Director of Finance
Reference: APR20256942
Location: Flexible/Remote in England, with travel to RSPB Offices and HQ Sandy SG19
Salary: £86,059.00 - £109,346.00 Per Annum
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full-Time, 37.5 hours per week.
Benefits: Pension scheme (7%), Life Assurance scheme, 26 days' annual leave (plus bank holidays)
The RSPB Finance Director role is a crucially important role for RSPB, reporting to the Executive Director for Finance, Governance and Strategy, and a part of the RSPB's senior leadership group.
What's the role about?
This is an opportunity for the successful candidate to:
- Drive the Finance department across all areas, including financial operations and budgeting and forecasting.
- Provide advice and support to the wider Finance, Governance and Strategy Directorate, Board, and other senior leaders on finance-related matters with a focus on strategy implementation.
- Engage with the Finance Committee and Audit and Risk Committee, leading on all financial matters.
Essential skills, knowledge and experience:
- Fully qualified accountant (UK-recognised qualification such as ACA, ACCA, CIMA)
- Successful track record of inspiring, managing, and delivering large scale organisation-wide projects
- Demonstrable track record in the successful leadership and management of a Finance team in a multi-faceted and geographically dispersed organisation
- Successful track record in developing excellent working relationships between internal directorates and external stakeholders
- Experience of both internal and external financial reporting and the related regulatory environment in the charity sector
- Experience of control systems that manage risk effectively and provide assurance on the efficiency and effectiveness of financial processes and compliance with relevant regulatory frameworks
- Knowledge of the main direct and indirect tax frameworks related to the charity sector
- Experience in creating and communicating a compelling vision for directing and motivating the Finance team
Desirable skills, knowledge and experience:
- Investment management experience
- Defined benefit pension scheme arrangement experience
Please note this is a remote working role that can be conducted flexibly within the UK, however the successful candidate will be expected to travel to RSPB offices (including The Lodge in Sandy, Bedfordshire) on a monthly basis.
Closing date: 23:59, Wednesday 4th June 2025
We are looking to conduct interviews for this position from June 2025.
Interested?
If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our recruitment partner's website to complete your application for this position.
We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application.
The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role will require standard pre-employment checks. This role is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
As part of this application you will be asked to provide a copy of your CV and complete a short form, which includes an optional cover letter section. Please use this cover letter section to detail how you meet the criteria listed above, as this will form the basis of our shortlisting. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.
No agencies please.
The RSPB brings people together – people like you – to protect the things that matter to us all.



Job Profile
CAFOD’s mission in the Catholic community of England and Wales is to inspire and equip Catholics to actively engage in the Church’s efforts to overcome poverty and injustice. Our regional teams focus on recruiting and supporting a dedicated group of volunteers within parish and school communities, empowering them to educate, engage, and inspire others to act in solidarity for the common good. Regional teams also collaborate with clergy and other representatives across the Catholic community to ensure CAFOD’s volunteer programme is aligned with faith life.
The primary purpose of this role is to provide administrative and communications support to the Community Participation Coordinators across England and Wales, with a focus on the West & Wales region as the first point of contact. This includes coordinating administrative tasks performed by office volunteers and identifying opportunities for process improvements. The role also involves volunteer recruitment administration, overseeing and training Office Volunteers, and ensuring effective database management.
This role can be based anywhere in the UK including our head office in London, working from home, from one of CAFOD’s Volunteer Centres, or a combination of both. The role requires occasional travel to London and other areas within the East & West side of the country. Travel expenses will be reimbursed, and time off in lieu will be granted for travel beyond normal working hours.
This is a full-time position (35 hours per week) and reports to the Volunteer Support and Development Coordinator.
Key Responsibilities Overview
The post holder will play a key role in driving smooth, efficient operations across CAFOD’s West & Wales region. As the go-to person for admin excellence and volunteer support, you’ll work closely with your line manager and colleagues in the East to streamline processes, improve systems, and keep everything running like clockwork.
You’ll lead on volunteer recruitment and engagement—welcoming new volunteers, managing onboarding, and ensuring everyone feels valued, equipped, and inspired to support CAFOD’s work. Your people skills and attention to detail will shine as you manage applications, data entry, and training coordination.
Communications will be at the heart of your role. You’ll create engaging e-bulletins and social media content that keeps our community informed and motivated, while ensuring messages are clear, consistent, and aligned with CAFOD’s wider goals.
You’ll be the guardian of accurate data, working with office volunteers to maintain up-to-date records that support smarter outreach and efficient workflows. Your collaborative spirit will help strengthen connections across teams, share best practices, and contribute to creative new approaches for engaging communities.
This is a role for a proactive, organised, and people-focused individual who’s excited to innovate, solve problems, and make a tangible impact in a supportive, values-led organisation.
Safeguarding
All CAFOD staff share responsibility to promote and maintain a strong safeguarding culture, including identifying the key actions they should take given their role and responsibilities.
Person Specification
Understanding our context
- Understanding Catholic identity: sympathetic knowledge of the life, culture and structure of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and an ability to work effectively within it and especially an understanding of parish community life.
