Jobs

Turn Sector Insight into Stronger Councils and Better Lives

There has rarely been a more important – or more exciting – time to strengthen local government.

Every day, councils deliver vital services, support people through the most difficult moments in their lives, drive inclusive growth and create places people are proud to call home. As they navigate devolution, public service reform and intense financial and operational pressure, the LGA has a unique role in turning sector knowledge into practical support that improves outcomes.

We’re now seeking an exceptional Impact Director – Sector Support to lead the LGA’s national improvement offer at a defining moment for the sector. This newly configured, nationally significant role is an opportunity to shape how councils access practical, impactful and sector-led support – and to help ensure improvement is felt in services, places and people’s lives.

As a member of the Strategic Leadership Team, you will lead multidisciplinary teams spanning care and health, children and young people, peer challenge, leadership and wider sector improvement and assurance. You will build on the success of our improvement services, embedding a sharper, more connected offer: listening deeply to councils, turning intelligence into practical products and targeted interventions, and feeding learning back into policy and advocacy so that local experience shapes national decisions.

Working closely with the Impact Director – Sector Voice, you will lead the development of a stronger cycle of evidence, influence and delivery: using insight from councils to shape proactive support, ensuring national policy is grounded in the realities of local delivery, and continually improving what the LGA offers its members.

This is both an external and internal leadership role. Externally, you will be visible with councils, elected members, chief executives, professional bodies, government departments and national partners. Internally, you will bring teams together, build confidence across professional boundaries, strengthen performance and help create a more collaborative, outcome-focused culture across functions that are being brought closer together.

We’re seeking a strategic, politically astute and delivery-focused leader who can lead transformation in a complex organisation, command credibility across local government, and turn insight into practical support that councils value and use.

You will bring:

• Deep understanding of local government, sector-led improvement and the support councils need to strengthen performance and outcomes.
• Experience of leading multidisciplinary teams, significant programmes and complex change across professional boundaries.
• A track record of turning sector insight into practical improvement products, interventions, peer support, learning and development.
• Strong political awareness and the ability to build trusted relationships with councils, members, senior officers and national partners.
• The ability to lead culture change, improve performance and bring together teams that have historically worked in different ways.
• A commitment to evidence-led improvement, innovation, measurable impact and continuous learning from the sector.

You may have built your career in local government, the wider public sector, a national improvement body, a membership organisation or another complex public service environment. We also welcome applications from those interested in joining us on secondment. Above all, you will combine strategic leadership with the ability to make improvement practical, credible and useful for councils facing real-time pressures.

There is nowhere quite like the LGA. This is a rare opportunity to shape a new national role and lead an improvement offer that is informed by the sector, developed with the sector and focused relentlessly on the outcomes members need.

Join us and help councils build the confidence, capability and resilience to improve, innovate and deliver for their communities.

For further information contact frazer.thouard@gatenbysanderson.com or elizabeth.pick@gatenbysanderson.com or visit https://lga.gs-attract.com/.

Closing date: 23.59 Sunday 18 October 2026

Company: Local Government Association

Salary: up to £139,000

Location: London (Greater), London (Greater)

Sector: Corporate Services

Sector: Corporate Management Team

Sector: Regeneration and Local Economies

Job Role: Director