Senior Advisor – National Digital Infrastructure

We don’t just talk, we do. Lead the change with us.

At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, we work with political leaders around the world to drive change. We help governments turn bold ideas into reality so they can deliver for their people. We do it by advising on strategy, policy, and delivery, unlocking the power of technology across all three. And by sharing what we learn on the ground, so everyone can benefit. We do it to build more open, inclusive, and prosperous countries for people everywhere.

We are a global team of over 800 changemakers, operating in more than 40 countries, across five continents. We are political strategists, policy experts, delivery practitioners, technology specialists, and more. We speak more than 45 languages. We are working on over 100 projects, tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges. We’re all here at TBI to make a difference.

In a world of ever more complex challenges, we believe diversity of background and perspective is a strength. We pride ourselves on a culture that values and nurtures difference. We are dedicated to unlocking potential, not only for the countries we work in but also for each of our team members. No matter where you’re from or who you are, if you’re passionate about the transformative power of progressive politics, we invite you to build a better future with us.

Role Summary

Are you passionate about the possibilities of transforming government, public services, and economies through the power of technology? Do you see a path to progress through the collaboration between global leaders, policymakers, and technologists in meeting the challenges of tomorrow, today? Are you motivated by the challenge of creating fresh solutions with senior political leaders to bring innovative digital infrastructure to governments and emerging economies?

At the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), we work at the highest levels of government to help leaders go further and faster to make their citizens’ lives better. Moving the dial on the great global challenges of our time requires engaged, focused, and motivated leaders. When political leadership is relentlessly deployed, at the highest levels, incredible things can be achieved. Using our distinctive expertise and global outlook, our expert advisors and embedded teams advise governments all over the world in strategy, policy, and delivery, underpinned by technology.

National digital infrastructure is a critical backbone of a modern and digital government and economy, yet many countries lack sufficient strategies and policies to guide and enable effective investment and execution of elements like cloud, universal internet access, and compute. To support our ongoing and growing work in this area, TBI is looking for a Senior Advisor on national digital infrastructure.

This role is part of a growing team of central expert advisors in TBI’s new Global Client Solutions (GCS) team in our Government Advisory division. GCS is a hands-on centre of excellence designed to bring the best of the Institute and distribute it at scale to enhance the quality and impact of our advice to senior political leaders across a range of sectors and functional areas: strategy, policy, delivery, and technology. We provide valuable counsel, technical input, quality assurance, thought leadership, and surge capacity to support our country teams and embedded advisors. We lead the development and evolution of centralised solutions, methods, tools, and offers to ensure we have the expertise to effectively propose and respond to senior political leaders on their biggest challenges.

The Senior Advisor will report to the Senior Director for Government Innovation and AI in GCS and lead the evolution of our growing offer on national digital infrastructure.

Our work in this area ranges from cloud strategy, foundational digital and data policies, and supporting public-private partnerships and investments in new digital infrastructure projects. Our landmark partnerships include a leading cloud infrastructure and PaaS/SaaS provider where TBI is informing the evolution of technology solutions to better meet the needs of governments and citizens. In addition, universal internet access is a global imperative. We are also supporting governments to evolve policy and regulations to support investment and piloting use of new low-earth orbiting satellite (LEOS) technologies and determine the optimal means of attaining universal access and use of new internet-enabled technologies in a range of sectors.

To successfully deliver your remit, you will need to work collaboratively across the Institute.

Key Responsibilities

This is a senior role within TBI and will be held by an exceptional candidate with deep and extensive experience in government advisory and technology-enabled transformation and delivery.

Offer development and thought leadership

Lead the development and evolution of TBI’s national digital infrastructure offer strategy, defining our approach to supporting countries in developing and investing in the infrastructure backbone of a digital government and economy.

Identify and apply emerging trends and opportunities for digital infrastructure and keep TBI at the forefront of disruptive technology innovation, collaborating with the Tech Policy team to support research and publications.

Develop internal frameworks, guides, tools, playbooks, and documents which effectively capture our offer and solutions, enabling scalable team usage.

Technical leadership and expert support

Generate cohesion across technology advisory work, capture lessons learned, and develop best practices, working closely with GCS experts, sectoral leads, and the Global Director of Innovation.

Provide hands-on technical input and thought partnership to country teams in scoping, design, and delivery of digital infrastructure initiatives, including supporting infrastructure landscape assessments.

Support country directors and teams to consider, assess, and pursue national digital infrastructure initiatives as part of TBI country strategies.

Quality assure, support, and troubleshoot national digital infrastructure initiatives, ensuring country teams can access the best of TBI to support their work.

Develop and quality assure high-calibre external-facing proposal documents and deliverables.

Support country teams in maintaining effective and trusted government relationships, developing relationships with relevant country counterparts and stakeholders (e.g., ICT Ministers).

Provide expert input to country teams during workshops and implementation, resolving strategic questions as they emerge.

External engagement and partnerships

Develop and enhance relationships with leading innovators, technology companies, implementation partners, and thought leaders in the digital infrastructure space (cloud, internet, telcos).

Represent TBI at a senior level in external conversations, forums, and partnerships.

Lead engagements with existing and future strategic partners for cloud infrastructure and internet access, in collaboration with relevant parts of TBI.

Support joint strategy, partnership governance, and opportunity development with external partners.

Engage with other stakeholders such as not-for-profits, donors, media, suppliers, and agencies.

Enabling Systems

Ensure and support development of training materials and collateral to help TBI country teams and government counterparts understand digital infrastructure solutions.

Work closely with the Impact team to contribute to a learning culture that captures and utilises lessons to improve work.

Support country and regional teams in attracting and hiring top talent, mentoring and coaching new hires.

Shape and embody a positive culture that drives innovation and delivery, building strong working relationships across TBI.

Person Specification

Substantial relevant experience in governments, government advisory, or technology advisory.

Recognised expert and thought leader in digital infrastructure, with experience designing or leading digital transformation efforts in government.

Experience and understanding of public service and government functional priorities and challenges in emerging economies, with experience in Africa, Eastern Europe, and/or Asia.

Demonstrable experience in technology enterprises or programmes.

Strategic, entrepreneurial, and pragmatically optimistic, able to challenge the status quo and develop plans for successful delivery of ambitious objectives.

Outstanding management and strategy skills, able to set strategic direction, inspire teams, and be hands-on to achieve results.

Proven record in cultivating and maintaining strategic alliances and partnerships across public, social, and private sectors.

Skilled communicator and influencer, adept at speaking to senior leadership.

Comfortable navigating ambiguity and rapid growth, managing up and across hierarchies.

Comfortable representing the Institute in public forums.

Experience consulting or working in a range of developing and emerging economies, sensitive to diverse cultural and regional norms.

Experience engaging with public policy as an enabler of digital transformation (e.g., data sovereignty and privacy).

Commitment to business objectives and achieving them consistently.

Willingness to travel about 20–30% of the time to global locations.

Desirable:

Experience in end-to-end delivery of digital/tech products or services within government or private sector.

Experience in financial models and investment for large-scale digital infrastructure projects.

Apply here