Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Why this role exists
We deliver practical legal support that changes lives. To grow responsibly, we need a COO to build operational excellence and keep systems ready to scale.
What you will lead
• Financial leadership — Build, manage and monitor the annual budget; lead forecasting and cashflow; produce reports; oversee accounting, payments, payroll and invoicing; maintain strong controls and compliance; track restricted funds; support grant bids and donor reporting.
• Day-to-day operations — Maintain efficient systems across casework, admin and volunteers; design policies, SOPs and QA; oversee IT, digital tools and case management; ensure GDPR-compliant data handling; lead operational responses to risk and regulation.
• Strategy and organisational development — Work with the Executive Director on strategy; lead service development, scaling projects and national expansion; improve volunteer pathways, client experience and internal processes; provide data-driven insight for the Board.
• People, volunteers and HR — Support recruitment, onboarding and retention; develop clear HR processes and documentation; ensure supervision, wellbeing and safeguarding frameworks.
• Governance, risk and compliance — Manage risk registers and mitigation plans; lead internal audits and quality reviews; prepare Board papers; ensure compliance with legal, regulatory and charity requirements.
You’ll thrive here if you show
• Ownership and follow-through: you take responsibility and land the work.
• Planning under pressure: you bring order, rhythm and clarity.
• Bold, informed judgement: you improve systems based on evidence, not habit.
• Entrepreneurial drive: you simplify, standardise and scale what works.
• Inclusive practice: you design operations that are easier to use and safer to deliver.
• Clear communication: you turn complexity into simple actions and updates.
• Team-building and collaboration: you help staff and volunteers succeed together.
• Constant learning: you refine processes and leave usable documentation.
What you will bring
• Significant operational leadership in a non-profit, legal, community or mission-driven setting.
• Strong financial management across budgeting, forecasting, reporting and controls.
• Ability to build robust systems in a small but scaling organisation.
• Strategic, organised and analytical working style.
• Confident people leadership and clear communication.
• Understanding of governance, safeguarding, risk and regulatory compliance.
• Commitment to trans equality, dignity and client-centred practice.
Helpful extras
• Experience in legal services or legal operations.
• Managing grants or donor-funded programmes.
• Experience scaling an organisation or building new infrastructure.
• Knowledge of trans community needs and support services.
Practicalities
• Hours: part time, with occasional evenings or weekends around live moments.
• Location: Central London base with sensible hybrid flexibility.
• Reporting line: Executive Director.
• Salary: based on experience and time commitment.
The Co-Founders Mindset
We are building a trans rights revolution at the Trans Legal Clinic. We deliver work that changes outcomes for people, case by case and system by system. That calls for a particular mindset. We call it the co-founder mindset. Co-founders take the mission personally, set the pace, turn ideas into working services and campaigns, bring others with them, and make change you can point to. Co-founders are entrepreneurial: they spot openings others miss, move decisively, and create momentum. Co-founders build teams, drawing in volunteers who believe in our mission, care deeply about our clients, enjoy working with us, and keep one another going. Co-founders are bold: they are willing to innovate, to be first, and to change the status quo; they check the source, avoid assumptions, solve problems, make firm, collaborative, evidence-based decisions, and take responsibility for results. Co-founders are pioneers. If you want responsibility, pace, and the chance to pioneer new routes to justice and public impact, this is the place to build your career.
Our Recruitment Criteria
Ownership and follow-through
You are a self-starter who owns tasks and takes responsibility without waiting to be asked. You carry your work through to a tangible result. You define the problem, set a course, keep the right people informed, and deliver what you said you would.
Bold, informed judgement
You are willing to change accepted practice when the evidence supports it. You check primary sources rather than rely on assumptions, weigh real options and risks, make a clear, evidence-based, collaborative decision, and stand behind it.
Entrepreneurial drive
You spot openings other people miss and turn ideas into useful services, processes or campaigns. You move decisively and get others working on the plan alongside you with clear roles and timelines.
Planning under pressure
You keep priorities straight when time is tight. You organise people and tasks, set simple checkpoints, communicate early when plans shift and always deliver.
