Managing Director, Discovery and Insight

TED Conferences•New York, NY

About The Position

The Managing Director, Discovery and Insight leads Audacious's global search for ambitious ideas and changemakers — finding, testing, and building the case for the ideas and leaders most worth backing each funding cycle. This role owns end-to-end curation, application, and diligence activities, ultimately leading to recommendations for the cohort of finalists selected annually. The Managing Director's work is centered on: a strategy informed by continuous learning about systems-level impact and Audacious' unique role within it; deep collaboration with applicants, donors, and partners nurtured over time; and leadership of a strong team to sustain the work. Each year, the Discovery and Insight team conducts a global search to identify nonprofit ideas that are: ● Innovative and offer a unique approach to a significant problem with the potential to shift the status quo or the system they operate within ● Proximate & Community-Oriented in leadership and decision-making structure (i.e., led by those who intimately understand the problem/opportunity, incorporating impacted communities in decision-making, led by someone who has direct experience in/with the community served) ● Approaching an inflection point or needing a significant capital inflow to catalyze a differentiated level of impact that they haven’t received support for yet (rather than support for ongoing operations) ● Thoughtfully ambitious ideas that both inspire and convince — have an exciting, breakthrough vision (‘inspire’), clear outcomes, and evidence that the idea will have a significant and concrete impact (‘convince’)

Requirements

A leader who has set strategy in fast-paced, entrepreneurial environments, and who can hold their own in rooms both with ultra-high net worth individuals and issue experts and with their own team, making consequential decisions grounded in clear principles and with conviction
Strong generalist fluency across geographic, social-change and innovation domains with the maturity and credibility to engage experts across them
Experience building and developing teams, leading change management efforts, and operating through influence across a senior leadership group
Access to, and standing within, networks across the social-change and social-innovation ecosystem

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with multiple models across the sector — funder-collaborative platforms and other philanthropic sourcing and investment mechanisms
Experience in multinational and culturally diverse organizations
Strong mission orientation, high integrity leadership, alignment with Audacious’ values
Creative, team-oriented, and collaborative, willing to pitch in where needed
Intellectually curious; a quick study who stays current on social change and emerging trends in philanthropy, and can lead on ways to evolve our work
Confident without certainty; decisive without rigidity
Judgment to lead through influence rather than ownership

Responsibilities

Set and evolve the sourcing and curation strategy.
Advance sourcing and curation strategy for each cycle, forming a clear point of view on where Audacious should be learning, looking, collaborating, and why, ultimately carrying that strategy forward across cycles
Develop a “future-oriented” approach by monitoring and anticipating emerging trends and innovations that Audacious actively engages with or responds to
Actively capture insights and lessons learned to refine and improve Audacious's sourcing and curation activities annually
Lead selection and diligence.
Apply the sourcing and curation strategy to identify the ideas most worth Audacious's attention - deciding what advances into the application stage, and bringing along multiple stakeholders and inputs along that decision-making process
Lead diligence on selected organizations, rigorously testing readiness, viability, and fit within Audacious's portfolio
Build the recommendation — evidence, rationale, and risks included — that carries an idea into finalist selection
Cultivate and steward the partners who bring ideas to Audacious.
Surface strong ideas by building genuine, ongoing relationships with social sector leaders, including funder and intermediary partners (incl. sourcing networks, collaboratives, and others)
Steward key partner relationships by developing a deep understanding of each stakeholder’s goals, priorities, and aspirations
Maintain stakeholder relationships continuously, within and across cycles, to ensure trust and rapport among all actors
Represent Audacious's point of view in the field, using that standing to draw the most ambitious organizations and ideas toward the platform and to create richer opportunities for sector collaboration
Build and nurture a team that explores the frontier of audacious social change.
Lead the Discovery and Insight vertical and its resourcing strategically, matching capacity to where the real work sits and bringing in the right technical expertise when needed
Develop people who can source, diligence, and hold partner relationships credibly in their own right — building a team of strong practitioners so Audacious's discovery capacity grows beyond any single person
Effectively steward relationships and actively collaborate with key Audacious partners (e.g., The Bridgespan Group) with whom we partner year-round