Associate director of people and facilities jobs

Director of Finance & Services
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full-Time. (We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements, including hybrid and part time working).
Location: South Kensington, London SW7
Salary: Circa £100,000+ per annum FTE

About Us

The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is the learned society and professional body for geography and geographers. It is also a charity and a membership organisation. The Society was founded in 1830 and has been one of the most active of the learned societies ever since. It was pivotal in establishing geography as a teaching and research discipline in British universities and continues to play a key role in geographical and environmental education.

The Society is a leading world centre for geographical learning – supporting education, teaching, research, professional practice and scientific expeditions, as well as promoting public understanding and enjoyment of geography and providing advice to policymakers.

The Society offers professional accreditation to members through Chartered Geographer status.

About You and the Role

As the Society approaches its 200th anniversary in 2030, with ambitious associated goals, ensuring that we continue to have the best possible leadership team in place has never been more relevant.

With the approaching retirement of our current Director of Finance & Services, we are looking for an exceptional, entrepreneurial senior leader with proven ability to balance strategic and operational impact.

Whilst an executive level financial background is a given, we are additionally seeking an individual who has led other functions and developed the professionals within them. This role leads a diverse team of 10, spanning: Finance, Facilities & Estates, IT & Database Administration, and HR. It also holds additional responsibility for: Safeguarding, Data Protection, Risk Management, Pensions, Company Secretarial, Insurance & Legal.

We have exciting plans for our building, at the heart of London’s Exhibition Road Cultural Quarter, optimizing and developing this space as a gathering point of global significance and influence for people intent on making a positive difference to the world. Accordingly, we are particularly interested in individuals who bring with them strong programme management skills and experience of managing heritage estate projects operationally, in partnership with external consultants.

The successful candidate will drive and deliver effective and efficient financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, reporting, controls, operations, and management, whilst continuing to improve the Society’s processes and systems.

Salary and Benefits

This is a permanent post. We welcome requests for flexible working arrangements, including hybrid and part time working. This is looked at on a case-by-case basis, balancing the Society’s needs with the successful candidate’s other commitments, to support a good work-life balance. The salary range for this post is c£100,000+ (FTE) per annum, depending on experience and qualifications. The post is based in Kensington, London.

There are a range of benefits at the Society which include the following:

• 35-hour working week with core working hours between 10.00am and 4.00pm.
• Flexible working arrangements are available with a mix of office based and home working.
• 25 days annual leave per annum, pro rata, plus public bank holidays.
• Society closure between Christmas and New Year, in addition to the basic annual leave allowance.
• Pension scheme - 3% employee, 7.5% employer.
• Group Life Assurance at four-times basic annual salary.
• Corporate eye care vouchers.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Free 24-hour Employee Assistance helpline with available counselling support.

Applications must be received by 5.30pm 12 June 2026.
It is anticipated that interviews will take place week commencing 29 June 2026.

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

The Society aims to be an equal opportunities employer. We strongly encourage applicants from those traditionally underrepresented in the geographical discipline.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. The Society is unable to offer work visa sponsorships.

No agencies please.

This role presents opportunity to work innovatively & responsively, creating new, unique, & informative LGBTQ+ affirmative resources, providing crisis support, prevention & wellbeing initiatives; along with having a developmental role in upskilling & supervising sessional staff, trainees, interns & volunteers. 

This is an exciting job opportunity to join a dynamic & committed team, in a key frontline role working directly within our Heads-Out mental health service, which provides individualised mental health plans, crisis safety plans and support, mental wellbeing workshops, varied mental health support groups including for those seeking asylum, a trans & non-binary group; LGBTQ+ mental health group, and LGBTQ+ social connections & activities group. 

Opportunities will include delivery of specialised interventions, taking direct referrals and helping to support & stabilise those at heightened risk and/ or living through mental health crisis, plus psychoeducation workshops and group programmes will further enable you to engage, empower & support participants to build confidence, develop skills, strategies & achieve goals to improve, maintain & best manage mental health, increase mental wellbeing, and reduce and/ or prevent future crisis.

elop is a well established thriving and award-wining London based community-led LGBTQ+ mental health & wellbeing charity offering a range of high-quality and professional mental health, counselling and wellbeingsupport services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBTQ+) communities. 

There will be one regular evening/ week and occasional other evenings and weekend working required.

NB: There will initially be both in-person office-based working with some remote home-based working required whilst we’re awaiting completion of building works and relocation to new premises

Interviews will take place Friday 26 June 2026 between 9.30am – 15.00 pm

You will provide clinical direction and maintain oversight of elop’s counselling services, bringing understanding and experience of delivering trauma-informed approaches to support the emotional health and psychological wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people.

You will oversee and contribute to clinical operational responsibilities, service coordination and delivery, ensuring a professional, safe, smooth running, efficient and well managed service is maintained.   You will work alongside the senior leadership team across both strategic and clinical operational levels ensuring lead responsibilities for our counselling teams and services. Working collaboratively with the senior leadership team, implementing clinical delivery decisions, ensuring the counselling service effectively maintains ethical and professional standards of practice and communication across key staff, other agencies and service users. 

You will proactively contribute to building a robust and compelling evidence base that continues to demonstrate impact, improved wellbeing, and increased resilience, and have a key role in monitoring, evaluation, and supporting the wider counselling team with reporting and using data to drive operations, and evidence-based best practice. 

Your role will also include overseeing referrals and allocation of clients; undertaking client assessments; providing role-management, and clinical support and supervision to trainee and sessional counsellors; line-management of key service personnel; some clinical support work with more complex or acute needs clients; recruiting, inducting and training key staff and volunteers; and liaising with the clinical supervision team. 

Full Time: 37 hours per week

There will be one regular evening/ week, and occasional other evening and weekend working required. 

Salary: £34,000 inclusive London Weighting

Closing deadline for submission of application: 10.00am Monday 1 June 2026

Initial Interviews: taking place Wednesday 10 June between 9.00am – 3.00pm

N.B. at this current time all elop services are operating via a mix of in-person and remotely via online platforms, whilst we await completion of building works and relocation to new premises.