Inclusive practice
You design work that is easier for others to take part in with people who face barriers in mind. You identify what is getting in the way, make practical changes that remove those barriers, and check the effect with the people involved.
Clear communication
You write and speak in plain English and adjust tone and detail to suit clients, volunteers, partners and the public. You choose the right format for the moment and make it easy for people to act on what you say. You like feedback, don’t get offended and see it as a chance to improve.
Team-building and collaboration
You bring people with you and help groups perform well together. You draw in volunteers who believe in the mission and care about our clients, set shared expectations, handle disagreements well, and leave relationships stronger.
Constant learning
You improve your own practice and the system around you. You reflect honestly on what worked and what did not, learn quickly, and turn that learning into simple tools or habits that make future work better.
• Team-building and collaboration: you lead creatives and volunteers well.
• Constant learning: you test, measure and iterate.
What you will bring
• A strong portfolio showing strategy-led creative across static, motion and copy.
• Three or more years in creative communications or campaigns (agency, newsroom, charity or in-house).
• Confident in Adobe Creative Cloud and either Figma or similar; comfortable with short-form video editing and basic motion.
• Platform literacy across Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and YouTube, and working knowledge of analytics and paid promotion.
• Clear writing and an ear for tone; calm leadership and useable feedback.
• Sound judgement on reputation, privacy, GDPR and consent.
• Commitment to trans-led practice and the communities we serve.
Helpful extras
• Clinic or not-for-profit experience.
• Familiarity with gender recognition, healthcare advocacy, discrimination, housing and employment.
• Basic SEO and email automation.
Practicalities
• Hours: full time, with occasional evenings or weekends around live moments.
• Location: Central London base with sensible hybrid flexibility.
• Salary: £25,000.
• Reporting line: Executive Director.
The Co-Founders Mindset
We are building a trans rights revolution at the Trans Legal Clinic. We deliver work that changes outcomes for people, case by case and system by system. That calls for a particular mindset. We call it the co-founder mindset. Co-founders take the mission personally, set the pace, turn ideas into working services and campaigns, bring others with them, and make change you can point to. Co-founders are entrepreneurial: they spot openings others miss, move decisively, and create momentum. Co-founders build teams, drawing in volunteers who believe in our mission, care deeply about our clients, enjoy working with us, and keep one another going. Co-founders are bold: they are willing to innovate, to be first, and to change the status quo; they check the source, avoid assumptions, solve problems, make firm, collaborative, evidence-based decisions, and take responsibility for results. Co-founders are pioneers. If you want responsibility, pace, and the chance to pioneer new routes to justice and public impact, this is the place to build your career.
Our Recruitment Criteria
Ownership and follow-through
You are a self-starter who owns tasks and takes responsibility without waiting to be asked. You carry your work through to a tangible result. You define the problem, set a course, keep the right people informed, and deliver what you said you would.
Bold, informed judgement
You are willing to change accepted practice when the evidence supports it. You check primary sources rather than rely on assumptions, weigh real options and risks, make a clear, evidence-based, collaborative decision, and stand behind it.
Entrepreneurial drive
You spot openings other people miss and turn ideas into useful services, processes or campaigns. You move decisively and get others working on the plan alongside you with clear roles and timelines.
Planning under pressure
You keep priorities straight when time is tight. You organise people and tasks, set simple checkpoints, communicate early when plans shift and always deliver.
Inclusive practice
You design work that is easier for others to take part in with people who face barriers in mind. You identify what is getting in the way, make practical changes that remove those barriers, and check the effect with the people involved.
Clear communication
You write and speak in plain English and adjust tone and detail to suit clients, volunteers, partners and the public. You choose the right format for the moment and make it easy for people to act on what you say. You like feedback, don’t get offended and see it as a chance to improve.
Team-building and collaboration
You bring people with you and help groups perform well together. You draw in volunteers who believe in the mission and care about our clients, set shared expectations, handle disagreements well, and leave relationships stronger.
