Partnerships & Membership Development Lead

Position: Partnerships & Membership Development Lead — Global Risk Alliance (GRA) / Nexus Governance System
Type: Membership growth, partner qualification, and neutrality-safe ecosystem development governance leadership role (non-executive; strictly non-executing)
Board: Council leaders are considered for Board/Trustee nomination after joining and serving in good standing
Location: International (distributed, hybrid)
Term: 3 Years
Time commitment: ~15–35 hours per month (build-year cadence; surge periods around onboarding waves, renewals, and major convenings)
Apply here: https://therisk.global/work/work/job/partnerships-membership-development-lead-gra/

Context and Purpose

GRA’s finance-facing governance can only scale if membership growth is treated as a disciplined operating system: qualification, onboarding, renewals, seat coverage, and participation health—run with neutrality, auditability, and strict anti-capture controls. In financial services contexts, weak membership discipline creates the fastest path to reputational failure: pay-to-influence perceptions, preferential access, vendor capture, bloc dominance, and blurred lines between governance and commercial execution.

The Partnerships & Membership Development Lead is accountable for building and sustaining GRA’s membership engine across sovereign/public authorities, financial institutions, development finance, operators, academia, civil society/media, and community integrity roles. The role makes membership growth measurable and defensible—pipeline to onboarding to retention—while preserving strict non-execution firewalls and ensuring partner programs remain vendor-neutral, competition-safe, and free of implied endorsement.

This is governance—not execution. The role does not sell services, raise capital, broker deals, steer procurement, select vendors, provide regulated advice, underwrite, place, custody, operate markets, or imply endorsement.

Key Responsibilities

• Build the annual membership growth plan and quarterly targets by region and member category; treat membership growth and seat completion as core leadership KPIs.
• Maintain a measurable pipeline: outreach → qualification → fit-and-proper checks → onboarding → participation health → renewal.
• Ensure membership growth is scalable without lowering integrity standards or creating preferential access dynamics.
• Define partner and member qualification criteria: mission fit, independence posture, conflict risk thresholds, handling readiness, and competition-safe participation rules.
• Operate neutral onboarding processes that prevent pay-to-influence perceptions, vendor steering, “badge-for-money” dynamics, and implied endorsements.
• Ensure each member has clear rights, obligations, boundaries, and disclosure requirements—documented and enforceable.
• Operate Member-in-Good-Standing (MGS) lifecycle: standing verification (participation, disclosures, contribution/eligibility), renewal decisions, delinquency and cure pathways, and termination routing where necessary.
• Maintain fair, time-bounded notices and appeal routing for membership actions; ensure reasons are recorded and defensible.
• Coordinate membership records, rosters, term clocks, and seat coverage with secretariat, competence, and ethics/COI functions.
• Build participation pathways that make membership productive: working groups, reviewer pools, convenings, and contribution tracks aligned to competence controls.
• Monitor participation health: attendance, contribution quality, review throughput, and role readiness; coordinate remediation or re-seating where needed.
• Maintain geographic balance and prevent dominance by a single employer, sector, funder, or geography; enforce concentration and influence caps.
• Convene structured partnership engagement (governance-safe collaboration on standards, templates, convenings) without drifting into commercial execution or dealmaking.
• Ensure partnership announcements and public claims are accurate, bounded, and consistent with recorded decisions and disclosure posture.

Compensation, Remuneration, and Expenses

This role is designed to be trust-maximizing and capture-resistant in a financial services context.

• Governance authority is not paid. Compensation is never linked to votes, approvals, recognition decisions, enforcement actions, standards outcomes, market outcomes, or influence. No success fees. No pay-to-approve.
• Operational workload may be compensated (where permitted). Because this role can involve significant build-year operational workload (pipeline ops, onboarding systems, renewal administration, dashboards), compensation may be provided only for clearly defined operational services—scoped, time-bounded, deliverable-based, independently approved, and auditable, with conflicts safeguards.
• Expenses may be reimbursed. Reasonable, documented, pre-approved out-of-pocket expenses required for the role may be reimbursed in accordance with policy and handling requirements.
• Standing and independence apply. Continued service depends on remaining in good standing, meeting disclosure obligations, and maintaining independence consistent with integrity and conduct requirements.

Opportunities for Leaders to Join

• Build the membership growth engine that determines whether finance-facing governance can scale with legitimacy and neutrality.
• Create qualification and onboarding standards that prevent capture, preferential access, and implied endorsement in high-scrutiny financial contexts.
• Shape a global, multi-helix participation base that improves coverage and reduces single-point institutional dependence.
• Strong performance positions leaders for broader governance stewardship and board consideration (without implying entitlement).

Leaders Profile

We are seeking senior leaders (typically 10–20+ years) with credibility across one or more of:

• Membership organizations, standards bodies, multilateral networks, or professional associations operating under high scrutiny.
• Partnerships leadership in regulated or audit-heavy environments (financial services, development finance, critical infrastructure), with strong neutrality discipline.
• Governance operations, compliance-adjacent administration, or program operations requiring audit-ready documentation.
• Pipeline management and community-building in distributed international environments.

Capabilities and Mindset

• Growth with integrity: scales membership without compromising independence, neutrality, or safety.
• Neutral operator: avoids favoritism, pay-to-play dynamics, and preferential access.
• Process excellence: builds pipelines, playbooks, dashboards, and closure discipline.
• Handling maturity: understands confidentiality, market sensitivity, and safe external communication.
• Strong writing: clear onboarding materials, eligibility notices, and public-safe partnership narratives.

Eligibility, Membership, and Independence

• Holds a primary full-time role outside the council seat and can sustain the expected cadence and surge periods.
• Willing to fully disclose relevant interests (sponsorship ties, advisory roles, employer overlap) and comply with conflict-of-interest, recusal, and conduct requirements.
• Not placed in a situation where service creates unmanageable conflicts, compromises neutrality, or creates regulated-activity ambiguity.
• Accepts strict confidentiality, handling discipline, and communications integrity expectations.
• Commits to remain in good standing (participation, disclosures, and applicable contribution obligations).