Business Planning Lead Specialist
Reference: MAR20218984
Location: Flexible
Salary: £36,604.00 - £40,608.00 Per Annum
Benefits: Pension, Life Assurance, 26 days annual leave, flexible working

Can you lead this charity's corporate and delivery planning process, providing specialist expertise to support the translation of strategy into achievable, prioritised programmes of activity?

As the UK’s largest nature conservation charity, this charity spends >£100m/year in pursuit of their vision – a world richer in nature. You will be joining a workforce of over 14,000 employees and volunteers dedicated to realising that vision, alongside their many partner organisations. Playing their part in tackling the nature and climate emergency facing our planet requires this organisation to be even more effective, and better planning has a vital part to play in helping them rise to the challenge.

This is a complex organisation, operating across the four countries of the UK and where they can make a difference overseas. They manage over 200 nature reserves, influence policy and legislation and deliver many research, conservation and people engagement projects. Their impact-generating activities depend on a range of enabling services. They need your expertise and energy to help ensure their activities align with strategy and are achievable within agreed resourcing parameters, and actively manage dependencies between different parts of the organisation.

It’s an exciting time to join – not only does the charity have a new strategy to 2030, they are in the middle of re-designing their planning and related decision-making processes in support of this. You will arrive as they begin to plan for the first full year of delivering their new strategy, spanning 2022/23.

In summary, they need your help to ensure they make the best use of the charitable resources entrusted to them, championing the creation of business plans that are ambitious and achievable.

Key activities will include:

• Facilitating the business planning cycle, culminating in the production of an annual corporate plan which matches resources and reflects a rolling three-year planning horizon and delivery pipeline.
• In support of this, identifying and implementing leading edge planning techniques and processes and helping define/develop and embed relevant standards, frameworks and/or policies.
• Monitoring the internal delivery environment and external developments; effective liaison with other planning and functional specialists to identify opportunities for, and risks to, strategy delivery.
• Initiating and presenting analysis and findings at senior management and occasionally Trustee level; producing a quarterly progress report against corporate plan for Management Board and Council.
• Leading development of the business planning specialism: co-ordinating an internal practitioners’ network, helping define the professional skills and capabilities needed for high performance, celebrating successes, and promoting the charity’s values and positive behaviours.
• Supporting the charity’s Management Board, actively managing a business pipeline, helping ensure deadlines and content standards are met and Council deadlines adhered to.
• Planning, management and/or delivery of significant change projects, ensuring the work is aligned with strategic need, and managing resources and dependencies as required.

What they’re looking for

• Knowledge and experience of business planning (activity and resources), which may include significant projects or programmes, and an awareness of the context for charity’s strategy delivery.
• Highly effective planning, analytical, organising and interpersonal skills, including forming and sustaining collaborative working relationships with a diverse group of functional, operational and senior stakeholders. Encourages others to buy into and support change.
• Able to communicate a vision and related standards for business planning, and to overcome, and advise/guide others in overcoming, barriers to progress.
• Experience of identifying, evaluating and communicating trends, opportunities and threats relevant to strategy delivery, enabling appropriate and timely action to be taken.
• Appreciation of the importance of adhering to relevant governance requirements, agreed time and quality standards and externally derived benchmarks as these apply to the planning specialism.
• Proactive approach to helping develop the capability of colleagues with a planning specialism, motivating and mentoring colleagues to meet current and future requirements.
• Willingness to network with the internal community of lead specialists to promote integration across functions, representing and promoting own specialism as required.
• Motivated to take responsibility for own personal development.

This position is full time working 37.5 hours per week. The successful candidate can be either home or office-based, depending on personal requirements and location. There will be a requirement for occasional travel, within the UK and to Sandy, Bedfordshire (headquarters).

Closing date: 23:59, 23 April 2021

Interested?
Please click 'Apply’ - you will be prompted to complete a short CHM Recruit form before being redirected to complete your application.

No agencies please.