Head of Spacemaking and Operations
3 days ago
London
SUMMARY Position Title: Head of Spacemaking and Operations Level: Level 6 Pay: £40, 000 - 46, 000 (FTE yearly) Reports to: Director of Finance, HR and Operations Location: Liberation centre Brixton, London (New office in Brixton)/ Remote working within the UK with at least 3 days’ work from our office (Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays) Contract: Full time (40hrs/weekly), 2-year Fixed Term contract. Start date: As soon as possible Benefits: TAA laptop and phone, (employee assistance and health cash package including staff supervision, counselling, dental, optical care and more.) The Advocacy Academy is an activist youth movement. We serve as the political home for grassroots youth organising and the catalyst for collective action. The lives of the young people we work alongside have been directly shaped by living in an unjust world, and we exist to turn their anger into action. Young people are often the catalysts for major social change, from the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, to the Soweto Uprising mobilising young people to resist the apartheid regime's education policies, to the Sunrise Movement redrawing the electoral map across America, and more recently encampments and protests across the world protesting the genocide in Palestine. How successfully they achieve real and lasting change depends on whether they are organised and whether they have the right strategy and tactics to be effective. We want youth organising to be enshrined in the UK for generations to come, and for young people to have tangible political power to influence national policy. That’s why we have launched two national coalitions, one around climate, and the other around gender. Each will train organisations across the country to become youth organisers and work together to bring 100 young people together to identify the strategy and tactics needed to achieve change. These young leaders will organise others and work collectively to build a campaign which shakes the status quo. We are now looking for a Head of Spacemaking & Operations who believes in this vision and can ensure that TAA’s Liberation Centre is safe, fully operational, and intentionally designed as a welcoming, accessible, and inclusive environment. This role bridges operational delivery and spatial experience, ensuring that the Centre not only functions effectively behind the scenes, but also reflects TAA’s values in how people experience, move through, and use the space. You will combine operational oversight, facilities management, and space experience design, working across teams to ensure the Centre is safe, compliant, efficient, accessible and welcoming for staff, young people, and the wider community. Before you skim the job description, please remember you don’t have to tick all the boxes to apply. We all experience a bit of imposter syndrome, including staff here at The Advocacy Academy. If this role pulls you in and you believe you could make a meaningful difference, we encourage you to apply or reach out to us to discuss further. We are especially interested in people who bring lived experiences, perspectives, and ways of working. AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY 1.You will become a key member of the Finance, HR & Operations Team, including but not limited to: • Supporting the Director of Finance, HR and Operations in maintaining and improving operational systems and processes, • Supporting the delivery of the Liberation Centre strategy, working across teams to ensure the Centre provides a functional, welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment for staff, young people, and the wider community, • Building relationships across departments, understanding their needs, and communicating operational updates to the Director, • Acting as the main operational liaison for the Liberation Centre, including council, building management, and external contractors, • Managing relationships with facilities providers, maintenance contractors, cleaners, and IT vendors, • Overseeing health & safety compliance, including staff training, evacuation procedures, drills, and statutory checks, • Supporting the development and implementation of risk assessments (fire, general, wellbeing, incidents, remote work, etc.), • Ensuring procurement, supplies, and stock levels are managed effectively and responsibly, • Coordinating first aiders and fire marshals as required, • Supporting the ongoing development of the Liberation Centre as a safe, inclusive, and values-aligned space, • Leading on accessibility improvements across the physical environment, ensuring equitable access for disabled community members, • Shaping improvements to layout, usability, and overall experience of the space, • Ensuring the space reflects TAA’s values of care, inclusion, and liberation in its physical design and use, • Working with internal teams to understand spatial needs and translating them into practical and experience-led improvements, • Acting as liaison for IT and facilities providers, • Supporting setup, maintenance, and improvement of workplace systems and equipment, • Ensuring infrastructure supports accessibility, inclusion, and ease of use, • Identifying improvements to systems that enhance operational efficiency and user experience, • Work