Director - Strategy (6-9month FTC)

Job Title:

Director - Strategy (Fixed Term Contract)

Department:

Investment

Reports to:

Co-Chief Investment Officer (Anna Shiel)

Contract:

6 - 9 month FTC.

We are also open to applicants interested in undertaking this fixed-term role on a secondment basis.

Recruitment for permanent role will take place in H1 2027

Hours:

Full-time, open to part-time (4 days per week)

Salary:

£77,400 to £86,000 per annum, depending on experience - pro rata for part time

Location:

Hybrid - London, EC1Y and homeworking

About Better Society Capital (BSC):

Better Society Capital (BSC) is the UK's leading social impact-led investor. Our mission is to grow the amount of money invested in tackling social issues and inequalities in the UK; we do this by investing ourselves and enabling others to invest for impact too.

Since 2012, we have helped grow the UK's social impact investment market thirteen-fold, to more than £11 billion, proving that impact investing can scale when social outcomes and investment opportunity are genuinely aligned. We have committed more than £1 billion of our own capital to social impact investments and today hold a live portfolio of over 100 across the UK, primarily made into funds spanning early-stage and mature positions, all working towards lasting impact for the people and communities they serve.

We're now delivering our 2026–2030 strategy: mobilising £20–30 billion in capital to positively impact 15–20 million lives across the UK over the next decade. We're focusing our expertise and capital on four challenge areas: housing, economic opportunity, climate and energy, and health. These have been chosen because each combines urgent social need, proven investment models and a clear role for BSC to play.

This is BSC's next chapter. Building on everything we've proven since 2012, we're scaling with greater ambition and sharper focus, and looking for people who want to help shape how we get there.

The Opportunity:

BSC’s strategy depends on finding and shaping investment opportunities where our capital can be genuinely transformative: unlocking growth high impact business models, crowding in other investors and shifting the systems behind the UK’s most pressing social challenges. At BSC we bring together investing and market building in order to do this, built around several key system change tools: investing our capital; mobilising others’ capital; acting as a trusted delivery partner for government; engaging the social sector and developing resources and infrastructure, from communities of practice to impact standards and research. Our 2030 strategy sets out our ambitious goals and plans for how we apply this combination of tools in order to mobilise capital towards the challenges we have identified.

Central to BSC’s approach is experimenting, learning and sharing our lessons about what works. We have developed a systems change “toolkit” from which has been built from 14 years of experience. This is an essential tool for how we work as an organisation and for how we work with the partners who are so vital to achieving this vision. The Director, Strategy is responsible for enabling the delivery of BSC’s 2030 strategy, working with the CIOs and Managing Director for Systems Change and People, to bring together the best of BSC’s capabilities as an investor and market developer. To enable this they will work closely with team leads across the organisation to develop and shape their 5 and 1 year plans to deliver on our strategic priorities for the next 5 years, own BSC’s toolkit for systems change and build a live view of where the opportunities are across our Opportunity Areas and asset classes.

At the heart of the role is Mission Mobilisation, the forum through which BSC delivers its strategy across Opportunity Areas and teams in BSC across investment and engagement. The role therefore gives exposure to the full organisation including at senior level. Working with the CIO and team leads in the investment team, the role also connects strategy to pipeline origination, so that what we choose to pursue is grounded in evidence, opportunities and in a clear understanding of the role our capital can play. Through combining strategic foresight and planning, coordination of the “best of BSC” and capturing and sharing learning about business models, managers and market, this role plays a central role in powering a learning engine about how and where impact capital can contribute to tackling social issues.

We are also open to applicants interested in undertaking this fixed-term role on a secondment basis.

What you will do:

Delivering BSC’s 2030 Strategy

Co-lead monthly Mission Mobilisation meetings with the co-CIO, the core forum through which BSC delivers its strategy across Opportunity Areas, capabilities and asset classes.

Use Mission Mobilisation to turn strategy into action: surfacing opportunities, cross-team dependencies and decisions needed and making sure they are followed through.

