Head of Network Development

HEAD OF NETWORK DEVELOPMENT

• Regional Advisers (4)
• Network SupportLead
• Humanitarian Capacity Strengthening Manager (SHAPE)
• Network Platform Manager
• SCORE Programme Manager

• Country Director – Ukraine (viathe Network Support Lead)

About HelpAge

Our organisational culture

• Accountability for All: Every individual and team member is responsible for their actions and decisions, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities and commitments to partners and network members.
• Trust, Respect, and Inclusion: We strive to create an environment where mutual trust is the foundation of all relationships, diverse perspectives are valued, and everyone feels included in decision-making processes.
• Culture of Collaboration: Working together across teams, network members, and partners to share knowledge, maximise impact, and drive collective success, rather than working in silos.
• Openness and Transparency: Ensuring open communication, clear decision-making processes and actions, and a commitment to sharing information in a way that builds trust and accountability.
• Collective Responsibilities Within and With Partners and Network: Recognising that achieving our mission requires shared responsibility, we promote joint ownership of decisions, initiatives, and outcomes across HelpAge and its network members and partners.
• Staff and network members are valued: Staff and network members are recognised, and valued and appreciated for their contributions, fostering an environment where every individual feels respected, supported, and integral to our mission, with their input and expertise recognised as vital to achieving our shared goals.

About the Department

• At the heart of our work is a thriving, resilient HelpAge global network—a powerful collective of national civil society actors driving change that is rooted in the priorities and experiences of older people.
• We lead the delivery of HelpAge’s strategic approach to support, convene, and influence, across humanitarian and development contexts, to achieve lasting and inclusive impact.

• Older people have inclusive, improved access to secure and adequate income
• Older people have safe and secure access to humanitarian assistance
• Older people have improved access to inclusive health, care, and support services
• Age-inclusive laws, policies and systems guarantee older people’s rights across all sectors
• A thriving locally led HelpAge Network drives collective action to uphold older people’s rights, dignity, and wellbeing.

About the Job

Key areas for impact/influence and responsibilities

Network strategy and impact

• Lead delivery of the HelpAge network strategy, ensuring it supports locally led transitions, strong partnerships and member engagement. Lead the Thriving Network Impact Vehicle (one of six priority areas through which HelpAge delivers its strategy; the other five target external policy change - social pensions, health coverage, humanitarian action, legal rights, climate adaptation - while this one targets the health and sustainability of the network itself) and its results framework, ensuring a clear connection between day-to-day activities and HelpAge's 2030 network targets, and reporting quarterly to the senior leadership team on progress.
• Lead the preparation and quality assurance of Governance Committee submissions (membership applications, ambassador appointments) and Board papers relating to network development and engagement.

• Line manage the Regional Advisers. Set annual regional priorities and delivery accountabilities aligned to the network and advocacy strategies, and hold each Regional Adviser accountable for delivery through regular performance management and review. Hold direct responsibility for engagement with Europe-based members, and work with the Head of Advocacy and Evidencing to develop HelpAge's strategic niche on donor advocacy in Europe.
• Set the strategic frame for network convenings - purpose, frequency, participant profile and hold Regional Advisers accountable for regional and thematic convenings. Chair the strategic reference group INDABA, HelpAge's consultative forum with network members.

Membership and capacity sharing

• Lead and oversee the network membership lifecycle - recruitment, accreditation, due diligence, segmentation and exit - using segmentation to determine how each member is engaged and what level of capacity sharing support they receive, in line with HelpAge's governance frameworks and agreed decision-making authorities.
• Lead delivery of the Network Capacity Sharing Strategy, translating it into a coherent network-wide offer, integrated across programmes, in collaboration with Programme Support, Advocacy and Evidencing and other relevant teams. Hold the Humanitarian Capacity Strengthening Manager accountable for delivery in priority humanitarian contexts and the SCORE Programme Manager for delivery against SCORE commitments, with both required to feed learning back into the offer; facilitate alignment across different programme approaches and escalate cross-functional issues where appropriate..
• Hold the Network Platform Manager1accountable for member collaboration platforms that support the network strategy, capacity sharing and member onboarding.

