Global Executive Director, People

About this role

Global Executive Director, People
Location: London-based but with some flexible working. Regular international travel
Reports to: Chief Executive, WaterAid UK, with a dotted line to the Global Director, WaterAid International
Member of: WaterAid Global Executive and WaterAid UK Executive Leadership Team
Budget responsibility: People function budgets (c£6m including London Office)
Salary: £110,000 per year with excellent benefits

The Opportunity
WaterAid exists to bring clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene within reach of everyone, everywhere. Achieving that mission requires an organisation where talented people are united by a shared purpose, led well and are able to perform at their best.
The Global Executive Director, People is a senior organisational leader who will help shape WaterAid’s overall direction and ensure that our people, leadership, culture and organisation are equipped to deliver it.
The role combines two important mandates: leading the People function for WaterAid UK and shaping a coherent and valued People agenda across the wider WaterAid federation. Success will require someone who can see the whole organisational and mission-focused picture, while ensuring excellence in people leadership and professional practice.

What You Will Do:
Provide Mission-Focused Organisational Leadership

• Contribute fully to the collective leadership, strategy and performance of WaterAid, looking beyond the People portfolio to what will best advance our mission.

• Help translate WaterAid’s ambitions into the organisational capabilities, leadership, culture and ways of working needed to deliver them.

• Act as a trusted strategic partner to the WaterAid UK Chief Executive and Board, the Global Director, WaterAid international and senior leaders across the federation.

• Bring clear judgement, constructive challenge and a whole-organisation perspective to complex decisions.

• Lead through relationships and influencing, recognising that progress across a federation cannot depend on formal authority alone.

• Lead major organisational development and change, helping WaterAid become more agile, connected and effective.

Build Exceptional Leadership and Culture

• Create the conditions in which people understand our purpose, take responsibility, collaborate across boundaries and perform at their best.

• Strengthen leadership quality, accountability, succession and talent development across WaterAid.

• Partner boards and Chief Executives on Board and Senior Executive level recruitment.

• Champion and embed diversity, equity and inclusion and a psychologically safe culture, grounded in WaterAid’s values. Model inclusive leadership, ensuring diverse voices are heard and valued in decision-making. Promote a culture in which people are able to raise concerns, with zero tolerance for abuse, exploitation or harassment.

Shape a Strong Global People Agenda and Lead a High Performing Team

• Set a clear and compelling direction for people and organisational development across the federation, balancing global coherence with member autonomy and local context.

• Lead and develop high-performing Global and WaterAid UK People teams with the depth, capability and confidence to deliver. Build trust, commitment and investment in a global People function that federation members value, use and help sustain.

• Ensure consistently high standards to ensure WaterAid can deliver its ambitious strategy through people and across the whole employee experience. This includes people planning, recruitment, reward, learning, employee engagement, internal communications, organisational development, leadership development and succession and diversity, equity and empowerment.

• Provide executive leadership for safeguarding, health, safety and security with responsibility for specialist teams serving the whole federation.

• Convene and guide People Team professionals across WaterAid, strengthening shared capability, learning and professional standards.

• Use evidence, insight and technology to improve decision-making, employee experience and organisational effectiveness.

• Partner with the IT Director and other senior executives to deliver our AI usage strategy, equipping colleagues with the fluency and confidence to use it in service of our mission.

Requirements
What You Will Bring
We are looking for an outstanding organisational and people leader who combines strategic breadth with deep professional credibility.
You will bring:

• Significant senior leadership experience in a complex, international organisation.

• A strong commitment to WaterAid’s mission and values and the ability to connect people strategy directly to organisational purpose and impact.

• A record of contributing to organisation-wide strategy and leadership, rather than operating solely as a functional specialist.

• Exceptional people leadership skills, with experience of building strong teams, strengthening leadership capability and creating accountable, inclusive cultures.

• Substantial expertise across organisational development, change and the major disciplines of people management.

• The ability to hold two mandates successfully, delivering excellent leadership for WaterAid UK while advancing a shared agenda across an international federation.

• The credibility and judgement to advise, support and challenge chief executives, boards and senior leaders.

• Strong cultural intelligence and experience of influencing across countries, cultures and autonomous organisations.

• The ability to build commitment and secure investment through trust, evidence and demonstrated value, rather than positional authority.

• The courage to make difficult decisions, alongside humility, curiosity and a commitment to learning.

• A strong understanding of equity, inclusion, safeguarding and responsible organisational practice.
Experience of the international development or non-profit sector, living or working in a country where WaterAid operates,…