ICRA (Inner Climate Response Alliance) - a National Lottery-funded project addressing the emotional impact of the climate crisis - is hiring a new Partnership Lead. We are looking for someone who deeply understands our mission, has strategic vision, and will be able to coordinate conversations and operations across the partnership (composed of the Mindfulness Initiative (MI), Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA), and Climate Majority Project (CMP)).

The Partnership Lead will provide overall strategic, relational and operational stewardship for ICRA. They will hold the project’s purpose with clarity and care, balancing its commitments to both its inner and outer work: nurturing a healthy, reflective organisational culture while ensuring effective governance, financial sustainability, partnerships and delivery.

The Partnership Lead will work closely with the three partners , staff and members to enable ICRA to fulfil its mission as a trusted, convening presence in the inner climate response ecosystem.

The role is for 3 days a week at a salary of £26,880/year for up to 4.5 years, starting in March 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Applications are due 11 February 2026. To apply, please read this applicant pack carefully and then follow the link under ‘How to apply’ to our online application form.

About ICRA

Thanks to National Lottery players, the Mindfulness Initiative (MI) has received almost £1.5m for the Inner Climate Response Alliance (ICRA) project to address the emotional impact of the climate crisis in partnership with the Climate Psychology Alliance and Climate Majority Project. This comes from the Climate Action Fund, a £100 million commitment over 10 years from The National Lottery Community Fund to support communities across the UK to increasingly take action on climate change.

‘Inner work’ - practices that help people to process and cope with their feelings - can help to build collective resilience. This is crucially important for those engaging with the climate and ecological crisis, which can be emotionally overwhelming. Working with community leaders, the project will support local citizens to engage in ‘inner work’ as an integral part of their climate action.

ICRA is connecting inner transformation with collective action. We aim to create a powerful public conversation about how to live courageously and compassionately in a time of ecological breakdown.

ICRA’s specific aims are to:

• Increase the profile and visibility of this vital work
• Support and connect communities who face similar challenges around climate breakdown
• Facilitate learnings and exchange of best practices between local innovators
• Help the field of inner response become more fundable and financially sustainable

All partners are building a forum through which understanding and innovation can be exchanged between communities and practitioners. Skills that might be imparted through the forum range from facilitation training for discussion of distress to conflict resolution/transformation, to imagining the future together, to finding funding for the support of inner work.

Job specification:

3 days a week

£26,880/year

Duration: 4.5 years

Starting in March 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter

How This Role Works

This role requires both presence and practice: the ability to attend to inner dynamics (culture, relationships, meaning) while delivering outer results (strategy, funding, operations). The Partnership Lead is not expected to hold everything alone, but to lead in a way that distributes power, invites participation and supports collective intelligence.

Purpose

Bringing the partnership together, supporting the establishment of relationships, materials, processes, and a working culture that will support the work - initially focusing on the partnership and then moving to more of a focus on the wider project relationships and the movement it is aiming to build.

Key Responsibilities

Coordinate ICRA’s Strategic Process

• Steward the development and delivery of ICRA’s vision, strategy and theory of change.
• Sense and respond to emerging needs, opportunities and tensions within the inner climate and wider climate response fields.
• Balance long-term purpose with pragmatic prioritisation and resource stewardship.
• Community & field stewardship.
• Act as a visible, credible and values-aligned representative of ICRA.
• Cultivate relationships with members, practitioners, partner organisations, funders and allies.
• Support the health, coherence and ethical development of the inner climate response field.
• Steward parliamentary relationships.

Organisational Leadership & Culture

• Foster a psychologically safe, reflective and inclusive organisational culture.
• Ensure regular partnership meetings take place.
• Chair partnership meetings.
• Model embodied leadership qualities consistent with ICRA’s values (e.g. self-awareness, humility, compassion, integrity).
• Work in partnership with trustees from MI, CPA and CMP to ensure effective governance.
• Provide timely, accurate and reflective reporting to trustees from MI, CPA and CMP.
• Support trustee engagement, learning and strategic decision-making.

Operations & Finance

• Be the main point of contact for the National Lottery Community Fund.
• Liaise with the partners to submit progress reports to the National Lottery.
• Adapt workplans in line with lessons learned and in agreement with the partners.
• Ensure effective operational systems, policies and processes are in place.
• Oversee budgeting, financial planning and financial sustainability.
• Help develop a long-term financial sustainability strategy including but not limited to fundraising.
• Build trust-based relationships with funders aligned with ICRA’s purpose and values.

External Engagement & Influence

• Represent ICRA in relevant networks, events and dialogues.
• Contribute thoughtfully to public and sector conversations on climate, inner change and leadership.
• Support collaboration across the ecosystem.

Person Specification

1. ICRA appreciates that addressing the metacrisis comprehensively hinges on engaging diverse lived experiences and perspectives. We embrace diverse cultures, socio-economic locations and lived expertise and orientations of people across the UK. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian, ethnic minority, LGBTQ+, working class, and disabled candidates, and other communities that are usually underrepresented.

Essential Experience & Capabilities

1. Leadership experience in a values-driven organisation (e.g. charity, social enterprise, network or community of practice).
2. Strong strategic thinking combined with operational competence.
3. Ability to appropriately delegate.
4. Excellent relational, facilitation and communication skills.
5. Understanding of (or deep openness to) the inner dimensions of social and ecological change.
6. Ability and openness to work across class and cultural contexts.
7. Demonstrated understanding of structural inequalities and a commitment to working in ways that promote equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Personal Qualities & Ways of Being

1. Profound self-awareness, emotional intelligence and reflective capacity.
2. A talented network builder.
3. Leadership, with respect to and in service of the partnership.
4. Integrity, humility and a service-oriented leadership stance.
5. Resilience and capacity for self-care in demanding contexts.

Desirable

1. Background in climate, environmental, regenerative or systems-change work.
2. Experience in fundraising or income generation.
3. Facilitation or training experience in inner development, leadership or transformation.
4. Experience working in or with networks, alliances or communities of practice.
5. Previous experience with national lottery grants and reporting.
6. Experience working effectively with a Board or equivalent governance body.

Values & Principles

The Partnership Lead is expected to embody and promote ICRA’s core values, which include:

• Care for self, others and the living world
• Integrity and ethical practice
• Inclusivity and respect for difference
• Collaboration and shared learning
• Courage, honesty and hope in the face of crisis

Accountabilities

The Partnership Lead will be employed by the Mindfulness Initiative and will report to the whole partnership via a monthly meeting of the partnership agreement signatories and representatives from each of the partner organisations.

The role is subject to a probation period of 6 months.

How to apply

We have an anti-discrimination commitment in how we recruit and select staff, and we welcome feedback and learning around this.

To apply for this role, please complete the Google Form here by 17.00 on 11 February 2026. In order to complete the form you will need two PDF documents: your CV (maximum two pages) and a document stating how your skills fit with the Person Specification above. We suggest a word limit of around 200 words for each of the 19 areas listed above.    

We wish to hold interviews in the week commencing 23 February, so please hold these dates in your diary if you can. We aim to make the selection process as inclusive as possible. We plan the key interview questions in advance and shall send them to all shortlisted candidates. If you are shortlisted we will ask you to let us know any specific needs you might have to enable you to perform at your best in the interview.

In accordance with UK employment law and the rules of the National Lottery, the successful candidate must be based in the UK and have the right to work in the UK.