Constant learning
You improve your own practice and the system around you. You reflect honestly on what worked and what did not, learn quickly, and turn that learning into simple tools or habits that make future work better.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Policy Specialist (children and young people)
Are you interested in improving the lives of children and young people with a learning disability? Can you turn complex ideas into evidence-based policy? Are you a skilled communicator able to influence decision-makers? If so, we would love to hear from you!
We are currently looking for a Policy Specialist to join Mencap. This position sits within the Policy and Public Affairs teams of Mencap’s Campaigns, Advocacy and Activism Directorate (CAA). You will work closely with our influencing, information and advice, campaigning, and research work, as well as sector partners like the Disabled Children's Partnership.
This is an exciting new role to deliver policy change and enhance the rights of children and young people with a learning disability. At a key time to influence Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) education reform, we are seeking a policy specialist to shape policy work that reflects the needs and experiences of children, young people, and their families. Working within the policy team, you will be responsible for developing evidence-based policy work and influencing decision-makers.
This is a full time position (37.5 hours per week). We are flexible with your work location, but there may be some occasional travel needed to our London office or Westminster.
You will:
· Translate complex work into clear and persuasive policy briefings, consultation responses and reports.
· Work within wider coalitions of charities, building collaborative relationships and ensuring that the needs and priorities of our community are addressed.
· Develop and expand Mencap’s ‘Policy Shapers’ work, ensuring our work reflects the experiences of children and young people with a learning disability and their families.
· Support our information and advice team, briefing them on important developments, inputting into casework discussions relevant to your areas of work, and supporting the creation of public information resources.
· Represent Mencap at meetings and events, with MPs, civil servants, and sector partners.
· Identify and analyse relevant research to develop evidence-based policy recommendations.
You will bring to this role:
· Experience of working on public policy issues.
· Strong communication skills: experience tailoring your messaging to a variety of different audiences and representing an organisation.
· Experience building positive relationships and working collaboratively to achieve outcomes; able to positively challenge, negotiate and compromise.
· The ability to work on your own initiative while contributing to team priorities and sustain enthusiasm under pressure.
· Experience analysing evidence to develop recommendations.
· Knowledge the issues facing children and young people with a learning disability and/or the SEND system, as well as the wider parliamentary system.
· Passion about making the world a better place for people with a learning disability.
If you're passionate about driving meaningful change for children and young people with a learning disability and you're ready to use your policy expertise to make a real impact, please apply now with an up-to-date CV. This advert has been extended and will now close on Sunday, 4th January, 2026. Interviews are scheduled to take place via Microsoft Teams during the week commencing 12th January 2026.
Benefits
Here at Mencap, we offer an impressive range of benefits designed to support and reward our employees to ensure that our teams feel valued and appreciated.
Our benefits package offers 32 days of paid holiday (including bank holidays, pro rata), along with a range of perks such as discounts at leading high-street retailers, access to health cash plans, interest-free loans, and many more exciting offerings.
For more details on what we have to offer, please see the attached document outlining all the fantastic benefits available to you as a member of our team!
About Mencap
Our vision is for the UK to be the best place in the world for people with a learning disability to live happy and healthy lives.
We're here to support people with a learning disability, their families and their carers. We fight for a kinder, fairer and more inclusive society for people with a learning disability to live in.
At Mencap, everyone works with people with a learning disability either providing support or advice, or alongside one another as colleagues.
Belonging at Mencap is for everyone, every day, everywhere.
· Everyone is expected to treat people well and make Mencap an inclusive organisation.
· Every day we grow and learn. It’s okay to make mistakes but we learn from them and make changes
· Everywhere people will feel respected, valued, and safe to be themselves.
We have Belonging network groups that meet online and are open to all colleagues. The groups include people who identify as Black and Asian, LGBTQIA+, disabled or with a long- term health condition, women, parents and carers, and their allies.
We want to encourage everyone to apply to work at Mencap and we offer a variety of different contract types and working patterns. We’re not looking for specific experience. It is your personality and values that will make you a great colleague. We will train and develop you to succeed in the role you’re applying for.
Registered Charity
More than 1000
Empower individuals with learning disabilities and autism to reach their full potential and lead the lives they choose.