Head of Investor Relations

As part of the Financial Sector Standards Directorate, the Co-Head of Investor Engagement is responsible for leading our engagement with asset owners, asset managers and investment consultants. The role is key to establishing, sustaining and deepening constructive relationships with investment professionals at the heart of the financial system, challenging, encouraging and supporting them to raise their ambition on climate, nature, decent working conditions and people’s health. This is a new role that has been created from a restructure of the team that we hope will allow both parts to work more collaboratively.

In this role, you will be accountable for designing and leading strategy to engage and influence major global institutional investors. You will help our work towards our vision by playing a leading role in shaping a dynamic new strategy for engaging pension funds to be active responsible stewards of pension savers’ capital, helping them to exercise positive influence over the wider investment system in the interests of the people whose assets they manage.

You will work closely with your fellow Co-Head of Investor Engagement who acts as Technical Lead. They bring analytical and research expertise, ensuring that our insights, guidance and research outputs are informed, credible and robust. Your vital contribution will be to build constructive and sustained relationships with our key audiences in the investment industry and to shape inspiring and engaging events, dialogue and communications that deliver our messages in ways that resonate.

The Co-Head role is not a job share – both Co-Heads are full time roles. Jointly, you are accountable for the design and overall delivery of our investor engagement strategy and for the wellbeing and performance of the Investor Engagement Team. However, you each have distinct accountabilities within the strategy, and the Engagement Lead (this role) will have primary responsibility for team operations (budget, risk and plan management as well as monitoring, evaluation and learning). The team comprises eight more junior colleagues, six of whom will sit in your reporting line, with three reporting directly to you. As a team Head, you will also be part of our Extended Leadership Team, which plays a key role in organisational leadership, strategy and decision-making.

You will also liaise closely with colleagues who lead our advocacy with policymakers, as well as those who lead our corporate campaigns, helping to coordinate their efforts to build coalitions of investors that drive change through collaborative engagements with specific companies and sectors. You will also oversee the secretariat function which we provide to two networks of mission-led investors (the Charities Responsible Investment Network and the Responsible Investment Network – Universities) supporting their ambitions to be at the leading edge of responsible investment practice.

Our research, engagement and campaigns are highly respected within the investment industry. If you are excited by the opportunity to influence and shape the way the finance sector responds to the challenge of aligning long-term economic, financial, environmental and social goals, then we’d love to hear from you!

Requirements

What you’ll bring to the team

We want to hear from you if you’re highly skilled in strategic stakeholder relationship management and have a passion for making the financial system work in the interests of people and the planet. Other key aptitudes we’re looking for are an ability to shape and lead a strategy to engage and influence with impact, and the ability to lead and manage a passionate and talented team.

We think this role could suit someone who has previous experience in or of the financial sector. Or perhaps you may have worked in wider industry in investor relations, in a professional services organisation, or in a stakeholder-facing role within a civil society organisation or regulatory/policymaking body. However, we recognise that talent comes from all types of background and lots of skills are transferable. So if you believe you would excel in engaging to change the financial industry but don't have one of these profiles of experience, we’re still keen to hear from you and we welcome opportunities to explore different ways of achieving our goals.

We are currently formalising our hybrid working policy, however, as this role involves a lot of meetings with London based stakeholders, there is an expectation that you will be able to attend the office or meetings in London on average 6-8 times a month.