Assistant Director - Public Affairs and Partnerships

Position details for the Assistant Director - Public Affairs and Partnerships role at Youth Endowment Fund.

Overview

The Youth Endowment Fund seeks an exceptional individual to lead on public affairs and partnerships to reduce violence affecting young people. The role reports to the Director of Change, with significant engagement with the Director of Public Affairs and Communications and the CEO. Salary: £75,500 per annum. Location: Central London or Hybrid. Contract: 2-year fixed term, with potential to extend. Open to 0.8 FTE for the right candidate.

About the Youth Endowment Fund

We’re here to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence. We build knowledge and partnerships to reduce violence and improve practice.

We need someone who can lead on planning for the future as the endowment must be spent down by April 2029.

Key responsibilities

• Are ready for the future: Lead on planning for after 2029, identify opportunities, build external relationships, and articulate a narrative of past and future delivery to achieve the mission.
• Build and maintain relationships across government: Advise internal colleagues, build new relationships, manage key meetings, and ensure an effective tracking process. Provide coaching to help achieve systemic changes to reduce violence.
• Build relationships with other organisations: Lead on partnerships with funders and researchers, identify opportunities, and coordinate internal teams to secure collaboration.

As a senior member of staff you also:

• Lead on culture: Build a high-performance, supportive culture.
• Deliver on strategy: Contribute to setting and delivering strategy and modelling the required culture.

Please visit our website for the full person specification and About You information.

We welcome applicants who have lived experience of violence affecting young people.

We are committed to equality and inclusion. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, or social economic background.

To Apply

Send a CV and cover letter, and complete the monitoring form. Click the "Apply for this" button by Friday 26 September 2025.

When applying, please answer the following questions in your cover letter (maximum 1000 words):

• Tell us about something you made happen. Describe what you were trying to achieve, how you organized it, and how you made it happen.
• Summarise your experience of working with or in central government.
• Describe someone or an organisation you won over or built a good relationship with and how you did it.

Interview Process

This will be a two-stage interview process. First stage interviews week of 13 October 2025. Second stage interviews week of 20 October 2025.

Note: We do not sponsor work permits and you must be eligible to work in the UK.

Benefits

• £1,000 professional development budget annually
• 28 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
• Employee Assistance Programme – 24hr confidential support
• Volunteering days – 4 half days per year
• Death in service – 4 times annual salary
• Flexible hours; core office hours 10am–4pm
• Financial support including travel and hardship loans
• Employer contributed pension of 5%

"The Youth Endowment Fund exists to continuously build knowledge about violence affecting young people and how to reduce it. We work across systems, policies and practice to have a real impact on reducing violence."