Head of Strategy and Operations, Martingale Foundation

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer, Martingale Foundation

Location: West London – currently operating an agile working policy with two core days (Mon and Weds) in the office

Contract: Permanent

Pattern: Full Time (standard hours 9am – 5.30pm)

Closing date: 05/07/2023 at 10am

Interviews: w/c 10/07/2023

Salary: £50,000 to £55,000 per annum (depending on experience)

About the role:

As a new foundation, this is an exciting time to join Martingale and be part of shaping it for years to come. In Autumn 2023, we will welcome the inaugural cohort of Martingale Postgraduate Scholars and launch recruitment for our second cohort. 

As Head of Strategy and Operations you will play a pivotal role in this work. Working closely with the CEO on a day-to-day basis, you will help to build and grow the foundation. Working collaboratively with the wider team, partner universities and funder, this will be a fast paced and varied role. You will be responsible for managing relationships with key stakeholders and support the CEO to establish new partnerships with funders, charities, providers and universities.

Your role will include coordinating outsourced support across finance, HR, IT and facilities. You will work closely with the CEO on strategy development, impact and evaluation, and models for expanding current initiatives/developing new initiatives that support people from low-income backgrounds to pursue, and succeed in, postgraduate study.

You will play a key role in influencing scholars’ outcomes on a broader strategic level and have the opportunity to develop professionally with support from the CEO and external learning opportunities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead on key projects and initiatives within the organisation, including ad-hoc research and analysis 
• Lead quantitative and qualitative analyses and present synthesised findings and recommendations
• Support the CEO on funder development activities, including creating proposals for funding
• Produce and coordinate engaging documents and communications for key stakeholders, including senior leaders at Partner Universities, and the Martingale Advisory Board
• Manage relationships with University Partners, including senior leaders when required. Ensure they are consulted and pleased with progress, while also delivering on their commitments
• Develop collaborative relationships with charity partners, organisations with similar missions to Martingale, and other relevant organisations
•  Coordinate outsourced support on HR, Finance, IT and facilities, and act as their key point of contact
• Budget forecasting and management including working closely with external finance teams 
• Oversee the progress of projects against project plans and ensure all milestones are met: hold internal colleagues and external providers to account

Key Requirements:

• A bachelor’s degree, or equivalent experience
• Excellent qualitative and quantitative problem solving skills
• Able to assimilate complex information quickly, identifying the pertinent points and making them accessible for a wider audience
• Experience managing multiple projects/workstream and priorities simultaneously, while maintaining attention to detail, prioritising, and meeting deadlines
• Experience of high-quality relationship management with a range of stakeholders of different seniority
• Advanced IT proficiency: Spreadsheet, Word Processing, Database, Email, Web based applications
• Excellent interpersonal skills: Friendly and personable, able to build rapport and trusting relationships, able to work co-operatively in a multidisciplinary setting
• Comfortable working in a rapidly growing and changing organisation with a degree of ambiguity – confident to create processes and ways forwards where they might not yet exist
• Resourceful, able to act on initiative, hard-working, detail orientated, and systematic

View the full job description and person specification here

About Martingale

Martingale Postgraduate Foundation (Martingale) exists to fund and support the next generation of STEM leaders. We believe that family income should not be a barrier to the pursuit of excellence, so our programmes focus on supporting students from low family income backgrounds.

Martingale’s flagship programme is the Martingale Postgraduate Scholarship, which supports students from low-income backgrounds to pursue postgraduate degrees and excel in them by providing:

• Full funding (fees, stipend and research expenses) to study for a Master’s degree at a partner university.
• Access to the Martingale Development Programme, which will deliver cohort-building, leadership, and career development activities.
• Exclusive opportunity to apply for Martingale PhD funding: full fees, stipend and research expenses for a 4 year PhD at one of our partner universities

The Martingale Scholarship in Mathematics launched in September 2022, with 23 applicants awarded Martingale Scholarships. The scholars will commence their postgraduate studies in autumn 2023 at one of our five partner universities; University of Cambridge, King’s College London, Imperial College London, University College London, and the University of Oxford. The programme is now looking to expand to more subjects and universities in the near future, and devise new interventions to improve social mobility in postgraduate education longer term.

Martingale is well funded by leading philanthropists, and is currently being incubated by Ark Ventures, a leading charity that develops and supports organisations that tackle some of the most challenging problems facing young people in the UK.

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays, rising with each year of service up to 30 days after 3-years’ service. This entitlement is pro rata for part time employees. This entitlement excludes bank holidays
• Full office closure between Christmas and New Year
• Hybrid working, with currently two days a week in our state-of-the-art office in West London working alongside colleagues
• Regular social events, monthly free breakfast, and daily fruit
• A flexible approach to working with understanding and consideration for work life balance and personal commitments
• As an Ark employee, you will have the opportunity to be part of the TPT (The Pension Trust) scheme, our workplace pension scheme where we make an 11% contribution; you are not required to contribute towards this scheme unless you choose to
• Access to high-quality professional learning throughout your career, offering both face-to-face sessions and a bespoke online learning platform
• Access to Ark Rewards scheme offering savings from over 3,000 major retailers, interest-free loans available for season tickets or a bike, gym discounts offering up to 40% off your local gym and free eye tests

How to Apply:

Apply with a CV and cover letter on our online recruitment portal. Applications to be submitted by Wednesday 5^th July at 10am but please note: we will be reviewing applications on an on-going basis and this advert may close earlier than advertised depending on the level of response.

This ATS application form should take no longer 20 minutes to complete. At any time, you can pause, save, and log back in. If you have any difficulty with meeting the deadline for application, please contact recruitment@arkonline.org

Interviews will be arranged as suitable candidates are identified, so early application is strongly advised.

Ark is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people in its academies. In order to meet this responsibility, its academies follow a rigorous selection process to discourage and screen out unsuitable applicants.  

Ark requires all employees to undertake an enhanced DBS check. You are required, before appointment, to disclose any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. Non-disclosure may lead to termination of employment. However, disclosure of a criminal background will not necessarily debar you from employment - this will depend upon the nature of the offence(s) and when they occurred. To read more about Ark’s safer recruitment process, please click this link.