Managing Director

About Equality Fund Equality Fund is a global philanthropic organization dedicated to creating a more sustainable and equitable model for funding feminist and human rights movements worldwide. Since its establishment, the organization has pioneered an integrated approach that combines grantmaking, investment, and policy advocacy to direct resources toward organizations and movements advancing gender equality and human rights.

The fund operates across more than 100 countries and manages an investment portfolio of approximately $400 million, demonstrating the viability and scalability of its distinctive funding model. The organization has successfully built and tested a comprehensive approach to feminist funding that goes beyond traditional philanthropy. Equality Fund’s work spans the full continuum of capital, including grants, investments, and policy initiatives, all designed to strengthen movements working toward gender justice and human rights globally.

The organization works with diverse partners including grassroots movements, governments, multilateral institutions, and other funders to maximize impact and create systemic change. Equality Fund is now entering a critical phase of expansion and evolution. Having established its core model and proven its effectiveness at scale, the organization is focused on deepening its impact, strengthening integration across its various functional areas, and building a sustainable financing platform that can support multi-billion-dollar systemic investing.

This next chapter requires the organization to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit and opportunity-driven culture that has fueled its growth while establishing greater organizational clarity, alignment, and operational rigor to support continued scaling. About this Role The Managing Director is a senior leadership position reporting directly to the CEO with broad cross-organizational responsibility.

This role serves as a trusted strategic partner to the CEO while taking substantive ownership of the organizational conditions necessary for effective strategy execution. A central purpose of the position is to translate Equality Fund’s ambitious vision into practical, actionable plans and ensure that strategic commitments are followed through with discipline and accountability. The Managing Director will translate strategic direction into clear priorities, operating plans, decisions, and governance processes while providing practical communication throughout the organization.

The role involves bringing realism and rigor to prioritization decisions, helping the organization determine which opportunities to pursue, pause, or deprioritize as new possibilities emerge. The Managing Director will provide strategic leadership over critical enabling functions including internal communications, People and Culture, systems and operations, while connecting these internal-facing areas with externally-oriented work such as strategic partnerships, global grantmaking, investment, resource mobilization, advocacy, and innovation.

The position is designed to bridge internal and external organizational worlds, strengthen integration across functions, and help senior leaders work effectively across traditional boundaries. This is not purely a coordination function; rather, the Managing Director brings systems-thinking orientation and takes ownership of how the organization functions as a cohesive whole. The role requires both personal leadership on substantive organizational work and the ability to enable functional leaders to retain clear ownership of their respective areas.

The Managing Director must exercise sophisticated judgment about when to lead directly, when to challenge, when to convene stakeholders, and when to create space for others to exercise authority. Responsibilities Act as a trusted senior partner to the CEO, providing candid advice, constructive challenge, and practical support on organizational and strategic priorities Build strong collaborative relationships with the wider leadership group to drive alignment and effective delivery across the organization Translate the CEO’s vision and strategic direction into clear priorities, practical plans, decisions, and action across the organization Bring rigour and realism to strategy, helping close the gap between ambition and what the organization can effectively deliver Lead and personally deliver priority cross-organizational work where issues cut across functions or require executive-level ownership Bring strong political and organizational judgment to complex situations, anticipating implications and helping the leadership team navigate them with clarity Represent the CEO and Equality Fund with internal and external stakeholders when appropriate Provide strategic leadership for internal communications, promoting staff engagement and shared understanding of major decisions, priorities, and organizational developments Bring clarity and shared language to strategic direction, connecting it clearly to work and priorities across Equality Fund Play a central leadership role in Equality Fund’s cultural evolution and professionalization, ensuring people are supported as the organization strengthens its systems, practices, and readiness for scale Build trust and alignment across the organization while balancing participation and consultation with clear decision-making and accountability Support leaders and teams to absorb new priorities and ways of working without losing the creativity, humanity, and feminist values central to Equality Fund’s culture Provide strategic leadership over critical enabling functions including internal communications, People and Culture, systems, and operations Align enabling functions with externally-oriented work including strategic partnerships, global grantmaking, investment, resource mobilization, advocacy, and innovation Act as a bridge across functional areas, helping leaders identify dependencies, resolve tensions, and make integrated decisions Strengthen the leadership of others rather than replacing functional expertise or centralizing decisions unnecessarily Create conditions for distributed leadership to work effectively through clear roles, decision rights, accountability, and information flow Own and strengthen the operating rhythm of the Executive Office and senior leadership, ensuring meetings and decision processes are focused, well-prepared, and result in clear action Shape and manage the executive agenda so that the CEO’s time is focused on where her leadership adds the most value Coordinate preparation of substantive executive and governance outputs, including management reports, Board papers, executive briefings, decision materials, and strategic recommendations Synthesize complex information from across the organization into clear analysis and decision-ready materials for the CEO, senior leadership, and Board Strengthen governance processes and information flow between the CEO, Board, senior leaders, and the wider organization Maintain a strong understanding of the external environment in which Equality Fund operates and connect relevant developments, relationships, and opportunities to internal strategy and execution Work effectively across sectors and with a range of stakeholders including movements, governments, funders, investors, multilateral institutions, and other partners Support strategic thinking across Equality Fund’s different forms of capital and external work, helping the organization identify where collective approaches can create greater impact Bring sufficient external credibility and judgment to engage partners, support resource mobilization, and represent Equality Fund when required Shape strategic workforce and resource planning to ensure capacity and staffing remain aligned with organizational priorities Serve as a thought partner to leaders to make explicit choices about what to pursue, pause, stop, or deprioritize as new opportunities arise Work with leaders to anticipate and remove barriers to delivery, positioning the organization for growth and scale Requirements Substantial senior leadership experience at a comparable level with a track record of personally owning and delivering complex organizational work Extensive experience working closely with a high-vision organization and senior executives, with the confidence, judgment, and credibility to challenge, anchor, and translate vision into executable strategy Strong operational and organizational leadership experience, including prioritization, execution, systems, governance, and cross-functional ways of working Demonstrated experience leading through organizational evolution Strong coaching and conflict facilitation skills, able to build coaching capacity across the organization and help surface, navigate, and resolve tension constructively Background in organization development (noted as a strong plus) Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to personally produce high-quality executive and Board-level reports, briefings, analysis, and recommendations Strong experience in internal communications and the ability to communicate strategy, organizational decisions, and change with clarity, judgment, and care A track record of working laterally across senior teams, integrating different strategies and functions, resolving tensions, and moving complex decisions into action Strong cross-cultural competence with an adaptive, growth-oriented mindset suited to working in complex global environments, across diverse teams, geographies, and contexts Comfort engaging externally with movements, governments, funders, investors, and other partners, including experience supporting fundraising or resource mobilization Knowledge of feminist funding, gender justice, global development, or a closely related field (noted as valuable) Strong judgment, self-awareness, and relational intelligence with a thoughtful approach to power, positional authority, and distributed leadership The ability to thrive in an ambitious, creative, and evolving organization where there may not be an established playbook, combining imagination with pragmatism and a strong bias toward delivery Openness to candidates from adjacent sectors provided they bring a strong understanding of power, equity, participation, and feminist values Benefits No specific benefits listed in the job description ImpactAlpha’s hard-working, AI-powered jobs bot generated this snappy summary from its original post.

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