Regional Director West

EIT Food

Netherlands, Germany or France

ABOUT EIT FOOD

EIT Food is Europe’s leading food innovation network, working to make the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted by consumers. Established by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in 2017, EIT Food is a fast-growing partnership organisation focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation in the food sector.

EIT Food is a member organisation bringing together key industry players, agri-food startups, research centres and universities from across Europe representing the food value chain in Europe. In addition to thematic leadership, EIT Food is also responsible for coordinating a multi-million euro EU grant allocation from the EIT and distributing it among partners and stakeholders for the implementation of projects.

Visit our website: https://www.eitfood.eu.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Outline of the role:

We have structured EIT Food to serve three regions, broadly aligned to macro food system dynamics – South, North & East, and West. Our three Regional Directors are responsible for developing our community in each region, including growing our partnership and bringing people and organisations into the community who are focussed on food system transformation pathways. The Regional Directors do this at a national level, engaging governments, NGOs, policy influencers and funders, and at a regional level, engaging companies, universities, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders. They also develop opportunities for funding through their national and regional relationships, working with leaders across EIT Food to build proposals.

The three Regional Directors work in alignment with others in the Partnership team and with our Impact teams, so that our programmes and projects are delivered brilliantly wherever we operate. Our Regional Directors are also responsible for hosting our colleagues across our regional offices and hubs. They provide a point of leadership for our teams in the region, ensuring that everyone has a local team to be part of regardless of other alignments within the organisation.

Each Regional Director has a team of Key Account Managers and Ecosystem Managers to engage our partners and community and recruit new members. Their team also includes a regional communications and events specialist, as well as dotted-line operational teams.

A successful Regional Director creates and manages a thriving community across their region, with highly engaged national stakeholders and a broad mix of partners representing all actors in the food system. They grow the partnership in line with our objectives and create a pipeline of funding opportunities which support both EIT Food and our partners to grow our impact and deliver a broad range of innovation activities. The Regional Director creates a strong hosting culture across the EIT Food offices in their region, so that all our colleagues feel at home wherever they are employed, whatever role they perform for EIT Food.

Responsibilities

The key responsibilities of the Regional Director are as follows:

Strategic Leadership:
- Develop and implement their regional engagement plan, to develop relationships with national and regional stakeholders and organisations, in alignment with overall EIT Food objectives. The plan will identify and capitalize on regional opportunities to enhance EIT Food’s innovation capacity and impact.
Partnership Growth:
- Through a structured partnership recruitment plan, engage the leading companies, universities, NGOs and other organisations in the food system within the region. Build a pipeline of potential partners, and with the other regional directors, run an effective partner recruitment process, which brings complementary organisations into the partnership.
Stakeholder Engagement:
- Establish and maintain strong relationships with key national and regional stakeholders, including businesses, universities, research institutions and government bodies. Ensure we are engaging influential national figures, such as policy makers and advisors, EU representatives and national political figures who shape the agri-food agenda at the national and European level.
Team Leadership:
- Lead, mentor and manage a regional team of Key Account Managers, Ecosystem Managers, Communication and events professionals to build and engage the community across the region;
- Across the offices in the region, build an open, collaborative team culture, which welcomes people across EIT Food, and creates a nurturing environment for everyone, regardless of their role or team.
Operational leadership:
- Work with the core enabling services of EIT Food such as HR and finance, to ensure we have the appropriate support our regional offices and legal entities;
- Ensure that there is full visibility of regional pipeline for new partners and funding opportunities. The Regional Director is responsible for the quality of the pipeline and to produce accurate forecasts versus target for revenue targets.
Contribute to the overall success of the Partnership Team:
- Work with fellow Regional Directors and others within the Chief Partnership Officer’s team to maximise the potential for partnership, regional impact and influence, income generation and partner satisfaction.

As Regional Director West, you are responsible for eleven countries (see below). You will report to the Chief Partnership Officer (CPO), who is a member of the Executive Board of EIT Food, and you will be a member of the Leadership Team, alongside all other EIT Food Directors.

The countries in our West Region are: United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg, Switzerland and The Netherlands, with teams on the ground in Belgium, France, Germany, UK, and the Netherlands. We have offices in Belgium, and Germany and virtual working in UK, France and the Netherlands.

PROFILE

Qualifications and experience:

This is a Director level role and will be a member of our Leadership Team, with both individual accountability for regional performance, and shared accountability for the performance of EIT Food across a set of shared KPIs. You should have strong, demonstrable experience of leadership and capabilities which will enable you to work at this level and be able to articulate how your experience and capabilities relate to the requirements of this role.

You may be a Director with a statutory role on one or more legal entities. You should be comfortable with this level of role. We expect this means 5 plus years in senior leadership roles at executive board or similar level, building the capabilities needed to set strategy, manage a complex team, collaborate across a matrixed organisation, and take on challenging targets;
You will need a strong understanding of the agri-food ecosystem within the region, as you will need to lead on the prioritisation of your partner recruitment plan, and to be able to reach out to stakeholders independently as you step into the role;
Excellent networking and relationship building skills, comfortable travelling across the region, opening doors directly and through our partners to build the network. You will need to demonstrate you deeply understand partnerships and networks, and that you have a clear approach to building and maintaining these, built on experience. We expect that you will have worked directly in a partnering organisation before, although equivalent experience may give you the core skills you can transition into this role;
Your team covers all countries across the region, and your mentoring and support is vital to balance their workload, open doors so they can engage, and to stay focussed on the plan. You will need to show that you have successfully managed a distributed team in a challenging account-management environment and know what it takes to create a thriving team dynamic;
You will be on our senior Leadership Team, so you need to be a strong collaborator. Easy to say, harder to prove, so experience in matrix organisations will be a big help; You’ll also need very strong communication and presentation skills, as you will be on the front line externally representing EIT Food, and engaging colleagues and collaborators from many different cultures and backgrounds;
As a multi-national organisation, most internal work is conducted in English, as are our Partner forums and events, so you need to be fluent. Other regional languages are a plus.

WHAT WE OFFER

Working at EIT Food means joining a team of like-minded individuals who are dedicated to creating a better future through food innovation. We cultivate a culture of collaboration, inventiveness, inclusivity, and constructive feedback. All employees are encouraged to contribute their ideas and expertise towards our mission of creating a more sustainable and inclusive food system.

Together, we're making a real impact on the food industry and we're looking for talented individuals like you to join us.

As a valued member of our team, we'll provide you with a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package.

CONTRACT TYPE

Full-time permanent position.

LOCATION & TRAVEL FREQUENCY

This is a hybrid role based in a Western EU country with a priority being given to the Netherlands, Germany or France. Frequent travel within Europe required.

APPLICATION

Interested candidates are asked to upload their CV and Cover Letter in English in electronic format to CV Warehouse before 04.07.2024.

Shortlisted candidates may be invited for an interview and may be asked to prove their background, qualifications, skills and experiences by providing relevant documents.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

EIT Food is an equal opportunity employer, offering each candidate matching the minimum obligatory qualifications and experiences an equal chance in employment and promotion procedures. If you have any special requirements you want us to take into account during the recruitment process for your personal situation, please let us know in your cover letter.

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