Director of Equity and Culture

Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives – from debt to evictions to trouble at work – and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.

Reporting to the Executive Director of People, the Director of Equity & Culture is an exciting strategic leadership opportunity for an experienced ED&I professional who wants to drive forward cultural change and positive colleague experience at Citizens Advice and also make a direct impact on our client outcomes.

You’ll bring vision and creativity to a brief which ultimately aims to develop a consistently positive and equitable experience for all colleagues and volunteers; a place where people feel they belong. You will be instrumental in exploring and creating solutions - alongside many collaborators - that support a sustainably healthy organisation and service to our clients.

This role is equally client facing; with part of the EDI remit focussed on improving the experience of advice services for clients of colour and improving the accessibility of advice to disabled clients. This is truly an EDI role with systemic impact across service and workforce. Our aim is to eliminate any systemic organisational and service marginalisation.
Citizens Advice is a federated community of about 250 local Citizens Advice members (all independent charities) across England and Wales and a national organisation of about 1,000 colleagues and 2,000 volunteers. This role will be influential across the whole community; helping to develop many leaders who positively contribute to our EDI and culture ambitions.

We are looking for candidates who are human centric, authentic and believe in our cultural values. They will have proven experience of leading a complex, system wide EDI and culture change remit. Strategic systems thinking is essential, alongside strong leadership and relational abilities.

To apply
Please prepare an anonymous CV and a cover letter addressing how you meet the following criteria (please ensure your cover letter is no more than 2 pages):

• Demonstrable experience of leading EDI in a large, complex organisation with clear positive impact
• Demonstrable experience of organisational culture development leading to positive results
• Experience of working in a senior, influential role which has managed stakeholders at Board, exec and broader leadership levels
• Experience leading the development of organisational strategy and helping to solve systemic challenges
• Strong leadership and relationship skills, with the ability to create the right conditions for teams to succeed

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.

Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. If you are disabled and meet our minimum criteria you will be guaranteed an interview for this role and we will provide reasonable adjustments as needed. We follow the social model of disability.

We’re a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who’d prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we’re open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.

The National Citizens Advice Operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.

Our commitment to colleague wellbeing is reflected in us being awarded Gold in the Health & Wellbeing category, as well as Overall Winners, at the Employee Experience Awards 2022.

Please be aware that Citizens Advice is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.

In the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close the application early.

This vacancy closes at 23.59 on the closing date.

For more information about the organisation, our values and benefits please see the following link - Information, values and benefits

Need help with your application, see our useful how to guides on the following page - Guidance notes for applicants