Head of Leadership & Career Acceleration | Voluntary role

About WIBF

Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF) is entering one of the most exciting periods in its history.

As we transform into the UK's leading career-long ecosystem for women across Financial Services and finance, we are reimagining how careers are developed, accelerated and supported.

Career Acceleration sits at the heart of that ambition. We believe the future is about much more than traditional learning programmes. It is about creating a connected ecosystem that combines world-class leadership development, AI-powered career support, mentoring, sponsorship, career opportunities and personalised guidance to help women navigate every stage of their careers.

The Head of Leadership & Career Acceleration will lead that journey. You'll build a volunteer team to design, develop and lead WIBF's Career Acceleration proposition, creating a market-leading portfolio of leadership development programmes, establishing WIBF as a leader in AI capability development, and building the foundations for an AI-powered career ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

Career Acceleration Strategy

• Own WIBF's Career Acceleration proposition.
• Develop a multi-year roadmap covering career support from early career through to executive leadership.
• Ensure alignment with WIBF's strategic priorities.
• Continuously assess market trends, employer needs and member feedback.

Leadership Acceleration

• Lead the design and delivery of early career, mid-career, executive and Board readiness programmes.
• Develop sponsorship programmes, masterclasses and leadership workshops.
• Work with corporate partners and subject matter experts to ensure programmes remain best in class.

AI-Powered Career Engine

• Lead development of WIBF's AI-powered Career Engine.
• Work with technology partners to develop personalised career planning, skills assessment, learning recommendations, mentoring and sponsorship matching, career opportunity matching and AI career coaching.
• Create and oversee a phased implementation roadmap.

Jobs Board & Career Opportunities

• Own WIBF’s existing Jobs Board and the third-party relationship.
• Optimise WIBF's existing Jobs Board.
• Increase employer engagement and member usage.
• Develop the long-term strategy to evolve the Jobs Board into a broader career opportunities platform.

Partnerships

• Build relationships with learning providers, universities, AI and technology partners, executive search firms, employers, coaching organisations and accreditation bodies.

Commercial Development

• Develop commercially sustainable propositions with Corporate Partnerships and Commercial Partnerships.
• Support premium member offerings and long-term revenue growth.

Measurement & Insight

• Define success measures including participation, career outcomes, satisfaction, engagement and commercial performance.
• Use insight and data to drive continuous improvement.

AI Learning & Capability

• Own WIBF's market-facing AI learning and capability strategy, positioning AI as a core leadership skill for the future of Financial Services.
• Working with specialist partners, develop commercially sustainable AI learning propositions aligned to WIBF's strategic priorities.
• Build strategic partnerships with AI providers, universities and technology organisations.
• Ensure AI capability is embedded across all leadership development programmes.

Leadership

• Provide strategic direction and leadership to a small team, setting clear objectives, prioritising activities, and ensuring alignment with the organisational KPIs and objectives.
• Coach and develop others, promoting accountability and supporting effective collaboration and decision-making.
• Uphold and role model WIBF’s behaviours, leading by example across all WIBF volunteers.

Essential Experience

We're looking for someone who can bring the following impactful capabilities to this role:

• Significant senior-level learning and development, leadership development or talent experience, including personal accountability for designing and delivering a multi-level portfolio of programmes or propositions.
• Evidence of taking a learning or leadership proposition through the full lifecycle: needs analysis, design, business case, delivery, evaluation and continuous improvement.
• A strong track record of delivering measurable learner, career, organisational or commercial outcomes
• Experience of commissioning, selecting and managing external learning providers, specialist partners or faculty, including setting quality standards and holding partners to account for delivery.
• Experience of leading cross-functional teams and influencing senior stakeholders
• Commercial acumen, evidenced through developing a business case, budget, pricing approach, revenue-generating proposition or commercially sustainable partnership.
• The ability to move between strategy and hands-on delivery, prioritise a broad portfolio and create momentum with limited resources in a voluntary or purpose-led environment.

Desirable experience:

• Financial Services or another regulated, complex professional-services environment.
• Digital learning platforms, AI-enabled learning, HR technology or technology product development, including working effectively with technical partners.
• Executive education, career coaching, sponsorship, mentoring or Board-readiness programmes.
• Designing inclusive learning experiences and applying diversity, equity and inclusion principles to programme design and delivery.
• Working with membership bodies, charities, volunteer-led organisations or professional communities.

At WIBF, we believe better leadership comes from broader perspectives. We actively welcome applications from people of every gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, faith and lived experience. If you can evidence all of the mandatory requirements but do not meet every desirable criterion, we still strongly encourage you to apply.

Time Commitment

This is a voluntary leadership role requiring approximately 4–6 hours per week. As WIBF continues to grow, we anticipate that a number of voluntary leadership roles will evolve into paid opportunities where commercially sustainable. 

TO APPLY

Please email your CV and a short cover letter (max one A4 page) to our recruitment team at [email protected].

We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and interviews will be arranged as suitable candidates are identified.