Title: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Location: Young Social Innovators, DCU Alpha, Old Finglas Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11
Report to: Young Social Innovators (YSI) Board
Contract: Permanent Full-Time

The Opportunity

Young Social Innovators (YSI) is a non-profit organisation that empowers young people to use their talents, insights, passion and creativity to come up with innovative solutions to social challenges. Through fun and engaging programmes, students are supported to create team-based action-projects on issues they care about, putting their innovative ideas into action to bring about positive social change for the benefit of people, communities and the environment.

As YSI’s new CEO, you will continue to drive the remarkable efforts led by YSI’s founders, Sr Stanislaus Kennedy and Rachel Collier to support and empower young people to solve these critical challenges for today and tomorrow, and lead YSI into a new chapter.

As CEO, you will partner with the Board to develop and evolve YSI’s strategy to continue and grow YSI’s work nationally and internationally. You will be the ‘face’ of YSI for education, industry, government, community groups, and the media. You will set the agenda, grow YSI’s profile and reach within existing and new stakeholder groups, and promote the work of YSI, and its mission and vision.

As the YSI leader, the CEO will be accountable for leading and managing the YSI team to deliver the organisation’s operational plan within existing resource constraints, and develop the team to operate to their best ability where they are empowered and supported to grow. You will ensure YSI has sustainable funding to run and support its youth programmes. You will lead and champion YSI’s efforts in maintaining its financial and legal commitments, as outlined in the Governance Code of Practice, the Charities Regulatory Authority (CRA), and Ireland’s Children’s First Act 2015.

This is an exciting time to join the YSI team to help empower young people to reimagine the world, and help them create impact on issues that matter most to them, working in a dynamic and agile environment.

The Person

General Management and Leadership- Excellent influencing and leadership skills with an innate ability to motivate, lead and inspire those around them. A self-starter who thinks strategically about the future, and has the ability to bring people with them on the journey of a reimagined tomorrow. Ability to translate these ideas and concepts into high level goals, aligned to YSI’s mission and vision, utilise YSI’s resources effectively to achieve specific objectives and outcomes, and create a culture that is purpose-led and empowering.

Strategy and Board Engagement- Excellent interpersonal skills underpinned by a strong business and commercial acumen. Ability to horizon scan national and international markets with curiosity and conceptual thinking, and leverage this understanding to influence YSI’s strategy and prioritisation development. A true partner to the Board to ensure mutual alignment, direction, and impact. An advocate for social innovation education, its processes and approaches to drive results.

Agenda Setter and Relationship Builder- A deep understanding and appreciation of the challenges facing today’s young generation. Ability to build rapport and relationships with a wide group of internal and external stakeholders. A key influencer who inspires, persuades and engages others to support YSI’s work and its strategic priorities. Ability to secure necessary financial resources from multiple stakeholders public, philanthropic and corporate through strong networking, engagement and negotiation.

Communication and Teamwork- Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills. Ability to build a strong team, culture and an effective organisational structure with a drive for creativity, innovation and impact. A strong coach and mentor underpinned by empathy, trust and purpose. Ability to identify and create employee development opportunities and experiences to cultivate agility, versatility, innovation and personal and team growth.

Additional:

• A degree or level 9 equivalent (In accordance with the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) is preferred
• A demonstrated track record at a senior management level within education, social innovation, NGO or other relevant sector experience
• Strong commitment to culture, ethical values and governance is required
• Experience engaging at Board Management / Board preferred
• Knowledge of education / youth development in Ireland preferred
• A strong appreciation and / or experience working with social justice / SDG’s / social innovation is desirable
• Ability to lead, manage, coach and mentor teams with high emotional intelligence supported by curiosity, empathy and a growth mindset
• Communicating through digital and in-person is required

Young Social Innovators is committed to standards of excellence in Child Protection practices. The role of CEO will require the candidate to successfully complete the Garda Vetting process, which will be co-ordinated by Young Social Innovators

Key Accountabilities:

Partner with the Board to develop YSI’s strategy in line with YSI’s mission, vision and values

• Proactively discuss strategic opportunities and challenges identified through horizon scanning, industry or team insights, and YSI’s evidence-based research
• Co-create the YSI vision and strategy with the Board

Be the key link between the Board and the YSI team

• Co-create and operationalise the YSI vision and strategy with the YSI management team
• Highlight and communicate to the Board all organisational impact, operational issues, and other relevant areas critical for decision-making and future planning

Report on organisational performance and impact

• Provide the Board with timely and accurate reporting on YSI performance
• Facilitate the Board to operate effectively, highlighting any issues affecting the organisation, and the Directors by extension

Cultivate, motivate, lead and manage the team to deliver YSI’s strategy

• Attract, recruit and retain a high quality team that is engaged, purpose-led, and passionate about YSI
• Ensure organisational, team and individual performance is appropriately managed to achieve expected strategic outcomes

Build a team culture that supports empowerment, creativity, innovation and trust

• Promote and champion a purpose-led company culture that is high performing, connected, and delivers impact
• Lead by example using positive leadership behaviours that inspire others to emulate

Develop, resource, implement and deliver the operational plan to implement YSI’s strategy

• Partner with the YSI team to prioritise and execute on its strategic objectives
• Effective management of team and resource allocation to deliver results
• Maintain and grow existing funding streams and identify new partnerships to enable delivery

Ensure high standards of governance and operational excellence

• Embed a supportive culture that strictly adheres to required regulatory compliance and governance, and YSI’s financial and legal obligations
• Oversee the development of robust operational processes that aim to achieve operational excellence

Build, drive and expand awareness of YSI’s vision

• Develop an impact action plan to create opportunities to promote YSI and its work
• Strategically utilise YSI’s evidence-based research to story tell, engage and inspire

Influence and grow YSI’s profile and reach within new and existing stakeholder groups

• Critically understand the needs of our youth, educators, industry, government and community groups to identify new areas to build awareness of YSI
• Develop relationship matrices for key stakeholder groups in order to identify opportunities to create and deepen the strength of YSI’s network, relationships and partnerships

Young Social Innovators is committed to equal opportunities and all recruitment decisions will be based on merit, suitability for the role and experience. All recruitment decisions will not be influenced by race, colour, nationality, religion, sex, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, disability, age or membership of the Traveller Community. Young Social Innovators fully endorses a working environment free from discrimination and harassment. For information on Young Social Innovator’s Privacy Policy, please see here.

How to Apply

This recruitment campaign is being managed exclusively by 2into3 on behalf of Young Social Innovators. To apply, to discuss further, or to request a copy of the candidate briefing document, please contact Shannon Barrett at shannon.barrett@2into3.com or (086) 063-4938. Please send your CV and a cover letter outlining your suitability for the role, in Word doc format only. The closing date for applications is Friday 2nd September.