Operationalise and embed the co-ordinating tools and decision making to support effective collaboration across BSC’s priority Opportunity Areas.

Bring opportunity mapping and toolkit insight into Mission Mobilisation, so that priorities across Opportunity Areas are grounded in evidence.

Work with the project management lead so that actions and progress from Mission Mobilisation feed into business planning and performance tracking.

Crystalise learnings across the year, sharing these and using these to inform decision making, cascading insights, decisions and learnings to wider BSC team.

Systems change toolkit

Take ownership of BSC’s catalytic toolkit for systems change, testing and refining it with the teams who use it during the first six months.

Run and maintain the toolkit, embedding it in the origination and engagement approach across the organisation so that it is well understood and used effectively.

Train and support investment and engagement teams to apply the toolkit with confidence, in order to identify and deliver capital mobilisation goals.

Horizon scanning, opportunity mapping, development and tracking

Build and maintain a current view of opportunities across our strategic priorities and asset classes, covering market size, capital flows, business models, pipeline signals, policy context and partner activity.

Lead horizon scanning to identify emerging opportunities and leverage points, including developing the tools that support this, supported by AI.

Support investment and engagement team leads to use this view in prioritisation, pipeline building and planning. Including development & delivery of capital mobilisation goals.

Support the Co-CIOs in connecting opportunity insight to origination priorities, strategic asset allocation and portfolio allocation, working with Investment and Impact Management.

Strategy and business planning

Support the CEO in developing and refreshing BSC’s strategy, and in preparing for Board strategy discussions, including the annual strategy away day.

Ensure connection between strategy and performance tracking.

System change learning

Support delivery of the ongoing cycle of system change learning across BSC's strategic priorities and approach, to the lead of the Managing Director, System Change and People.

• Promote cross organisational learning
• Key stakeholders

Anna Shiel, Co-CIO and ExCo Strategy Lead: line manager.

ExCo: CEO for strategy development and Board preparation, Chief of Staff for business planning and performance, Executive Director, Engagement for co-ordination of market building teams.

Managing Director, System Change and People: sets system change direction; the Director delivers the system change toolkit and learning to this lead.

Project management lead: business planning and performance tracking.

Data team: data and tools for opportunity tracking.

What you will bring - Qualifications & Experience

Essential

Experience in strategy, investment origination or market development. This would be beneficial if in impact investment, development finance, social finance, philanthropy or a related field but is not essential.

Experience of organisational strategy and business planning.

Strong analytical skills in market mapping, sizing and identifying opportunities.

A track record of embedding frameworks or tools so that teams adopt and use them.

Ability to influence and facilitate peers, senior colleagues and partners without line authority.

Desirable

A working understanding of how different forms of capital and investment structures can be catalytic.

Knowledge of the UK social sector, social enterprise or public policy.

Experience using data and AI tools.

Skills, abilities and attributes

Curiosity and desire to apply systems change thinking and tools.

Synthesises complex information into a clear position and recommendation.

Comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty, while able to balance this with action and delivering in near term.

Ownership mindset, including owning tools built by others and improves them with the people who use them.

Manages time and priorities effectively, including in a part-time role.

Embodies Better Society Capital's core values:

We do hard things that matter:

Our mission is ambitious and multi-faceted. We believe significant change at scale is possible and it’s our job to help deliver it.

We bridge worlds:

Our cross-sector position and the unique breadth of capabilities within our team give us the ability to collaborate and co-create both within our organisation and with partners.

We grow with purpose:

The context we operate in constantly evolves. To deliver our mission, we need to grow and adapt alongside it.

Don’t meet every requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from racialised communities are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

How to apply:

Closing Date:

Sunday 29th November 23:59pm

Please apply via Applied which is designed to minimise unconscious bias in recruitment. You will be asked to provide your CV and a short written answer. Your CV and answer will be anonymised before being reviewed by the hiring panel.

We are also open to applicants interested in undertaking this fixed-term role on a secondment basis.