Chief Executive Officer - FoodCycle
Location: Vauxhall, London (flexible working; regular travel to Projects and for meeting with key stakeholders required)
Salary: circa £75,000
Contract: Permanent, full-time (35–37.5 hours per week)
Are you ready to lead FoodCycle through a period of consolidation and sustainable growth, protecting its volunteer-led, guest-centred model while building reliable income streams and scaling proven pilots?
About FoodCycle
FoodCycle is a national charity running volunteer-powered community dining projects that combine rescued surplus food, spare kitchen space and local volunteers to deliver free, hot, sociable three-course meals. Our work sits at the intersection of food-waste reduction, food-poverty relief and loneliness prevention. Nationally scaled but locally delivered, FoodCycle has grown rapidly, enjoys strong volunteer goodwill and is developing promising trading and schools pilots to strengthen sustainability.
As our next CEO you will:
• Shape strategy & impact - co-create and implement a clear 3–5 year strategy and a focused 12-month operational plan with measurable milestones.
• Stabilise leadership & culture - provide visible, warm and practical leadership across Projects; develop the senior team and protect volunteer trust.
• Secure financial sustainability - own the income strategy, diversify revenue across trusts, individual giving, corporate partnerships and trading, and present credible cashflow plans to the board.
• Build commercial & trading capacity - drive Manor House and other trading pilots towards viable, repeatable income models.
• Safeguard quality & risk - ensure robust safeguarding, food-safety and operational thresholds for opening new Projects.
• Raise profile & partnerships - act as FoodCycle’s principal ambassador to corporates, funders, local authorities and policy audiences.
Who you are
• A senior leader with experience stabilising and growing people-facing, delivery-focused organisations.
• Proven at generating income from multiple streams, with commercial fluency to develop simple trading models and convert corporate engagement into lasting partnerships.
• Financially literate - comfortable owning budgets, forecasting and discussing risk with trustees.
• Excellent at people and change management - able to build and motivate small national teams and large volunteer cohorts.
• Data-driven, curious and pragmatic - tests pilots, embeds what works and sets clear go/no-go criteria for scale.
• Values-driven and visible - passionate about food justice, guest dignity and volunteer leadership.
• Right to work in the UK and satisfactory DBS checks required.
Why FoodCycle?
• Lead a nationally recognised, volunteer-led movement tackling food waste, food poverty and social isolation.
• Play a pivotal role growing promising trading and schools pilots to create sustainable income.
• Work with an engaged Chair and committed board, and a small, passionate national team.
• Be part of a friendly, non-hierarchical culture where leaders are visible in Projects.
For full details of the role including how to apply, please download the full appointment brief. For an informal and confidential conversation about this position, please contact Jenny Hills at Harris Hill at via the apply button with times to speak and (optional but appreciated) a CV or professional profile which will be treated with the strictest confidence.
Closing date for applications: 9am, Monday 19th January 2026
As leading charity recruitment specialists and a certified B Corp, Harris Hill is committed to high and ever-improving standards of equitable and inclusive recruitment. We actively welcome applications from all sections of the community regardless of age, disability, gender, race, religion, sexuality and other protected characteristics.
Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to explore the role of Marketing and Communications Manager at the Family Holiday Charity. We're here to help families facing some of life's toughest challenges to experience the anticipation, joy and impact of a break from the day to day. Can you help us spread the word?
This role is an important one to help us build brand and awareness around our mission and goals - in simple terms, helping more families to get away and ensuring that every family has the chance to go on holiday.
At its heart, this role is about storytelling and our ability to tell stories that capture hearts and minds. Taking ownership of the full story capture and storytelling process, you'll use this output to help build our brand, fundraise and tell our advocacy story. What's new for us in this role is PR - it's just not something we've done before, so you'll build relationships, networks and opportunities with earned media. You'll work with talented fundraisers, partnership builders and operational delivery colleagues to ensure we're sharing a cohesive and coherent message that supports all our audience goals and targets. And you'll get to work with a talented Comms Officer who delivers on our social, email and web activities.
This role is key to helping us make sure we're doing our best for families and putting our best foot forward every time.
It's a varied and fast-paced role (Comms roles are, right!?) that means you'll be involved in planning, creating and managing activities, so you'll need to have some awesome planning skills and be good with interpersonal relationships.
We're a small but flexible team - just like our approach to work. This is a hybird role, and you'll need to come into the office periodically (but none of that performative days a week nonsense!).
It's vital that you're happy and confident in making your next career move, so let's take the time to chat if you'd like to!
Please provide a CV which outlines your skills and experience for the role and a cover letter which briefly explains why you're interested in the role.
Applications close at 23:59hours on Sunday 4th January 2026.
Initial interviews will take place on the 9th, 12th or 13th of January 2026 with Mags Rivett, Director, Income & Engagement, and one other peer colleague from within the team. A second interview will follow with Mags and Rob Parkinson, CEO. This will likely be a face to face interview at our offices in London and will be held on Tuesday 20th January 2026 (this date is subject to change).
Registered Charity
11 - 20
We help families get time away together, often for the first time ever, helping to create confidence and hope for the future.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.