includes:

• The future shape of the organisation
• The mix of people leading it — for example, the salary budget could be split between two Executive Directors, held by one Executive Director, or configured in some other way you propose
• Refreshing the mission, strategic direction and identity of the organisation — as long as our existing commitments are respected
• Review and refresh the business model
• Relook at the governance needed to support the organisation in the next phase

Who we’re looking for

We're not looking for a fixed set of qualifications so much as a particular kind of person, or combination of people. We're looking for:

• Strategic vision for Shared Assets and for the wider UK land system
• A genuine desire to lead
• Experience running small organisations, including financial and cashflow management
• Desire to design the organisation, creating healthy working practices and building the right kind of team
• Strength in network-building, business development/fundraising and relationship management
• Boundary-spanning capability, credibility in a lot of different rooms, from grassroots groups to funders, to local authorities, landowners and policymakers
• Knowledge and experience relevant to land justice in the UK, including a track record of working with communities and/or of shaping policy and research
• Comfort with the emergent, unfinished nature of small organisations
• The ability to hold and navigate tension and conflict
• Good facilitation and space holding
• Different ways of thinking - both the land system and running small organisations requires diversity of thought and approaches. The dominant ways of doing things don’t work - and we’re really keen to hear from people with a wide range of backgrounds, working styles and worldviews.

This probably isn’t for you if…

• You feel safest in a very predictable, tightly controlled environment
• You're uncomfortable stepping into a leadership role
• You don't have lived experience of leadership
• You don’t have an interest or a connection to the land system
• You are a freelance consultant or agency - we are looking for a person or people to join as employees

If you have questions about the role or the process, please email them to jobs@sharedassets.org.uk. We’ll keep a running record of questions received and our answers here.  

We're genuinely excited to see what you bring to this. If you can see a future for Shared Assets that we haven't yet imagined, we want to hear about it.

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