Chief Executive Officer

Join Drive Forward Foundation as our next CEO and lead the next phase of our mission to enable care-experienced young people to achieve their full potential.

Applications close: by 9 a.m. Monday 12th August 2024.

About Drive Forward Foundation

Drive Forward Foundation is a registered charity specialising in supporting care-experienced children and young people aged 16 – 26 in London into sustainable and fulfilling employment, education, and training.

We empower young people to take control of their lives through meaningful careers. We offer a mix of tailored 1-2-1 support, intensive employability skills training, exclusive opportunities provided by our employer partners, a bespoke counselling service, and in-work mentoring support.

Our vision is a society where care-experienced people enjoy opportunity, empathy and respect.

Our goal is not just to help our young people find a job, but to work with them to be aspirational and pursue sustainable employment avenues — and we believe the outcomes we achieve enrich over time.

Our plan for the next five years is to extend our reach across London, before looking outside the capital to support more care-experienced young people.

Who we are looking for

It is an incredibly exciting time for the charity, and we are now seeking a new Chief Executive to lead us into the next phase of growth and strategic development.

We need an exceptional leader; someone who is passionate about making a lasting impact, driving effective change, and empowering our teams to thrive.

Our next Chief Executive will be an outstanding people leader with a successful senior leadership track record in a relevant organisation of similar scale and complexity.

Having operated across a multi-functional environment with multi-disciplinary, dispersed teams, you will be well attuned to galvanising high-performing teams and developing and retaining positive, values-led cultures.

You will be a visible and credible ambassador for the charity, able to campaign and bring the voices of young care leavers to the minds of policymakers. You will represent the organisation with confidence and authenticity to a wide range of stakeholders; from our corporate partners and future funders through to the young people we support.

Whilst remaining sensitive to our successful legacy and mission, you will bring an appetite and vision for change, committed to reaching more young people; bringing a business focus, evolving our culture and taking us through a process of organisational development.

You will also be commercially astute with experience securing contract or grant income. Whilst not essential, experience in developing successful fundraising strategies would be highly advantageous.

Above all else, you will be motivated by our cause and genuinely live the values of the organisation — a collaborative and inclusive leader with an unrelenting focus on the needs of our young people.

Please click 'Apply via website’ to be redirected to the Peridot Partners website, where you can find full details of the job description and register your interest to apply.

Applications for this role close by 9 a.m. Monday 12th August 2024