with the Working closely with programmes, Organising & Campaigns, community, and communications teams to ensure smooth operational delivery, • Supporting logistics for events, residentials, camps, and programmes, including venue sourcing, bookings, and on-site coordination, • Providing operational and administrative support for space usage, scheduling, and bookings, • Supporting onboarding and offboarding processes from a space, systems, and logistics perspective, • Supporting new staff inductions and ensuring new starters are equipped to use the space effectively, • Ensuring health & safety processes are embedded and consistently followed, • Coordinating safety training and maintaining up-to-date knowledge of regulations, • Supporting a culture of shared responsibility for safety within the Liberation Centre, • Working with the community team to ensure safety practices are values-aligned, • Supporting emergency preparedness and incident response processes, • Embodying and championing our commitment to social and economic justice, ensuring this is consistently reflected in organisational strategy, decision-making, delivery and partnerships, • Champion the organisation’s commitment to social and economic justice, ensuring this is embedded in the design and delivery of spacemaking and operational activity, and reflected in partnerships and ways of working within your remit., • Act as a role model for organisational culture and values, setting expectations within your teams and supporting colleagues to apply these consistently in day-to-day practice., • Work closely with leaders across the organisation to identify opportunities to improve organisational impact and efficiency, contributing operational insight to strategic planning and decision-making., • Identify, assess and escalate risks related to operational delivery, organisational culture, and alignment with stated values and principles, ensuring timely mitigation within your area of responsibility., • Lead and enable effective cross-departmental collaboration within your remit, ensuring teams are aligned, appropriately resourced, and working effectively towards shared organisational goals., • Foster a culture of openness, care, accountability and continuous improvement within your area, contributing to wider organisational wellbeing practices., • Take responsibility for your own ongoing leadership development, and actively support the development of others, building capability and leadership within the Spacemaking and Operations function., • Provide strategic leadership on governance and risk management within your portfolio, working in close partnership with the Finance, HR and Operations team., • Lead and hold accountability for risk identification, analysis and mitigation, ensuring risks to strategic objectives are anticipated, escalated and managed effectively, • Maintain oversight of risk across your area, ensuring robust systems, controls and practices are in place and consistently applied, • Ensure strong organisational compliance with TAA policies and practices, taking responsibility for their effective implementation, continuous improvement and alignment with wider organisational standards, • The Liberation Centre runs smoothly, safely, and reliably day-to-day, • Staff and community members experience the space as welcoming, accessible, and well cared for, • Operational systems are efficient, compliant, and low-friction, • Space improvements are intentional, values-led, and responsive to user needs, • You are passionate about, and committed to, creating a more fair, just and equal world., • You believe in the potential of young people to challenge the status quo and are dedicated to helping them become more powerful citizens., • You’ve got a deep understanding of, and a personal relationship with, issues of social justice. From racism to the housing crisis to climate justice, you’ll be aware of how systemic injustice operates in our society, clued-up and well-informed on the big issues of our time, and committed to changing them., • You’ll be comfortable managing a “to-do” list of competing priorities and balancing your workload to meet competing deadlines., • You’re a sensitive and thoughtful relationship-builder who is interested in building a network of relationships to support the Advocacy Academy’s work. You’re a great listener, and remember people’s names, faces, and stories., • You’re a confident written and verbal communicator, who is comfortable with tailoring communication to reach a diverse range of audiences and stakeholders., • 3-5+ years’ experience in operations management, ideally including leadership responsibility for teams, workflows, or service delivery., • Comfortable operating as the senior operational lead on site when required, maintaining full delivery responsibility and ensuring clear communication and escalation pathways., • Demonstrated experience in facilities management and/or IT systems coordination, with an understanding of how operational infrastructure supports organisational effectiveness., • Working knowledge of operational tools and systems (e.g. Microsoft Excel / Google Sheets, Canva, and similar platforms), with willingness to learn and adapt to new systems as needed., • Experience supporting or developing operati...
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