Director - Strategic Partnership

70 National Wealth Fund Limited; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Career impact

Diversity & inclusion

Competitive benefits

Job summary

National Wealth Fund seeks a Director - Strategic Partnership to lead the Strategic Partnership portfolio across the UK, coordinating across regions and MCAs. You will develop senior relationships with authorities, investors and partners to unlock pipelines and enable commercially sustainable outcomes.

Based in Leeds with hybrid working, the role combines advisory and lending expertise to shape the Fund’s partnership strategy and mobilise capital for infrastructure priorities.

Qualifications

• Significant experience financing or delivering infrastructure projects.
• Experience in partnership work, advisory engagements and lending processes.
• Proven ability to negotiate complex transactions.

Responsibilities

• Lead Strategic Partnership portfolio across regions and MCAs.
• Build senior relationships with investors, authorities and partners.
• Advise on commercial and financial negotiations and risk/opportunity management.
• Represent the Fund at events and influence infrastructure agenda.

Skills

Infrastructure finance

Public sector investment

Partnership management

Negotiation

Stakeholder engagement

Leadership

Job description

Shape the Future with the National Wealth Fund At the National Wealth Fund, our mission is to swiftly and effectively mobilise trusted sector insights and investment expertise to unlock billions in private finance for projects across the United Kingdom. Providing £27.8bn of capital and an expanded mandate, we are ready to help the market invest with confidence, continue to drive forward the Government's growth ambitions. We are looking for skilled and results oriented individuals who are motivated to help us build the National Wealth Fund into an industry-leading institution. As part of the Fund’s mission to support clean energy transition and drive local and regional economic growth, the Regional Project Accelerator (RPA) function plays a key role in enabling technically complex and innovative infrastructure investments. Following HMT’s January 2025 announcement NWF has established Strategic Partnerships with Greater Manchester Combined Authority, West Midlands Combined Authority, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Glasgow City Region, with scope for potential future expansion to other MCAs and city regions. Local authorities have high ambitions and broad remits to manage and regenerate local infrastructure. The RPA function helps to unlock potential and increase shared learning across authorities in the UK and is working increasingly in partnership with Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs), city regions and local leaders to support the development of their local growth plans and investment pipelines. The Director - Strategic Partnership role is a senior, client-facing, leadership position, providing central capacity across NWF’s full Strategic Partnership portfolio. The Director will support activity across all regions, providing additional senior relationships, delivery and financing expertise, where required. They will also build broader relationships with MSAs and City Regions to identify potential future Strategic Partnerships as NWF’s portfolio evolves. The Director will bring together excellent relationship management skills, delivery knowledge and financing excellence to enable local government to enter into successful commercial and financial arrangements with delivery partners and to bridge financing gaps in sustainable ways. The role will work across our advisory and lending services, supporting the deployment of NWF’s capital and collaborating with sector and investment teams, both within NWF and within Strategic Partnerships and MCAs. RPA sector areas of focus include transport, place-based regeneration, corporate real estate and clean energy, with scope to expand as NWF’s remit evolves. This role will be based at NWF’s headquarters in Leeds, and will operate across the full Strategic Partnership portfolio, flexing across regions in response to delivery priorities, capacity needs and emerging opportunities. The role will also support relationship-building with MCAs and city regions beyond the current Strategic Partnerships, helping to shape NWF’s future partnership pipeline.

Location

Location: Hybrid working with a minimum of 3 days per week in the Leeds office

Core Responsibilities

• Represent the Fund - Cement the Fund’s reputation as a centre of excellence in local authority project financing.
• Act as the Director coordinating the Strategic Partnership portfolio of support and an ambassador for NWF by participating a industry events and conferences, using these opportunities to influence the broader infrastructure agenda, and successfully showcase NWF’s mission and purpose Build relationships across the Strategic Partnership portfolio wider MCA / city region ecosystem.
• Proactively network and engage with both internal and external senior stakeholders, to include investors, developers, banks and leading industry experts to create future commercial opportunities to enhance NWF’s reputation in the market.
• Strategically solve complex problems, draw on own expertise and identify solutions efficiently.
• Ensure authorities receive expert advice enabling them to best identify and facilitate the most commercially sustainable and appropriate outcomes effectively that align to the Fund’s principles.
• Provide flexible senior delivery capacity across the Strategic Partnership portfolio, working alongside regionally aligned Directors and drawing in expertise from across the RPA function and wider NWF team (e.g. with financing or sector knowledge).
• Support in shaping the Fund’s LA regional role, helping to attract and retain high performing talent and expertise within project and infrastructure finance and delivery, and establish NWF as a market leader in the provision of trusted, advice to authorities on project investment and delivery.
• Advise across the current and prospective Strategic Partnerships, using industry experience to support commercial and financial negotiations, identify risks and opportunities, and help MCAs and city regions progress investable propositions.
• Interface in an open, constructive, and collaborative manner with senior colleagues across NWF to share expert knowledge and experience, draft sector strategies and to fulfil the strategic mission of the Fund.

Knowledge Skills & Experience

• Significant experience in financing or delivering infrastructure projects and investments, with a focus on public sector infrastructure.
• Substantial experience of partnership working and managing advisory engagements and ideally formal lending processes; including negotiation, due diligence and review of contracts, and assessment of programme/project risks.
• Extensive experience of working with both government finance, public sector accounting, devolved governance and institutional investors.
• Must be commercially astute with demonstrable evidence of excellent negotiation skills from involvement in complex transactions.
• Be a highly skilled communicator ensuring positive representation of NWF within public sector forums.
• Collaborative team player with a commitment to NWF’s mission and contributing to the positive culture of the organisation.

Benefits

• A career with us offers a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact and work on cutting-edge technologies that will drive the UK’s future.
• We value diversity in our people and inclusion is at the heart of what we do.
• We offer competitive benefits and unique learning opportunities from combining both private and public sector skills and experience.

Diversity and Inclusion

The National Wealth Fund encourages a diverse workforce and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people.

Inclusion is at the heart of what the Fund does.

Diversity in the Fund's people and their ideas will be vital to the National Wealth Fund's success.

Appointments will be made on merit, with regard to maintaining the breadth of experience and expertise required and reflecting diversity in the broadest sense, to embrace different perspectives, characteristics and experience, as well as being broadly representative of the nations and regions of the UK.

Eligibility and Background Checks

Please note, referencing and background checks are carried out for all roles here at the National Wealth Fund.

As part of our standard hiring process, please be informed that a background check will be conducted for successful candidates in accordance with our company policy and industry best practices.

Contract & Salary

Our roles are open to full-time, part-time or job-share applicants.

Job-share applicants should supply individual CVs and a joint cover letter submitted with both applications.

Please note, that successful candidates will be offered a salary that is appropriate to their relevant experience and performance during the selection process.