- Understanding CAFOD: ability to express what motivates people to volunteer for, and support, CAFOD and the main activities in which Catholic community primarily participate. Being informed about, supportive of, and actively promoting our anti-racism work.
Working together
- Managing ourselves: strong interpersonal skills including an ability to develop personal relationships quickly and to convince others. Ability to be self-motivated and able to work in isolation linking with different people in a variety of contexts; confident with articulating support required for you to work well.
- Working with others: builds positive and fruitful partnerships, particularly with volunteers; works effectively as part of a team which may work at a distance to ensure sharing of good practice and shared workload; being willing and able to help other team members and be helped to achieve delivery of shared objectives.
- Communicating: ability to identify how best to communicate instructions and processes clearly and how this helps achieve the objectives CAFOD seeks to deliver and how to share knowledge and information across teams.
Making change happen
- Managing resources: confident with processing data for planning, monitoring and reporting: proven time-management, data-management and organisational skills/experience of delegating tasks clearly and making improvements to processes.
- Achieving results: ability and willingness to focus on achieving efficiencies, especially in support of regional plans for community participation and income growth.
- Managing our performance: ability and willingness to work to targets and achieve results.
Job-Specific Competencies
Administrative Process Improvement:
Proven ability to assess, streamline, and document administrative processes. Strong organisational skills are required to manage a variety of tasks and ensure efficient delegation to volunteers. Ability to identify inefficiencies and propose practical solutions to enhance office operations.
Volunteer Recruitment & Engagement:
Expertise in recruiting, onboarding, and maintaining volunteer engagement. You will build strong relationships with volunteers, ensuring their experience is positive and aligned with CAFOD’s mission. Experience in using volunteer management systems and managing volunteer data is essential.
Communication & Content Creation: Strong written and verbal communication skills, with experience in producing engaging content for e-bulletins, newsletters, and other media resources. Ability to tailor messaging to different audiences, ensuring clarity and consistency in CAFOD’s communications.
Data Management & Accuracy:
Attention to detail is crucial for maintaining accurate records. Experience with databases, data segmentation, and ensuring data integrity is essential. A strong understanding of data protection standards, including GDPR, will be necessary.
Collaboration & Team Communication:
Effective communicator with internal teams, ensuring smooth communication and alignment across various regions. Ability to foster positive working relationships and collaborate across teams, both virtually and in person. Proficiency with communication tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom is required.
Training & Support:
Experience in delivering training to volunteers and staff, ensuring they have the necessary skills and knowledge. Ability to provide ongoing support to regional office volunteers, helping them succeed and contribute effectively to the team.
Adaptability & Problem-solving:
Flexible and resourceful, able to adapt to changing priorities. You will be expected to identify challenges and propose solutions to keep operations running smoothly.
Commitment to CAFOD’s Mission & Values:
A deep understanding of CAFOD’s mission and Catholic social teaching, with the ability to align volunteer engagement and administrative activities with the organization’s goals of addressing poverty and injustice.
Use of Digital Tools & Systems:
Competence in using databases, Microsoft Office Suite, and collaboration tools. Ability to train volunteers in these systems to ensure smooth operations across teams.
Project Management & Accountability:
Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring tasks are completed within deadlines and to a high standard. You will be responsible for delivering results aligned with CAFOD’s objectives.
Safeguarding for Children and Vulnerable Adults
CAFOD recognises the personal dignity and rights of children and vulnerable adults, towards whom it has a special responsibility and a duty of care and respect. CAFOD, and all its staff and volunteers, undertake to do all in our power to create a safe environment for children, young people and vulnerable adults and to prevent their physical, sexual or emotional abuse. CAFOD is committed to acting at all times in the best interests of children and vulnerable adults, seeing these interests as paramount. Any candidate offered a job with CAFOD will be expected to adhere to CAFOD’s Safeguarding policy and sign CAFOD’s Code of Behaviour as an appendix to their contract of employment and agree to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of these documents. This post involves contact with children, young people and vulnerable adults, or has responsibility for people who will do, and applicants will be subject to specific checks related to safeguarding issues. If based in the UK the post holder is required to present or obtain a Disclosure from the DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service). If the post is based outside the UK the post holder will be subject to a different checking process.
All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references, and appropriate screening checks can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. CAFOD also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of, and consent to, these recruitment procedures.
Please click here for a full list of CAFOD’s Staff Benefits
Come and join us and help make a real difference in the lives of the world’s poorest communities.
CAFOD is an equal opportunities employer. Recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.
CAFOD is the official Catholic aid agency for England and Wales tackling poverty and injustice across the world.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Job purpose
This is an exciting time to join Action for ME. With developments in research and policy alongside delivering services which are in high demand, you will enjoy working in a fast-paced and continually changing environment. You will be responsible for overseeing operational programme design and delivery, reporting of progress, and measuring the impact of all Action for ME work to improve the lives of people affected by ME. Better meeting their needs today while taking action to secure change for tomorrow. You will also assist the Chief Executive in implementing the organisational strategy, and by adapting and evolving delivery models on the ground. As you will have operational management and oversight for our Healthcare Services and hold the Designated Safeguarding Lead role for the organisation, you will bring considerable services-related experience at a management and leadership level. The Chief Executive will focus predominately on external matters and therefore you must have experience of managing an organisation to achieve high quality programmes with evidenced impact and motivated teams. You will act for the Chief Executive on topics, as agreed, and deputise during their absence.
