Partnerships & Institutional Relations Lead

Position: Partnerships & Institutional Relations Lead — The Global Risks Forum (GRF) / Nexus Governance System
Type: Institutional partnership governance, interoperability diplomacy, and neutrality-safe ecosystem relations role (non-executive; strictly non-executing)
Board: Officers may be considered for Board/Trustee nomination after serving in good standing (where permitted by governance rules and independence constraints)
Location: International (distributed, hybrid)
Term: 3 Years
Time commitment: ~12–25 hours per month (build-year cadence; surge periods around major partnership negotiations, multi-institution convenings, and recognition cycle releases)
Apply here: https://therisk.global/work/job/partnerships-institutional-relations-lead/

Context and Purpose

A whole-of-society standards-and-recognition institution only scales when it can build durable institutional relationships without capture: peer standards bodies, research networks, public authorities, industry platforms, professional associations, and civil/community institutions. Partnerships must expand adoption and legitimacy—without becoming sponsorship-driven, politically aligned, or a channel for preferential influence.

The Global Risks Forum (GRF) stewards standards, recognition, and due-process legitimacy across constituencies and regions. Institutional relations are a strategic lever: enabling interoperability of assurance languages, aligning recognition claims with peer systems, and creating structured engagement pathways that improve coherence and reduce fragmentation.

The Partnerships & Institutional Relations Lead is accountable for GRF’s institutional partnership posture: designing partnership frameworks, negotiating neutrality-safe MoUs (governance-only), ensuring partnership claims are bounded, and building a pipeline of strategic relationships that expand adoption while preserving independence.

This is governance—not execution. The role does not sell commercial services, broker deals, steer procurement, provide regulated advice, or offer endorsements. It stewards partnership governance and institutional diplomacy.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain GRF’s institutional partnership strategy: priority institutions, partnership objectives, and clear “governance-only” partnership perimeter.
• Design partnership frameworks and templates: MoUs, collaboration charters, joint working group terms, and interoperability arrangements—bounded, auditable, and non-exclusive.
• Ensure partnership claims are integrity-safe: no implied endorsement, no preferential access to recognition outcomes, and no “partnership-for-recognition” dynamics.
• Build and manage a partnership pipeline across: peer standards bodies, research networks, public authorities, professional associations, industry platforms, and civil/community institutions.
• Convene structured engagement: joint roundtables, technical alignment sessions, and shared learning cycles that reduce fragmentation and improve interoperability.
• Coordinate partnership inputs into GRF cycles: ensure partner contributions are documented, conflict-checked, and processed through normal due process.
• Enforce neutrality and anti-capture posture in partnerships: avoid exclusivity, avoid sponsor dominance, apply equal-access rules, and maintain transparent partnership governance (public-safe logs).
• Ensure competition-safe and procurement-neutral posture: partnerships must not be used to steer procurement or confer “preferred provider” status.
• Coordinate with COI/Ethics and Legal & Instruments to ensure partnership terms preserve independence and handling discipline.
• Maintain safe handling and publication discipline for partnership work: what can be shared, what must be restricted, and how joint outputs are versioned and corrected.
• Sponsor quarterly partnership review: relationship health, scope drift detection, claims misuse monitoring, and improvements to templates and governance.
• Support membership growth and seat completion by using partnerships to improve representation coverage and participation capacity (without pay-to-play).

Compensation, Remuneration, and Expenses

• Governance authority is not paid. Compensation is never linked to recognition outcomes, dispute results, enforcement actions, standards outcomes, market outcomes, or influence.
• Operational workload may be compensated (where permitted). If build-year operational work is required (partnership ops, MoU drafting cycles, convening production), any compensation must be scoped, deliverable-based, independently approved, auditable, and never linked to recognition outcomes.
• Expenses may be reimbursed where documented, pre-approved, and policy-compliant.
• Continued service depends on remaining in good standing and meeting disclosure and integrity obligations.

Opportunities for Leaders to Join

• Build the institutional diplomacy and partnership spine that makes whole-of-society standards adoptable at global scale.
• Reduce fragmentation by aligning assurance languages and recognition claims across peer institutions.
• Convene high-trust collaboration without exclusivity, capture, or politicization.
• Strong performance positions leaders for senior stewardship roles and board consideration (without implying entitlement).

Leaders Profile

We are seeking senior leaders (typically 12–20+ years) with credibility across one or more of:

• Institutional partnerships and alliances in high-integrity, high-scrutiny environments.
• Standards ecosystems, research networks, professional associations, or multi-stakeholder coalitions.
• Interoperability diplomacy and cross-institution alignment work.
• Governance drafting literacy sufficient to build bounded, auditable partnership instruments.

Capabilities and Mindset

• Neutral diplomacy: builds relationships without exclusivity or preferential access.
• Boundary discipline: keeps partnerships governance-only and prevents scope drift into execution or endorsement.
• Claims discipline: ensures partnership communications preserve meaning and avoid implied approvals.
• Handling maturity: understands controlled information and safe publication boundaries.
• Strong writing: produces clean MoUs and collaboration charters that withstand scrutiny.

Eligibility, Membership, and Independence

• Holds a primary role outside the officer seat (unless otherwise permitted) and can sustain the expected cadence.
• Willing to fully disclose relevant interests and comply with conflict-of-interest and recusal requirements.
• Not placed in a situation where service creates unmanageable conflicts or compromises neutrality.
• Accepts confidentiality, handling discipline, and communications integrity expectations.
• Commits to remain in good standing (participation, disclosures, and applicable contribution obligations).