All Things Urban

Meanwhile Space CIC is the pioneering social enterprise at the forefront of Meanwhile uses, creating vibrant communities by bringing temporarily redundant space into productive use. Meanwhile Space unlocks underused space for the benefit of community cohesion, place-making and enterprise. This is typified by finding wasted space, transforming unloved visible, interesting, dilapidated, difficult buildings, into something useful. People starting out struggle to find space to start and grow their creative or social enterprise. Meanwhile Space brings vacant assets into use for affordable and easy access space for startup enterprises, communities, and better places. In 2023 Meanwhile Space had company turnover of £1.2m and is currently operating a total of 6000m2, with 100 tenants, in 9 projects. Over 85% of the tenants in our projects live in the local area, and we have worked with 14 London Boroughs, primarily in outer London. As part of our forward-thinking and creative organisation, our team thrives through a culture of independence, trust and agility. We are design-led risk takers who love to adapt & move fast and use our experience and expertise to bring ideas to life - and we are all driven by our passion for the work we do to enhance and help the communities around us.

This role is a key leadership role at Meanwhile Space, working closing with the senior management staff heading up Projects and Workspace Teams, and overseeing the Marketing function. Forming part of the Senior Leadership Team along with the two Executive Directors and Operations Director, the successful candidate will develop and oversee strategies to help realise the business vision, aims and objectives. We are ideally looking for an urban strategist with a track record in the sector; potentially with a background in urban or coastal development, working for developers, local authorities, workspace providers, architects or sector consultant, and a good working knowledge of marketing and communications strategy.

The role comprises: Project Direction - Working with the Senior Project Manager and Senior Design Project Manager to allocate resources to development and consultancy projects; oversee programme and project performance. - Lead Projects Team meetings. - Oversee governance reporting; review pilot framework and develop dashboard to help teams assess performance. - Oversee stakeholder relationships where required and provide a point of escalation. Stabilisation of any projects ‘at risk’. - Provide leadership, strategic direction, guidance and coaching on project delivery, encouraging maximum performance and dedication. Affordable Workspace Portfolio - Working closely with the Senior Workspace Manager to maximise performance and efficiencies of affordable workspaces in the Meanwhile Space portfolio. - Oversee stakeholder and tenant relationships where required and provide a point of escalation. - Support the Workspace Community team to realise the ambition of a supported and connected - Support the Workspace Community and Events Coordinator to ensure that the events programme delivers against SLA requirements for each site, and that the events approach fits into the overarching business strategy for site activations. - Work with the Senior Workspace Manager and Operations Director to develop the Property and Facilities function to meet the day to day requirements of the workspaces portfolio. - Work with relevant internal stakeholders to explore the development of a separate affordable workspace brand, and oversee the development and roll out of the brand. New Business Development - Own the new business development strategy and plan; work closely with the Executive Directors to translate overarching business aims and objectives into a deliverable strategy and plan to maximise opportunities for success. - Audit and evolve processes and systems, and governance approach for new business development. - Identify and secure client and collaborative partnerships. - Work with the Projects Team to develop a comprehensive database of industry networks, events and memberships to raise awareness of the organisation, foster productive links and ultimately generate new business. This is also an opportunity to grow and nurture team members and support career development. - Assess and update any the marketing collateral and messaging. Marketing Strategy - Line management of the Marketing and Communications Coordinator; supporting learning and development and career development. - Own the marketing strategy and plan. Oversee the implementation of the plan with the Marketing and Communications Coordinator, external PR agency and any other consultants. - Work with the Marketing and Communications Coordinator on content strategy across Meanwhile Space channels and workspace channels including websites. - Attend and oversee meetings to plan content with internal stakeholders with the broad aims of raising awareness of projects and the business, increasing audiences and engagement, driving tenant recruitment and new business. Business Strategy - Work with the Senior Leadership Team to develop annual aims and objectives across the organisation, developing targets for each team to deliver against. Provide performance feedback and goal-setting; conduct annual performance assessments for team members. - Oversee delivery of the annual social impact report. Work to update the format, and collect data that is useful to the organisation, and can be used as a marketing tool. - Oversee the governance reporting process for the Project and Workspace Teams, reporting to the Senior Leadership Team on performance and against targets. - Work with senior management to allocate resources across workspaces and projects. Identify and recruit resources where required, managing need against budgetary constraints. - Review monthly management reports to have a clear idea of business performance, responding to intelligence to develop strategies across the organisation to maximise performance potential. - Use Salesforce to report on business performance. Drive improvements to the CRM systems to improve reporting and efficiencies across the business. The above is not an exhaustive list of duties and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisation, in line with the vision, mission and values of Meanwhile Space.

Experienced and thoughtful leader, excellent and nurturing people skills, business acumen with a strategic ability and exemplary work ethics, thorough understanding of project governance, techniques and methods, working knowledge of performance evaluation techniques and key metrics, outstanding knowledge of data analysis, reporting and budgeting, outstanding organisational abilities, excellent interpersonal & stakeholder relationships skills and able to resolve conflict, analytical mindset with great problem-solving abilities, understanding of marketing & PR in the lifecycle of the programmes, leading on marketing strategy. Experience: - Financial management, budgeting and cashflow - An understanding or experience of social impact reporting - Data analysis experience would be desirable - Experience working with Salesforce or similar CRM database - Demonstrable good working knowledge of marketing strategy

- Responsible to: Executive Directors - Responsible for: Senior Workspace Manager, Senior Project Manager, Senior Design Project Manager and Marketing and Communications Coordinator - Salary bracket: Band 4 (£40,000) + quarterly share of surplus scheme What you’ll get from Meanwhile Space... - A very positive and cultivating working culture - Care & investment in your career at Meanwhile Space and how you progress - Autonomy over your work, and independence - The chance to make a real impact on the society you live in and bring huge benefits to wider communities - Flexible working pattern - with a hybrid of office, on-site and remote working - Working in our amazing ‘The Hithe’ shared office space, with hot desking & full facilities - 22 days holiday + bank holidays, increasing by 1 day per year after 1 year of service - Employee Assistance Program - Monthly team-building lunches - Well-being program built to support you in the workplace Meanwhile Space is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. Meanwhile Space Values... - We like to try new ways of doing things - We are prepared to be bold and take risks - We are able to adapt our approach quickly - We’re up for the challenge To apply, send a cover letter and CV to [email protected] headed ‘Strategy Director’.

This job is available for international candidates.