Strategy and Implementation Consultancy, DRF Labs

Position description

Duration: 6 months (up to 100 fee days), with possible extension

Start date: August 2025

Location: London-based (embedded with the Centre for Disaster Protection team)

Contract type: Consultancy or secondment via affiliated organisation

Candidate profile: Experienced strategist and implementer with a track record of launching and operationalising complex initiatives in development, finance, or innovation environments

Remuneration: Based on experience

Submission deadline: 23rd July 2025

Background to the Centre

The Centre for Disaster Protection (‘the Centre’) works to prevent disasters devastating lives, by helping people, countries, and organisations change how they plan and pay for disasters. We focus on disaster risk financing to help ensure that money and plans are in place before a disaster strikes, so that the poorest and most vulnerable people are better protected. We are committed to work in partnerships across sectors and geographies to drive more impactful and more equitable disaster risk finance that leaves no one behind. Specifically, through a focus on: 

 

• Delivering excellent client outcomes and promoting lasting disaster risk finance expertise. We provide clients with impartial and evidence-based advice, quality assurance and training that meets their needs and drives more effective disaster risk finance. 
• Quality evidence and learning. We work to strengthen the evidence base for prearranged financing and document and share what shows the greatest potential to achieve system change.  
• Impactful communications and global policy engagement. We seek to engage and influence through evidence-led policy and inclusive policy dialogue that bridges both ‘local to global’ and the humanitarian development climate nexus, targeting the bottlenecks key to effect transformative change of the international crisis financing architecture. 

 

Additionally, we are focused on building effective systems and processes for people and operations that support the Centre to rapidly, yet strategically, scale and grow in a way that supports our people to do their best work through safe challenge, promoting and integrating diversity, equity and inclusion.

 

The Centre is funded with UK aid through the UK government. Read more about us in our updated strategy (2022-2025) and find out more at www.disasterprotection.org.

About the role

The Centre for Disaster Protection is establishing a new research & development function – DRF Labs – to address key technical and operational barriers to scaling high-quality, pre-arranged disaster risk financing (DRF), particularly in lower-income and fragile contexts.

The DRF Labs function will provide a dedicated platform to co-develop practical, public-good tools and approaches that can improve the design, implementation, and scale of disaster risk finance.

This work will be delivered with and for problem holders – including governments, development insurers, multilateral banks, domain experts, and other stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of disaster risk financing.

We are seeking a Strategy and Implementation Consultant to work directly with the Labs Project Lead and Senior Leadership over a 6-month period during the start-up phase of the Labs program. The consultant will play a central role in shaping and delivering the Labs function – helping to design its core processes, build strategic partnerships, shape an initial project pipeline, and support early implementation.

This is a hands-on, strategic delivery role for someone with deep experience building new functions or initiatives in complex policy, finance, or innovation environments, and delivering impactful projects in multi-stakeholder environments.

Scope of work

The consultant will report to the DRF Labs project lead and support the function’s development and delivery across three key areas:

1. Establish DRF Labs as a functioning innovation platform

• Support the development of the DRF Labs approach and operating model, including project governance, design processes, and delivery workflows.
• Help shape and communicate the value proposition of DRF Labs for internal and external communication products.

2. Stakeholder and partnership engagement

• Support engagement with stakeholders and potential delivery partners (e.g. governments, IFIs, development insurers, research organisations, and service providers).
• Work with problem holders and practitioners to understand technical issues and capabilities in detail, and support the design and facilitation of co-design activities with relevant stakeholders to develop suitable technical solutions.

3. Project pipeline development and implementation

• Help to scope and develop an initial portfolio DRF Labs projects in consultation with internal teams and external partners.
• Provide strategic and operational input into the launch of projects, including project design and delivery.

• Support project coordination and delivery across internal teams and external contributors during early project implementation.

Specific areas of support, deliverables and timelines will be agreed pending initial discussions with the selected candidate.

Qualifications

Competencies

• Project design – demonstrated ability to scope, design, and operationalise complex projects in dynamic, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Project delivery – proven experience developing and managing project pipelines, building strategic partnerships, and coordinating across teams to deliver high-impact outcomes.
• Creative problem-solving and strategic thinking – ability to analyse complex challenges, identify strategic opportunities, and design innovative, practical solutions in evolving contexts.
• Communication – skilled in translating complex technical concepts into clear, persuasive messages tailored to diverse audiences, enabling alignment and informed decision-making.

Application instructions

Application Process

Interested applicants should apply via DAI’s recruitment portal.  All applications must include a concise CV as well as a covering supporting statement (no more than 500 words) demonstrating relevant experience and qualifications. 

Any questions about consultancy should be sent to: [email protected] (please do not send applications to this email address). 

The deadline for receiving applications is 11:59 pm (UK time) on 23rd July 2025.  

Contracting

Type of consultancy arrangement

We are open to engaging the Strategy and Implementation Consultant through either:

• Direct consultancy contracts with individual consultants
• Secondment via firms or organisations with relevant expertise

In either case, the consultant will work directly with the DRF Labs project lead and be embedded as part of the Centre team in London for the duration of the contract.

Proposals may be submitted by individual consultants or by organisations nominating a named individual for secondment. Selection will be based on the qualifications and experience of the proposed individual, regardless of contracting mechanism.

Duration of consultancy

• Start date: August 2025
• Duration: 6 months, or up to 100 fee days, with possible extension

Fee Rates and Payments  

Remuneration will be based on individual experience and skills while, as the Centre is a UK aid-funded project, all rates for consultants and staff are subject to controls.

Payment  

Fees will be payable on actual usage of days evidenced by timesheets, subject to completion and approval of key deliverables due at the invoicing point.   Any expenses will be paid on actual costs (against receipts) using an agreed invoice and timesheet template.   

Correctly submitted invoices will be paid within 30 days of receipt of invoice and/or approval of relevant work (whichever is the later).    

Negotiation and finalisation of commercial terms  

DAI on behalf of the Centre reserves the right to negotiate on any aspects of the proposed costs and payment and is not bound to accept any offer.

DAI Eligibility Criteria

All individual(s) shortlisted will undergo an initial eligibility criteria assessment. This includes vetting of the organisations in line with terrorism checks, company history of improper conduct, any legal acts against the organisation(s) and initial vetting of proposed personnel. Where disqualification factors are discovered, the application may be rejected without notification.

Successful individual(s) will be subject to detailed vetting analysis and relevant reference checks, and, in the case of organisations, also a due diligence assessment through DAI’s Management Capacity Assessment Tool (MCAT). This will include an assessment of:

• Organisational details 
• Safeguarding policies, procedures and systems 
• Financial management policies, procedures, practises and systems  
• Duty of care
• Modern Slavery policies and procedures

Final award of contract will not be confirmed until these checks are complete. 

Intellectual property

Any Foreground Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) arising out of the performance of project will belong to the Managing Agent of the Centre for the purposes of awarding to the Centre perpetual, irrevocable licence to use, sub-licence or commercially exploit such IPRs in the delivery of its mission and likewise to the Centre’s funder, the UK FCDO. The Management Agent, on behalf of the Centre, will provide the Service Provider right to use such IPRs and other Centre IPRs to the extent needed to perform their obligations under this project. IPRs relating to any background intellectual property drawn upon by the Service Provider in delivery of the assignment shall remain with the Service Provider, who will provide the Centre (through its Managing Agent) and FCDO rights to use such intellectual property to the extent it is integrally required to enjoy their rights to use the results of the Project and the foreground IPRs.