Localisation and country transitions

• Line manage the Network Support Lead. Set the strategic framework for localisation and country transition support and hold them accountable for delivery across relevant country transitions.
• Ensure network and localisation commitments are reflected in country strategies, programme design and partner engagement, working in collaboration with the Advocacy and Evidencing and Programme Support teams.

Resources, Risk Management and Representation

• Be accountable for achieving the agreed Network Development income target. Working in partnership with the Fundraising & Strategic Partnerships (F&SP) team, play a lead technical and relationship role in shaping fundable propositions, contributing to pipeline development, including ownership of priority donor relationships and the funding pipeline**,** donor cultivation and stewardship, and fundraising for network convening, capacity sharing and the knowledge platform.
• Act as budget holder for the Network Development portfolio, including grant budgets, with accountability for forecasting, spend against budget, cost recovery and donor compliance.
• Ensure that organisational standards, policies and frameworks relating to safeguarding, security, fraud and other relevant risks are effectively embedded across Network Development activities, working with the relevant functional leads and holding team leads accountable for compliance within their areas and programmes.
• Represent HelpAge in global fora on localisation and partnerships, positioning HelpAge as a credible voice on localisation, locally led development, civil society networks, and the role of older people and their organisations - contributing to thought leadership and sector-wide learning.

  Skills and experience required

  Essential
• Proven strategic leadership of a membership network, alliance or partnership portfolio in the international development, humanitarian or civil society sectors, including responsibility for network strategy and its delivery.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through senior managers - setting the strategic frame, agreeing accountabilities and holding others to delivery - rather than personally owning workstreams. Experience managing diverse, multi-disciplinary and geographically dispersed teams.
• Extensive experience working with and supporting civil society networks, grassroots organisations and local partners, particularly in low- and middle-income or Global South contexts.
• Strong knowledge of and commitment to Partner-Led Programming principles, with a proven record of advancing localisation and supporting organisational transitions to locally led ways of working.
• Experience of the membership lifecycle in a network or alliance - recruitment, accreditation, due diligence and, where necessary, exit. And of segmentation to inform how members are engaged and supported.
• Track record of income generation against a target, including named ownership of institutional donor relationships and management of a funding pipeline.
• Budget-holding experience at portfolio level, including grant budgets, forecasting, cost recovery and donor compliance.
• Experience leading the implementation of a results framework and reporting on progress against strategic targets to an executive or board-level audience.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, equity and inclusion, and a demonstrated ability to embed these across teams and partnerships and to hold others accountable for doing so.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships with network members, donors, civil society organisations and institutional actors, and to navigate disagreement between them.
• Lived experience of the Global South or significant professional experience working in Global South contexts.

  Desirable

• Experience designing and delivering a differentiated capacity sharing or capacity strengthening offer across a diverse membership, informed by member-identified need rather than a single global package.
• Experience of governance processes in a membership body - preparing submissions for a governance committee or board on membership, accreditation or appointments.
• Experience convening members at regional or global level, including designing convenings for genuine exchange rather than presentation.
• Familiarity with ageing, inclusion and rights issues in Global South contextsEducation and Qualification

  Education and Qualifications

• Degree in international development, public policy, human rights, social sciences, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).
• A postgraduate qualification is an asset but not essential where practical experience is strong.

  Values, Skills, and Ways of Working

• Ability to work across cultures, sectors, and geographies in inclusive and equitable ways.
• Excellent communication skills in English (spoken and written); additional languages used in the Global South (e.g., Spanish, French, Arabic) are highly desirable.
• Deep commitment to locally led development and the principles of Partner-Led Programming.
• We actively value and encourage candidates with lived experience of inequality, marginalisation, or systemic exclusion—especially related to age, gender, disability, displacement, or economic injustice.

Key Behavioural Competencies

Safeguarding

• Preventing harm and abuse from our people, operations and programmes to anyone that encounters our work.
• Reporting all safeguarding incidents you see, hear, hear about or suspect, using our internal reporting mechanism.
• Complying with all safeguarding framework policies and practices.
• Completing mandatory training courses relating to our safeguarding policy framework and complying with HR vetting procedures.

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