Could you be Open City’s new Education Director?

Open City is seeking an Education Director to lead its young people’s programmes supporting children and teenagers to learn about and advocate for better city-making as well as consider careers in design and the built environment.

After three and a half years growing our Open City Education programmes from strength to strength in London and now Birmingham, Sarah Phillips is stepping away to spend more time with her family. She will be dearly missed and we wish her all the best for this next chapter.

Location: London - North Greenwich, Design District

Hours of work: 4-5 days a week; 0.8–1 FTE, 30–37.5 hours

Salary: £50,000 to £55,000 per annum pro rata

Reporting to: Chief Executive Officer

Starting Date: As soon as possible

Contract Type: Permanent

The Education Director will lead and develop our educational programmes: Young City Makers (KS2) , It’s My City Too! (SEN), Accelerate Studios (12- 16), Accelerate (16-18) and Accelerate Alumni (18+) as well as our Youth Engagement Training, ensuring they align with our mission and effectively address the needs of the communities we serve. 

This role involves strategic planning as part of the Leadership Team, programme development, team leadership and staff management, and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. We are seeking an ambitious, organised and detail-oriented person with excellent knowledge of the UK education sector to drive the evolution of our work with and for young people to ensure they have agency to shape their built environment.

The Education Director will join the charity at a time where we are starting to expand our successful programmes across different levels of primary and secondary education, which were established in London, to other cities. The first of these is Birmingham where we have run Accelerate Studios (12-16) this autumn and will launch Young City Makers (KS2) in the Spring with preparations underway to run Accelerate (16-18) in the 2025–26 academic year. 

The role is based at Open City’s office in the Design District in North Greenwich and we envisage it as a four to five days per week job, with some expectation of evening and weekend hours where necessary. 

The closing date for applications is Monday 13 January 2025 at 12.00pm. 

For more information about the role and how to apply, please download the recruitment pack here.