Regional Lead, North East
c. £57k • based Durham, with travel across the North East
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is an independent social change organisation, working to support and speed up the transition to a more equitable and just future, free from poverty, where people and planet can flourish. Today, JRF supports and undertakes many different types of work in all four nations of the UK. This includes policy development and insight gathering, advocacy and campaigns, impact investment, funding pioneers and visionaries, field building, and supporting those building grassroots movements. Our work is supported by around 150 permanent staff across York, London, Glasgow and Belfast.
The Regional Programme sits within JRF’s Emerging Futures Programme. Established within the Emerging Futures team in 2024, and building on earlier JRF work in Hartlepool, it is a long-term, place-based initiative rooted in the North East and York. The aim of the Regional Programme is to support, shield, connect and nurture organisations and collaborations demonstrating what just and regenerative futures could look like. We act as funders and fieldbuilders: resourcing and nurturing infrastructures, communities, networks and individuals to enable the work to grow and evolve.
The Regional Programme currently revolves around three core sites of practice – York, Hartlepool, and Durham. Rooted in the region's rich history as a birthplace of industrial innovation and social change, the programme is designed to back people, organisations, and coalitions who are working to build alternatives to broken systems and to support the conditions for this work to take root and thrive.
The Regional Lead will act as the central steward and weaver of JRF’s Regional Programme, bringing coherence, alignment, and connection across its many elements. Sitting at the heart of the programme, this senior role will connect together people, practice, and purpose across the whole Regional team— ensuring the work remains collaborative, and in service of just transitions across York and the North East.
This is a role for someone who can work relationally across boundaries, think systemically, and hold stewardship of people, practice, and purpose through times of regional change. The Regional Programme Lead will be both strategist and connector — ensuring the Regional Programme functions as an integrated, living system. We’re looking for someone who is incredibly organised and always thinking a few steps ahead. You’ll be deeply relational and able to build strong, trusting connections with a range of colleagues and partners.
Please visit www.cadence-jrf.co.uk to find out more and to apply. If you need candidate materials in an alternative format or have questions not covered on the microsite, please contact Cadence Partners at jrf-regional-lead@cadencepartners.co.uk
Closing date: Wednesday 20th May.
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If you have any questions about the role or your application after reviewing the candidate materials, please get in touch.