Director - EPICENTER

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) seeks to recruit a highly motivated individual to work full time for our European outreach network, EPICENTER.  This role would suit someone with 5-10 years’ experience and a proven track record looking for an exciting new challenge. The individual will be leading EPICENTER in Brussels and will be given the opportunity to build on the initial successes of this exciting new network.

EPICENTER, the European Policy Information Center, is an initiative co-founded by six leading think tanks from across the European Union. EPICENTER was launched in October 2014 and its mission is to inform the EU policy debate and promote the principles of a free society by bringing together the economic expertise of its members.

EPICENTER is currently formed by Civismo (Spain), the Institut Economique Molinari (France), the Institute of Economic Affairs (UK), Istituto Bruno Leoni (Italy), the Lithuanian Free Market Institute and Timbro (Sweden). Like its members, EPICENTER is politically independent and fully privately funded.

The IEA acts as the secretariat and manages the day to day activities of the network. We are looking to appoint a Director to develop and expand EPICENTER, particularly amongst policy makers in Brussels. This individual would be employed by the IEA but would work entirely on EPICENTER. The position will be based in Brussels but will entail a small amount of travel to London (on average three days per month, but this may be slightly higher during the first few months in the role).

The role:

• Build the network as the public face of EPICENTER in Brussels.
• Head EPICENTER’s outreach in Brussels, particularly amongst policy makers in the European Institutions.
• Advocate free market solutions to policy challenges in the European Union.
• Meet with policy makers to discuss our research and briefing documents.
• Organise and run our private and public regular events programme in Brussels.
• Generally lead the rest of the team with the day to day running of EPICENTER.
• Depending on the interest and experience of the candidate, there may also be the opportunity to do some writing and work with media.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• 5-10 years’ work experience, preferably in the policy sphere
• An outstanding networker with a proven track record of building relationships
• An excellent understanding of and commitment to free-market ideas
• Self-starter with excellent self-motivational skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Fluent in English and proficient in French; additional languages beneficial
• An understanding of European legislative procedure
• Superior organisational skills and attention to detail; passion for delivering high quality and timely work
• Team oriented but the ability to work independently is vital
• Willing to work flexible and sometimes unsocial hours
• Experience working for the European Commission or the Parliament is an advantage
• Microsoft Office literate; excellent IT skills, especially Microsoft Excel and ability to learn to utilise new programmes quickly

Compensation

Salary will be commensurate with experience. The IEA provides exceptional benefits to all employees, including a personal pension which matches up to 5% of salary, death in service, critical illness, group income protection, private medical insurance coverage and 25 days paid leave per annum.

To Apply

Qualified candidates should submit a CV and a cover letter to iea@iea.org.uk with attention to Christiana Hambro, Head of External Relations.  Your cover letter should express how you learned about the position, your qualifications for the role, and your interest in EPICENTER and the IEA mission.  No phone calls, please.  While we thank all applicants in advance for their interest in this position, we are only able to contact those to whom we can offer an interview.