Key duties
1. Leadership
- Ensure that children and adults with ME are at the heart of everything we do through meaningful engagement and participation to influence all aspects of our work.
- Deputise for the CEO and represent and promote the Charity at national meetings and events.
- Deputise for the CEO during periods of absence, and in relation to specific matters, issues or elements of operation as delegated from time to time by the CEO, ensuring a consistency of approach and decisions aligned with the organisation’s objectives.
- With the CEO and HR Business Partner, lead on implementing the People and Culture Strategy and ensuring our Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging plan is achieved.
- To provide support, leadership and coaching to the Management Team to ensure the smooth running of the organisation and development of the Charity.
- Contribute to the development of the overall strategy for Action for ME, ensuring that the best use is made of available resources within agreed priorities. Ensure that agreed strategy is delivered to target and in line with agreed budgets.
- Work closely with the Chief Executive and Trustees to ensure effective reporting to the Board and sub-committees.
2. Operations & management
- Manage the day-to-day operations of the Charity ensuring high quality service provision that meets all best practice, legal and regulatory frameworks and internal policies and procedures.
- Hold overall management responsibility for our Healthcare Services including the role of the CQC Nominated Individual, ensuring all regulatory requirements and compliance are met.
- Manage the staff and volunteer team, including holding regular meetings and ensure the efficient running of the office ensuring a culture that supports, inspires and motivates the team while ensuring required standards and quality are met at all times through effective performance management.
- Act as the organisational Designated Safeguarding Lead (children and vulnerable adults), working closely with the Designated Safeguarding Officers, colleagues and the Safeguarding Lead Trustee; facilitate the annual safeguarding audit (led by the Lead Trustee) and ensuring safeguarding standards across the organisation are maintained.
- Contribute to the learning and development of key personnel including coaching support (either directly or through the identification of external coaches) to enhance performance.
- Establish (where not already in place) and maintain a clear performance outcome-focused management system driving positive change and improvement across all teams.
- Ensure that policies and procedures are effectively implemented and kept up-to-date to enable the effective management of operations and support growth.
- Take the lead role for data protection, health and safety, compliance and risk management across the organisation and act as the Designated Safeguarding Lead.
3. Finance & income generation
- Hold financial leadership responsibility, working closely with the Finance Manager and the Fundraising Director to ensure sustainability for our work.
- Ensure effective financial management with procedures in place which are kept up-to-date and implemented accordingly.
- Provide support and engagement, where appropriate, to actively grow our income.
4. Working with others
- Lead, nurture and develop relationships with key stakeholder groups and partner organisations, both locally and nationally, supporting Action for M.’s place as the ‘go to’ organisation for people affected by ME
- Lead on new business ideas and pilot projects in line with the strategic objectives; with colleagues, develop the business case, identify and manage risks, lead implementation across teams, evaluate success and learning and make recommendations for future development.
5. Other key accountabilities
- Be proactive in keeping up to date with developments affecting operations and maintain and improve personal competence through continuous professional development.
- Take direction on projects and priorities from the CEO, which may vary from time to time.
- To ensure best value in all service delivery.
Person specification
Experience and Knowledge
- Proven experience in an operations, leadership, or senior management role, ideally within the charity service delivery or healthcare sector, with the ability to develop and implement strategic plans that drive organisational growth and reporting that demonstrates impact delivered. If you come from outside a support services background, you must demonstrate sound understanding of the regulatory and best practice requirements related to delivering support and/or healthcare services.
- An understanding of ME and associated/overlapping illnesses, the impact on people affected by it or a commitment and ability to understand the illness and lead services to meet the needs of children and adults with ME
- Experience managing multi-disciplinary teams, including remote workers, and fostering a supportive workplace culture where change is a constant.
- Safeguarding understanding at a management/decision-making level.
- Proven experience of building and nurturing strong relationships internally and externally at all levels.
- A sound understanding of outcome-focused, effective performance management, quality assurance and risk management.
- Strong financial acumen, including budgeting, financial planning, and resource management in the voluntary sector.
Skills and Behaviours
- Experience of governance, risk management, and compliance, including within regulated services, ideally within a charity and/or service delivery setting.
- Proven ability to think strategically, balance competing demands, use initiative to solve problems and actively seek innovative approaches to problem solving and delivering results.
- Strong interpersonal skills including motivational, negotiating influencing and networking skills which build strong internal and external relationships.
- An ability to understand, analyse and make effective use of data across all of our work.
- A proven ability to coach and motivate staff and to build and lead teams reflecting organisational culture and values, a respectful, constructive and energetic style.
- Proven, strong MS Office skills that supports writing, email, internet and database use.
- Demonstrable ability to work within our organisational values
Our mission is to improve the lives of people affected by ME. Better meeting their needs today while taking action to secure change for tomorrow.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.