Head of Equality, Inclusion & Community Impact
London (hybrid) | Full-time, permanent | £60,000–£70,000 depending on experience
Closing date: Monday 17th August — register your interest now
The opportunity:
Our client is a high-profile sport and entertainment organisation with a large public following and a deep-rooted presence in one of London's most diverse communities. Alongside the main organisation sits an affiliated community charity, widely respected for the reach and quality of its work.
Following the planned departure of the current EDI lead, the organisation has taken the opportunity to redefine and elevate the role. This is a new, senior appointment with a joint remit across the organisation and its community charity, roughly a 50/50 split.
This is not a compliance role dressed up as strategy. The postholder will set the equality, diversity and inclusion strategy for both entities, advise executive teams and boards, influence organisational culture, and use community engagement as the mechanism for long-term change. The brief is explicit: the organisation is investing to be a sector leader, and this role has genuine backing from the very top.
What you'll be doing:
- Developing and leading a single EDI strategy spanning the organisation and its community charity, agreed with both governance structures
- Acting as the senior subject matter expert on equality and inclusion, advising executive teams and boards and shaping organisational policy
- Leading the organisation's work towards the highest tier of a nationally recognised equality accreditation — the headline objective for year one
- Designing evidence-based interventions to improve audience behaviour at live events, including education and behavioural change programmes in response to discriminatory incidents
- Building trusted relationships with community organisations, schools, faith groups, local authorities, governing bodies and national equality organisations
- Ensuring the organisation's audience and workforce increasingly reflect the diversity of the communities it serves and works with
- Overseeing the operational and budgetary delivery of two representative participation groups, working through partnership and volunteer structures rather than direct line management
- Establishing meaningful KPIs, using data and insight to evaluate impact, and reporting to both boards
- Acting as the principal external representative and a credible media spokesperson on equality and community impact matters
This is a new role, and the organisation is clear that it will evolve. The successful candidate will have a genuine say in shaping the strategy rather than inheriting a fixed template.
What we're looking for
You'll need:
- Significant experience leading organisation-wide EDI strategy, ideally across more than one organisation or business unit
- Demonstrable experience influencing senior leaders, boards and organisational culture
- A proven track record building partnerships across sport, public sector or community organisations
- Experience leading change programmes and delivering through influence rather than formal authority
- A strong grasp of behavioural change, community engagement and inclusive leadership
- Confidence using data and insight to shape strategy and evidence impact
- Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills — you can hold your own when checked and challenged at board level
- Working knowledge of the Equality Act 2010 and safeguarding frameworks
Experience within professional sport, knowledge of audience engagement, and existing relationships with national equality bodies would all be advantageous — but they are not essential.
If your experience comes from a different sector and you can demonstrate the strategic leadership and stakeholder skills above, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.
Salary and benefits
- £60,000–£70,000 depending on experience, with an annual salary review
- 20 days' holiday plus bank holidays, rising to 25 days after two years' service
- Enhanced maternity and adoption leave (two months full pay, three months half pay) and enhanced paternity leave (two weeks full pay)
- Pension scheme with the option to increase employer contributions through matched higher contributions
- Life assurance at twice basic salary
- Medical cash plan for all permanent staff, with dependants covered at no extra cost, plus discounted private medical cover
- 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme, wellbeing app and financial wellbeing service
- Interest-free travel season ticket loan and Cycle to Work scheme (up to £2,000)
- Subsidised lunches, complimentary tickets to organisation events, paid professional subscription relevant to your role, and payroll giving
