RYA Job Opportunity: Director of Strategy

RYA Corporate Strap © RYA

The RYA is the national governing body for all forms of boating including; dinghy and yacht racing; motor and sail cruising; RIBs and sports boats; and windsurfing and personal watercraft, inland cruising and narrowboats. Our aim is to be the most successful sailing nation in the world and to inspire future champions, engaging with all forms of the sport.

We are a membership organisation who work tirelessly to retain and protect our members' freedom and interests, as well as working towards increasing numbers of leisure boaters and providing a number of professional boating qualifications, training courses and publications.

The RYA is ambitious in its aim and overall strategy, and although we are well on our way towards fulfilling our goals we recognise the need to continually respond to macro socio-economic changes which present themselves along our journey. We are therefore seeking a confident, articulate and highly collaborative individual to take on this new position of Director of Strategy.

The Director of Strategy will be responsible for providing overall strategic leadership, with a particular focus on the following cross-functional areas:

• Strategic Planning owning the 4-yearly cyclical process of creating the RYA Strategic Plan;
• Communications and Member and Other Stakeholder Engagement Strategy with the Head of Communications, be accountable for leading the delivery of the strategy;
• Digital Strategy with the Digital Manager, be accountable for ensuring a consistent digital strategy;
• Data & Insight with a Business Analyst, be accountable for ensuring all current and proposed RYA programmes are rooted in customer insight and have robust data proving the need and scale of opportunities, with clear measurement and evaluation metrics in place;
• Cross-Functional Projects responsible for improving the quality of our existing individual cross-functional strategies.

• Is able to convert complex strategies and ideas into simple actions;
• Is highly collaborative, with the ability to work with others who have different views and to reconcile those differences;
• Has experience of leading and managing a team and of working with multiple partners, stakeholders and others to achieve success;
• Is highly analytical and numerate;
• Has experience of using digital technologies and platforms, including social media, to bring strategy to life;
• Is extremely self-starting and self-determining, with the ability to deal with multiple priorities and levels of ambiguity; and
• Has strong influencing skills with the ability to persuade others within a multi-disciplinary team environment.

Based in Hamble, near Southampton, the role will involve some travel and attendance at events outside normal office hours for which time off in lieu will be granted.

To Apply

Please visit our website, www.rya.org.uk/go/jobs, to view the full job description and to download an application form. Completed application forms should be returned, along with an equality monitoring form, to Please note that we do not accept CVs in lieu of a fully completed application form.

Attractive salary and benefits package on offer including pension scheme, free life insurance, annual leave package of 28 days plus public holidays

Closing date for applications: 12 noon on 31st January 2019

Candidates to be available for interview in Southampton on Monday 18th February 2019

The RYA is committed to equality of opportunity. We would encourage applications from women, candidates with disabilities and ethnic minority groups who are currently under-represented at this level of post.