Overview

Our aim is for everyone in the National Church Institutions (NCIs) to feel that they belong, and are valued for who they are and what they contribute. Together, our people contribute in different ways towards our common purpose, whichever NCI they work in and whatever their background.

The Vision and Strategy team has been established to support the whole Church in its engagement with the national Vision and Strategy for the Church for the 2020s, and to support implementation of the Emerging Church programme. The team is also the lead owner of the strategy within the NCIs, and therefore responsible for ensuring that the work of other teams within the NCIs is aligned to the strategy and helps ensure its delivery across the Church.

Post Introduction

This is a key role which supports the specific bold outcomes of the Vision and Strategy so that we might be a Jesus shaped church.

It will involve delivering missional projects which engage with individuals through churches and networks and will have a particular focus on reaching young and more diverse groups and supporting being a church of missionary disciples.

To arrange an informal discussion about the role, please contact emma.buchan@churchofengland.org

Interviews will be held on the 23rd August 2022.

We are taking a flexible approach to work, with many colleagues opting for a hybrid approach to their working week, with a mixture of home and office-based working. Further details will be discussed at interview.

The Church of England is for everyone, and we want to reflect the diversity of the community the Church serves across the whole country. Therefore, while of course we welcome all applications from interested and suitably experienced people, we would particularly welcome applicants from UK Minority Ethnic Backgrounds. 

We offer a unique environment with opportunities for continuous learning, generous annual leave for work life balance, season ticket loans and a range of benefits including discounted entry to attractions and what we feel is a market leading package when it comes to our pension scheme.

Role Responsibility

The Role

• Responsible for successful delivery of cross functional projects which includes delivery of resources, working on campaigns, knowledge sharing or supporting networks. These projects will include:
  • Leading on the development of communications to local churches and networks to support Vision and Strategy. This will involve working closely with the wider communications team. This will include the development of video and audio material to illustrate the vision and working with a variety of partner organisations.
  • Leading the planning and implementation of various projects to help churches and network with their engagement with the Vision and Strategy. This will include drawing in expertise from across the church to support projects and can include a range of online and in person events and resources.
  • Lead the planning and delivery of support for one or more of our priority networks or programmes such as the Discipleship Enablers Network or Thy Kingdom Come.
  • Support other team members in development of strategies and partnerships to deliver the bold outcomes of the Vision and Strategy.
• Facilitating the definition of projects, goals and outcomes within an agreed budget.
• Development of full-scale project plans, tracking of project using appropriate tools, and reporting to appropriate project teams.
• Positive about capturing learning and sharing from projects. This will require working with the Funding and Insight team.
• Relationship building and communicating with various stakeholders.
• Identifying and managing risk.
• Compliance with the NCIs Project Management Framework and best practice.

It will be expected that about 20% of working time would be used on cross team projects, most of which would involve offering for particular limited term groups. These groups would be decided together by the whole team and it would be expected that the line manager would sign off such requests.

The Ideal Candidate

The Requirements

Essential

Knowledge and Experience:

• Experience in developing and delivering resources and events for churches and networks.
• Excellent communications skills including ability to commission and deliver resources to support projects.
• Degree level or professional qualification or experience relevant to the role.
• Good analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills including ability to clearly communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Proven track record of proactively delivering successful results and in working with wide range of stakeholders from senior leaders to engaging the voice of members of the public.
• Ability to build relationships, trust and credibility with a wide range of diverse stakeholders.
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams in a complex environment.
• Dedication to customer service.
• Ability to be rational, objective and unbiased when making decisions and taking action.
• Understanding of the structures of the Church of England and sympathy with its work and aims.
• A good understanding of the variety of tradition within the church and the importance of engaging across the breath of this.

Skills/Aptitudes:

• Influencing and negotiating skills.
• Proven track record in delivering with a clear understanding of people we are aiming to reach.
• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Enthusiastic, organised, flexible and able to prioritise.
• High resilience with the ability to work under pressure, often to changing and competing demands.
• Ability to work autonomously, use own initiative and make decisions.

Personal Attributes:

• Self-motivated, proactive and committed to achieving results.
• Leadership qualities and the ability to command the respect of others.
• Collaborative and collegiate in approach.
• Flexible in order to meet the demands of the post.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including the ability to establish positive working relationships with senior stakeholders and to represent the Directors to external partners.
• Operates with discretion and integrity.
• An understanding and empathy with the structure and culture of the Church of England.   

Desirable

• Formal qualification in Project Management e.g. PMP (PMI), Prince2 Practitioner (Axelos), PPQ (APM) or equivalent certification or experience in a project management role.
• Experience working for the Church of England, for Christian Charities, in the public or charity sectors or with safeguarding.

About Us

We in the National Church Institutions support the mission and ministries of the Church all over England. We work with parishes, dioceses (regional offices), schools, other ministries and our partners at a national and international level.

Excellence, Respect, Integrity

We follow these three values in everything we do, whether we are of Christian faith, another faith or no faith. To learn more about working for National Church Institutions and our benefits, please click here

As a Disability Confident Leader, we actively look to attract, recruit and retain those of you who are disabled.

As a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, we welcome applications from those of you who have served in our Armed Forces and their families.

We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and to ensuring that everyone, job applicants, customers and other people with whom we deal, are treated fairly and not subject to discrimination.  We will do whatever is necessary to provide genuine equality of opportunity. We continuously review our policies and processes to support our aim to create a workforce as diverse as the nation the Church of England serves.

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