Development director jobs in East of england

This role is open to candidates based in the UK or Belgium.

UK

• Location: London-based or remote in the UK, as long as travel to the office in London for two consecutive days per month is feasible.
• Role: Permanent, full time or part time  
• Salary: £70,000 per annum plus 10% employer-contributed pension; 4 day full-time week (Monday-Thursday)

Belgium

• Location: Brussels-based or elsewhere in Belgium as long as regular travel to Brussels is feasible, with travel bimonthly to London
• Role: Permanent, full time or part time
• Salary: €6,106.32 per month plus 8% employer-contributed pension; 4 day full-time work week (Monday – Thursday)

About us

Established in 2021, Opportunity Green is a fast-growing not-for-profit organisation that helps to identify and unlock opportunities to tackle climate change. We build ambitious coalitions, support climate vulnerable countries in international negotiations and find innovative legal pathways to fight climate change.

What’s the role?

The Development Director will work closely with the CEO and the Chief Strategy and Impact Officer (CSIO) on all of Opportunity Green’s fundraising. We are looking for someone who truly gets what OG is trying to achieve, who can pull strands of our work together and turn it into cohesive cross-cutting proposals that funders want to be part of. You will draft and write compelling concept notes and proposals – not just edit them.

To date, the CEO and CSIO have overseen all of Opportunity Green’s fundraising, with the assistance of a Project Officer. We have been hugely successful in our fundraising to date; testament to the extraordinary talent of our staff and the impact they can make. However, as we continue to rapidly scale as an organisation, now is the right time for a Director to add capacity and further expertise to our fundraising.

This role is essential in Opportunity Green’s expanding team and organisation. You will work closely with OG colleagues across the organisation to understand their work, assist the CEO and wider team in managing our current donors and develop ambitious, strategic and innovative funding partnerships with trusts and foundations. You will have a specific focus on grants at the £1m+ level and increasing the number of unrestricted grants. It is important to note that we believe the following will not be a large part of the role in the short to medium term:

1. Searching new prospects – while in time this could become part of the role, we have multiple prospects that we are not currently pursuing due solely to capacity constraints.

2. Institutional or corporate fundraising – while this is a large source of potential funding, we are not currently pursuing it, or looking to secure any institutional or corporate funding from the UK / EU etc.

3. Individual giving – while there is an overlap between High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) and philanthropic trusts & foundations, developing a HNWI giving programme is not, for now, a large part of our strategy.

You’ll be the kind of person who sees connections, chases opportunities, gets out from behind your desk to meet people, and influences internally and externally to achieve results. You will be driven, determined, tenacious and focused on solutions. You will not be someone who simply comments on proposals and ensures funder timelines are met, instead you will co-develop the strategies and projects that we will pitch to potential funders.

The Development Director will be our first fulltime fundraising hire, with continued support from the current Project Officer. There is huge potential for the right candidate to grow this role, working directly with the CEO, and a longer-term potential to expand into a fundraising team over time. As the organisation grows (we have grown to 35 people with a turnover of £5m in almost five years, with no sign of slowing down!) it is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in enabling Opportunity Green to achieve our ambitions and have an even greater impact. 

About the candidate

We are looking for a candidate with:

· A passion for using their fundraising skills to tackle climate change.

· Experience of philanthropic, not just institutional/corporate, fundraising in climate / environment / international development sector(s)

· Ability to, over time, understand Opportunity Green so well that they would be almost as comfortable in OG’s project teams as leading on OG’s fundraising.

Desirable skills and experience:

We do not expect any candidate to have all skills listed below but rather we look for transferable skills and potential as well as past experience. We are looking for someone who has:

· Excellent strategic relationship-building skills and proven ability to manage philanthropic donor income streams.

· Experience maximising opportunities and income with current and prospective donors by focusing on strengthening relationships and implementing creative engagement plans.

· Developed and secured new sources of income from trusts and foundations, with a strong focus on funders with a potential to give £1m+ annually.

· Executed a fundraising strategy and develop a strong pipeline, managing a portfolio of current donors at the same time.

· Experience of managing the complexities of restricted income projects.

· Ability to understand diverse donor motivations and deliver a bespoke relationship to meet these. Demonstrable skill in adapting written and verbal communications for a philanthropy audience.

· Engaging presentation and writing skills for tailored presentations, proposals and grant reports for donors.

· Confidence in working with senior stakeholders internally and externally, using tact and diplomacy.

· Organised and methodical approach to plan and deliver against a varied workload, managing competing priorities under your own initiative and to strict deadlines.

· Be financially savvy and able to work with the finance team to ensure new proposals support a full-cost recovery approach.

Diversity and inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are important principles at Opportunity Green. We believe that diversity and inclusion make teams stronger and more effective. We are committed to fair and equitable employment practices, and we are striving to ensure that a variety of voices and experiences are included in our organisation. Our commitment to diversity and our parental leave policy are available to view on our website, here.

