Innovation Lead

Are you motivated by the desire to help shake things up and do things differently? Start Network is on a mission to disrupt the Humanitarian system and the Systems Innovation and Change team is at the heart of these ambitions for change.

You will be an advocate for systems change and innovation methods and bring a user-centred and design-led approach to your work. You will help ensure our team’s support to our Hubs, members and other teams is flexible in meeting their needs
and aligned with Start Network’s vision for change. You will be key in contributing to the successful development and delivery of the team’s programs and workplan.

To give a sense of the week-to-week work, you are likely to be getting involved in…
• Coordinating various aspects of our team’s project delivery, including setting up workshops, liaison with suppliers, grant management etc.
• Coordinating and, where appropriate, providing innovation technical support to hubs, teams and members drawing on your own experience and/or managing external innovation experts. For example, you may lead on the design of a workshop for a staff team that wants help on a particular challenge, based on innovation and design methods.
• Ensuring that relationships with stakeholders are equitable, effective, open, and transparent
• Supporting the team’s contracting, invoicing, and other administrative needs
• Supporting Hubs, members and Start Network teams to build the capabilities and practices necessary for impactful and sustainable locally led humanitarian innovation

As we are a small team there is great scope for the right candidate to bring their talents to the team and help shape our work programme and impact, as well as having the opportunity to develop your own capabilities and experience.

WHAT IS START NETWORK?
Our purpose is to be a catalyst for system-level change that improves the efficiency, effectiveness and ethics of humanitarian action. We do this by working as a network to develop, test & spread new ways of collaborating and resourcing locally-led crisis response and anticipation.

Our current membership is made up of nearly 100 local, national and international NGOs based all around the world. We also support 10 national and regional hubs made up of civil society organisations and NGOs as our vehicle for devolving power, resources and accountability.

OUR VALUES
WE PUT PEOPLE FIRST: communities come first in our decision-making and programming.
WE ARE BRAVE: we have great ambition and are willing to explore new things and take risks to achieve it.
WE OPERATE COLLECTIVELY: we leverage the value of working as a network, sharing risk and resources, and learning together.
WE ARE INCLUSIVE: we see the value in diverse perspectives and work to remove the barriers that prevent voices from being heard.
WE ARE OPEN: we work transparently and with integrity, building mutual trust in all levels of our work, from governance to programming.
WE ARE ETHICAL: we behave and operate based on key principles of anti-racism, non- discrimination, and anti-colonialism. This is a work in progress.

OUR OFFER TO YOU
• Being a part of a network involved in bringing change to the humanitarian sector.
• Hybrid working with options to work from home and remotely to support your work/life balance
• Employee Assistance Programme through Smart Health ((depends on the country based)
• Family friendly policies, e.g., flexible working, maternity policy, parental leave and more!
• 25 days’ holiday (if UK based) plus 2 company days over the End of Year period for all staff (depends on the country based)

INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES
Our roles are open to discussion about flexible working. For part-time working and job-shares, please get in touch with us before putting in an application.

Start Network is committed to protecting people, particularly children, at-risk adults and affected populations from any harm. We are also committed to safeguarding staff from any forms of bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and abuse of power as outlined in the Dignity at Work policy. Start Network embraces diversity, promotes equality of opportunity and eliminates unlawful discrimination. We are an equal opportunities employer and treat every
application on merit alone. We particularly encourage applications from disabled, BAME, LGBTQ+ and non-binary candidates. We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants who meet our essential selection criteria set out in the Person Profile.

APPLICATION
Please contact our People and Culture Team if you have any questions or need support with your application. 

We use Be Applied, our online recruitment platform which uses anonymised applications and predictive, skill-based assessments which are blind- reviewed to reduce bias.

Closing date: 18th March 2024
We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high number of applications and we
may review candidates on an ongoing basis, so please apply early where possible to avoid
disappointment.

Any offer of employment will be conditional subject to relevant checks. Please refer to our privacy candidate privacy notice regarding treatment of your data. Start Network also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. The core of the scheme is that participating organisations share information about safeguarding-related misconduct (i.e., sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment) that a candidate has been found to have committed during
employment, or incidents under investigation when the candidate left employment. For more information regarding this scheme, please visit their website.