Role Number: 8466
Ending child marriage. Realising girls’ rights and futures.
Girls Not Brides is a global partnership with a singular purpose: to end child marriage. We envision a world where girls in all their diversity decide if, when, and whom to marry and where their rights and futures are fully realised.
To achieve this urgent goal, we’ve built a movement of more than 1,400 grassroots, national, and international organisations across nearly 100 countries. We know we can achieve more together than we ever could alone, which is why we mobilise, equip, and influence our ecosystem to address the political, social, legal, and economic conditions that allow the practice to persist. Inspired by shared purpose, we will influence systems change, harness collective power, and build a future free from child marriage.
We are seeking an inspiring and dynamic Chief Executive to lead Girls Not Brides through its next phase. This is a rare opportunity to guide a global partnership with deep reach, strong credibility and the potential to accelerate lasting progress towards a world where child marriage is history. As Chief Executive, you will be the external face, strategic leader and organisational head of Girls Not Brides. Reporting to the Board, you will set direction, strengthen performance, sustain critical partnerships, and ensure the organisation has the internal clarity, culture and capability to deliver. You will represent Girls Not Brides with governments, funders, multilateral institutions, civil society partners and the wider movement to end child marriage, while opening new partnerships, allies and resource streams.
Leadership of Girls Not Brides is an opportunity to bring conviction, judgement and humanity to one of the defining girls’ rights challenges of our time. You will be an accomplished external-facing civil society leader, with deep fluency in girls’ rights, gender or a related development field, strong political judgement, exceptional relationship-building skills, and the credibility to engage across grassroots organisations, governments, funders, faith and cultural leaders, and multilateral spaces. Above all, we are seeking a values-driven leader with an unwavering commitment to ending child marriage, a belief in collective strength, and the informed agility to lead in a complex and changing landscape.
If you are an exceptional leader with the conviction, credibility and strategic clarity to help realise a future free from child marriage, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Girls not Brides has retained the services of Perrett Laver to help identify the widest possible field of suitable candidates and to assist in the assessment of candidates against the requirements for the role.
Girls Not Brides operates as a global remote organisation. Our work and partnerships are global, and we welcome exceptional candidates wherever they are, with a preference for those based in London or in a comparable time zone. The role involves up to 30% international travel.
The salary for this role is competitive and commensurate with experience. We are proud to offer a benefits package built to support a global team across a diversity of needs and life circumstances. It includes a workplace pension, generous annual leave alongside organisational holiday closures, and family and parental provision designed to support people through the moments that matter most. We invest in our people's wellbeing, and offer real flexibility in how and where the work gets done.
To apply, please submit a CV and cover letter, detailing how you fulfil the role description and personal specification below.
The deadline for applications is Wednesday 15th July 2026, 9:00am BST.
For a confidential informal conversation about the role please contact valentina.serra@perrettlaver.com.
Longlisted candidates will be invited to Perrett Laver interviews over July and August 2026, and formal interviews with Girls Not Brides are expected to take place late August/early September 2026.
Should you require access to these documents in alternative formats, please contact freya.coombes@perrettlaver.com.
If you have comments that would support us to improve access to documentation, or our application processes more generally, please do not hesitate to contact us via accessibility@perrettlaver.com.
Girls Not Brides exists to expand the choices available to girls everywhere, and we hold ourselves to that same standard internally. We are committed to a partnership and a secretariat that reflect the communities we serve and the futures we are working toward. We particularly welcome applications from candidates with lived proximity to the contexts where child marriage persists, and from those whose experience has been gathered outside conventional pathways. We will make reasonable adjustments at every stage of this process.
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