Deputy Director – Place
About the role

Deputy Director opportunity

Location: DBT hubs (with hybrid working options) Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Salford and Edinburgh
Salary: £81,000 £117,800 plus benefits (Civil Service transfer rule will apply for existing Civil Servants)

This role will deliver the OfI’s regional strategy, reporting to the Director. You will be responsible for building strong relationships with regional leaders (First Ministers, Mayors etc), C-suite investors, and other government departments, to deliver transformational investment projects and develop high-quality, high-impact, large-scale investment opportunities across the UK. You will be expected to play a leadership role within the OfI as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, as well as line-management responsibilities for the OfI’s Investment Partners (Grade 6) in the regions and nations.

Key areas of responsibility include:

Regional Opportunities: You and your team will work develop a pipeline of transformational local investment opportunities and work with partners across the UK to surface and co-design products to meet global corporate and capital demand. You will draw in experts from across OfI (especially Product team), government and industry to help structure and market these opportunities. 

Regions and nations network: You will be well-networked and visible as a leader across the UK regions and nations, working hand in glove with First Ministers, mayors, local authorities, and other leaders to ensure that large-scale opportunities are brought to market effectively, including by unblocking barriers to delivery. You will utilise the Council of Regions & Nations, Executive Forum and drive the Investment Sub Group for Chief Executives to achieve investment outcomes. You will empower your Grade 6’s to have senior relationships across their dedicated region and support them to develop powerful networks to help identify and deliver deals. 

Investor Relations: You will nurture and manage relationships with senior decision-makers in the world’s leading companies. You will provide trusted advice, make introductions to No10 and Ministers, and help them navigate the complexities of the UK system. You will also set direction within HMG, providing leadership to teams brought together from relevant departments and delivery partners to unblock barriers.

Investment Strategy: You will provide expert, commercially astute advice to No10, HM Treasury and other departments on how to unlock investment to operationalise the Government’s  strategies. You will engage industry, investors, academics, and policy experts in other departments to understand market demand, failures, barriers, and opportunities across critical supply chains, applying an investor-focused lens to spot gaps and, where needed, challenge the direction of HMG’s approach. 

Deal Closure: You will focus intensively on landing a very select number of the most strategically important investment projects, convening and corralling wider OfI teams and departments to ensure that all the relevant HMG levers, direct and indirect, are pulled to get deals over the line. For some projects you will be responsible for championing their strategic importance and proactively securing the mandate to devote focus and drive to them.   

Team management: You will oversee a team of circa 15, G6s, G7s and SEOs operating across the UK, ensuring that the team is well directed, with clear roles, responsibilities and both short and long-term priorities, to ensure strong delivery. You will also drive strong collaboration with other teams, such as Deal Makers, Product, Marketing and Investor Relations, so that OfI’s regional offer feels seamless to external stakeholders, and the regional agenda is well represented internally

Essential criteria:

• A proven understanding of, and ability to navigate, the regional landscape, working collaboratively with local leaders and government.
• An effective and inspirational leader with a track record of building and motivating geographically dispersed teams.
• Experience working with investors, applying commercial acumen and an understanding of how investors make decisions and how to create compelling investment propositions.
• Self-starter with the confidence and entrepreneurialism to build networks and relationships with a wide range of key stakeholders across the public and private sector, ideally already having extensive investment networks across the public, private sector, and the advisory community.
• A strategic thinker with a high level of intellectual energy, skilled at drawing on socio-economic, commercial, and political insights to shape the direction for an organisation and wider partners.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with an ability to influence and persuade different audiences, including senior leaders.