Director of development and external affairs jobs

Purpose of the job

Reporting to the Grants Manager, you will create a positive impact on young people across the UK by supporting the distribution of unrestricted multi-year grant funding and our Grants + capacity-building offer delivered as part of our evolving offer to unlock youth work for all young people. This is not a fundraising role but a grant delivery role.

Why work at UK Youth?

UK Youth exists to widen the reach and deepen the impact of youth work and outdoor learning, so that every young person has someone who believes in them. Our vision is a society that backs every young person - through each spark, struggle and success.

 As the UK’s national infrastructure body for youth work and outdoor learning, we strengthen and champion a diverse network of youth organisations, unlock investment, shape policy and build the evidence base for what works. At a time of growing need and inequality of access, our work has never been more important.

 We are entering an exciting new phase of our strategy - focused on long-term resilience, income diversification and a transformational Capital Appeal to develop Avon Tyrrell as a national centre of excellence for outdoor learning.

 Joining UK Youth means being part of an ambitious, impact-driven organisation committed to strengthening youth work for generations to come

Key responsibilities

• Support the Grants Manager to deliver our evolving grants and capacity building provision to the youth sector; bringing together our work to ensure a streamlined offer

• Support the grant making process including communications and outreach; application, selection, awarding, distribution, monitoring and evaluation working with the relevant departments.

• Maintain and develop grant management processes through our grant management system, Microsoft Dynamics, and working in partnership with colleagues from across the organisation

• Develop and maintain processes for creating application forms on our Grant Management System, informing applicants of decisions and tracking grant disbursements.

• Manage applications for funding through our grant management system and provide direct technical support to applicants.

• Provide light touch account management to grantees on specified programmes, as directed by the Grant Manager, responding to queries in a timely manner and connecting them into opportunities as appropriate.

• Work to distribute our grant funding to a diversity of organisations across the UK, ensuring it is delivered to improve impact and engages diverse audiences

• Lead on delivering grant funding panels and leasing with key stakeholders such as external assessors, and young assessors

• Maintain our grants management system in line with GDPR and manage data

• Working with Impact colleagues to manage data collection and monitoring processes and ensure activities achieve intended outputs and outcomes on time and to budget

• Establish and build strong relationships with awarded organizations and manage the distribution of funding to grantees and that they complete required monitoring and reporting

• Deliver end-to-end grantee support through the Grants Plus model, including onboarding to the grants platform, developing toolkits, and curating and sharing relevant resources.

• Support the Grants Manager in aligning grants work with wider organisational strategy, including connecting grantees to the broader network, and infrastructure support services.

• Manage and report progress to internal and external stakeholders via meetings, written reports and presentations

• Support the Grants Manager to raise the profile of UK Youth as a credible grants distributor through engagement in funder networks and connecting awarded organisations with local networks

• Manage the UK Youth Grants inboxes, responding to all enquiries in a timely fashion

• Communications and Public Affairs

• Deputise for the Grants Manager when required and work closely with colleagues to cover for each other as required

Experience we're after

• Grant management and distribution experience within the youth sector at a regional, local, and national level

• Experience in management and development of grant management systems and CRMs

• Experience of quality assurance and due diligence

• Monitoring and evaluation experience and an understanding of the importance of data in decision making

What we can offer you

We offer a competitive range of benefits, good work/life balance, excellent learning and development opportunities and vibrant organisational culture:

• Flexible/Agile Working

• 27 days annual leave (24 days + 3 days winter closure) plus bank holidays (pro rata for part time employees)

• Funded training provided in; Safeguarding, GDPR, Information and Cyber Security & Equality & Diversity

• Other training available in support of your personal and professional development

• Pension scheme (currently UK Youth match employee contributions up to 5%)

• Membership of our life insurance scheme which would pay-out up to 4 times your salary

• Employee Assistance Programme to support employees both professionally and personally

• 20% discount off bookings at Avon Tyrrell, our New Forest Outdoor Centre, including camping, lodges and outdoor activities.

• IT equipment provided for the duration of contract

• CycleScheme and TechScheme

How to apply

If you would like to be considered for this fantastic opportunity, please complete an application via our completely anonymised recruitment system provided by Applied which looks to create a fair and unbiased application process for all. Scroll to the top of the page and start your application.

Closing date: 16th July 2026 at 23:59 (midnight)

Provisional Interview Dates: w/c 27th July 2026

As this role involves working in a regulated environment with young people, any offer will be conditional to satisfactory background checks, which include criminal record check and employment reference.