We will consider all applicants who meet most or all of the essential competencies regardless of their identity or background. That said, we know that diverse candidates may be reluctant to apply for jobs where they don’t meet 100% of the criteria outlined in the job description. We encourage anyone to apply who can demonstrate the variety of skills and experiences relevant to meeting the requirements of this role.

We recognise that many diverse experiences and perspectives are not represented in our current workforce, and are seriously underrepresented across the non-profit sector in general, and as such, we particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities, non-white people, people from marginalised backgrounds, and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities.

We also value flexible working and are open to those who would want to work part-time in this role. This could include for example, a 3-day week or working school hours over 4-day week.

To learn more about our application process and receive advice on how to prepare in such a way as to showcase your full potential, please find our Application Guide here.

What we offer - UK

The successful candidate will be offered an annual salary of £70,000 plus 10% employer-contributed pension. Please note that Opportunity Green has fixed salary scales, with the possibility of step increases with strong performance. When hiring we always hire at the bottom of a band and do not enter negotiations with new employees as negotiations have been historically shown to disadvantage women and minorities.

We take our team’s well-being and professional development seriously. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer:

· A commitment to work/life balance, with a 4-day work week at 28 hours.

· A generous holiday entitlement of 20 days’ holiday per year, plus bank holidays and office closure between Christmas and New Year’s that does not count towards your holiday entitlement (and expectation that you fully disconnect when taking time off).

· A market-leading pension of 10%.

· A progressive family leave policy, including 26 weeks’ paid leave for the new parent, as well as other support.

· Lots of flexibility within a hybrid working arrangement, with regular opportunities to come together as a team.

· Support for your professional development as part of Opportunity Green, with a budget to support your learning & development plus opportunities to lead projects, publish content, learn from experts, work directly with policymakers and stakeholders, and take part in conferences and events.

However, it is important to note that while this role is permanent, employment is always reliant on Opportunity Green continuing to receive philanthropic support from our funders, which we expect every member of the team to play their part in working towards.

What we offer - Belgium

The successful candidate will be offered a monthly salary of €6,106.32 plus 8% employer-contributed pension. Please note that Opportunity Green has fixed salary scales, with the possibility of step increases with strong performance. When hiring we always hire at the bottom of a band and do not enter negotiations with new employees as negotiations have been historically shown to disadvantage women and minorities.

We take our team’s well-being and professional development seriously. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer:

· A commitment to work/life balance, with a 4-day work week at 28 hours.

· A generous holiday entitlement of 20 days’ holiday per year, made up of 16 legal annual leave days and 4 extra-legal holiday days, plus Belgian bank holidays. Additional office closure between Christmas and New Year’s that does not count towards your holiday entitlement (and expectation that you fully disconnect when taking time off).

· A market-leading pension of 8%.

· A progressive family leave policy, including 26 weeks’ paid leave for the new parent, as well as other support.

· Lots of flexibility within a hybrid working arrangement, with regular opportunities to come together as a team.

· Support for your professional development as part of Opportunity Green, with a budget to support your learning & development plus opportunities to lead projects, publish content, learn from experts, work directly with policymakers and stakeholders, and take part in conferences and events.

However, it is important to note that while this role is permanent, employment is always reliant on Opportunity Green continuing to receive philanthropic support from our funders, which we expect every member of the team to play their part in working towards.

How to apply

To minimise the risk of unconscious bias, we ask that applicants remove certain identifying elements from their CVs. If you do not remove these details, we reserve the right to withdraw your application from review.

· Photos

· Name – if needed, please use ‘Applicant’

· Age

· Email and/or phone number

We also reserve the right to withdraw your application from review if you use AI tools such as Chat GPT to complete the sift questions / write your CV.

Unfortunately, if you do not already hold the right to work in the UK or Belgium, Opportunity Green will not be able to consider your application at this time.

The closing date for applications is 29 June 2026 at 9am GMT.  

We actively encourage applicants to reach out if there are any reasonable adjustments we can make to help them demonstrate their full potential in the hiring process. 

Please get in touch and we can discuss how to best make the recruitment process as accessible and comfortable for you as possible.

You can read our application guide here.

What happens next?

We will review applications after closing date. Over the last few months, we have been receiving between 100-400 applications per role. Our small team cannot manage such high volumes without impacting the delivery of our work. If we receive a large volume of applications for this role, we reserve the right to part-review your application. This would include reviewing CVs first, looking for match with essential job requirements as stated above. Only pre-shortlisted candidates will have their full application reviewed.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview to discuss their experience and suitability for the role. After this, candidates that are most suitable for the vacancy will be invited for an in-person interview in our London office, for which there may also be a short task. Travel will be reimbursed for non-London-based applicants (within the UK) and for Belgium-based candidates.

Online interviews are likely to take place w/c 6 July. In person interviews will likely be shortly after this (w/c 13 July).

We reserve the right to ask for references during the recruitment process.

If you have any questions, or you need any reasonable adjustments at the application stage, please contact us.