Job listing
Community Lead
About the Role
The Community Lead will build and steward Forward Institute’s community as an active and engaged community of practice centred around responsible leadership.
The role combines strategic thinking with hands-on delivery. The Community Lead will shape the community strategy while also driving implementation across events, communications and engagement.
The work involves:
Creating clarity about who our community is and how it is structured
Building systems and stewardship that deepen engagement and loyalty
Turning a dispersed set of relationships into shared institutional infrastructure
Core Responsibilities
Define and structure the community
Develop a shared definition of the Forward Institute community
Create a simple segmentation model to organise engagement
Work with Partnerships to align segmentation with Salesforce CRM
Enable intentional stewardship across different groups
Steward top 30-50 group of senior leaders
In collaboration with Partnerships and the Leadership team, identify a priority cohort of senior leaders
Design a 12-month stewardship approach for that group
Develop and lead the execution of targeted convenings and engagement opportunities
Lead and execute the community engagement rhythm
Establish a clear cadence of communications, convenings and events
Review existing community platforms and tools and define the approach moving forward
Own the voice and rhythm of community communications including the monthly newsletter
Lead the delivery of community events, working closely with the production team
Measure community engagement and impact
Develop a clear framework for measuring the impact of the community
Track engagement across convenings, and communications
Identify where community engagement is strengthening relationships, collaboration and commercial growth
Your first six months
The initial phase of the role focuses on building the foundations of a coherent community strategy and engagement model.
Forward Institute already has a strong base including:
an active Fellowship network
a regular rhythm of events and convenings
an existing Slack community space
established CRM infrastructure through Salesforce
The focus of the first six months will be to bring coherence, clarity and intentional stewardship to this existing activity.
Key priorities in this phase include:
developing a clear definition and segmentation of the Forward Institute community
identifying a priority cohort of senior leaders for deeper engagement
establishing a clear engagement rhythm across convenings, communications and community touchpoints
delivering the first flagship convenings aligned to the community strategy
This phase will result in a clear community strategy and an operational engagement model that can develop further over time
About You
This is an important and pivotal role. We care deeply about finding the right person to help build and steward the community that sits at the heart of the Forward Movement. The role will suit someone who combines strategic thinking with practical delivery, and who genuinely enjoys bringing people together. This may be someone with significant experience leading leadership communities, or someone whose career has consistently centred on building strong relationships and making things happen.
Mindset
Deeply relational and energised by building meaningful connections between people
Entrepreneurial and comfortable building something new
Collaborative and able to work across teams
Curious about leadership and societal change
Motivated by work with real-world impact
Capabilities
Strategic thinking and the ability to build systems from first principles
Strong relationship stewardship with senior leaders
Excellent written communication and narrative clarity
Experience designing and delivering high-quality convenings or events
Comfort working across strategy and delivery
Experience
5+ years of experience building, stewarding or working within professional communities, networks or leadership ecosystems
Experience bringing senior people together through convenings, programmes or collaborative initiatives
Experience designing engagement approaches, membership models or community participation strategies
Experience building trusted relationships with senior leaders or influential stakeholders
Benefits
We know our greatest strength is our people. We want everyone who works with us to feel supported in their wellbeing and confident in building a meaningful career.
Our benefits include:
private health insurance
hybrid working arrangements
a generous training and development budget
pension contributions
a rich internal culture of learning and dialogue
You will also have the opportunity to work with some of the most thoughtful and influential leaders across business, government and civil society.
How to Apply
To apply, please send your CV and a covering letter or video (max 2 minutes) answering the following question:
What excites you about our work and this specific role? What would you uniquely bring?
We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to fair and inclusive recruitment practices. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences.
We want to make this process as inclusive and accessible as possible. If you have any access needs or specific requirements, please get in touch with [email protected]
Applications for this role are closing on Monday 6th April.
First round interviews will begin from Monday 30th March
Second round interviews will be the week of the Monday 13th April
You must have the right to work in the UK
Application deadline: 06/04/2026