Governance officer jobs in Oxford, oxfordshire
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Introduction to Action Duchenne:
Action Duchenne supports, empower and equip every Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy community in their journey from diagnosis and beyond.
Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is a muscle wasting condition for which there is no cure, but we journey alongside communities to empower them and provide information for them to make informed decisions. Action Duchenne has a team of passionate, supportive staff who are keen to do more for families living with Duchenne, and has a number of staff with direct lived experience.
At Action Duchenne, values are more than words—they shape how we work and interact every day. For this role, we are looking for a team member who can reflect our values:
- Supportive – Actively assist colleagues and stakeholders, fostering a culture of collaboration and reliability.
- Empathetic – Approach challenges with understanding, considering the impact on people internally and externally.
- Respectful – Ensure all communications and decisions uphold dignity and fairness, especially when handling sensitive matters.
- Community Focused – Make decisions that strengthen our community, ensuring all activity supports inclusive engagement and shared purpose.
- Inclusive – Promote accessibility and equity, ensuring everyone feels valued and heard.
Main Purpose of the Role:
To ensure the charity operates within a robust governance framework and maintains high standards of compliance, risk management, and operational efficiency. This role will lead on policy development, governance reporting, administration progression and process improvement to support strategic objectives and regulatory requirements.
Key Responsibilities
- Governance and Compliance
- Maintain and update governance policies and registers, and development of Standard Operating Procedures.
- Act as the primary liaison for Board governance matters, including preparing Board papers, ensuring timely reporting and minuting.
- Monitor compliance with charity law, GDPR, and other regulatory requirements.
- Coordinate annual policy reviews and ensure staff adherence.
- Risk and Audit
- Maintain and update the organisational risk register for quarterly Board review.
- Support internal audits and external compliance checks.
- Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies.
- Operational Efficiency
- Review and streamline operational processes to improve efficiency, including IT and telephony, authorisations, filing and recruitment.
- Support budget monitoring and reporting in collaboration with Finance.
- Oversee contract management and supplier compliance.
- Reporting and Data
- Prepare governance and operational reports for the CEO and Board.
- Ensure accurate documentation and record-keeping for governance purposes.
- Be the organisation’s Data Protection Officer.
- Minute team meetings.
NB This is not an exhaustive list, the role holder will be asked to carry out additional tasks as required for the Team’s successful service delivery. Such tasks will always be reasonable and broadly in line with current knowledge levels and skill sets.
Please find the job description below. You can apply on our website, and the deadline for applications is 9am on Monday 16th March 2026.
Registered Charity
11 - 20
Action Duchenne is a charity providing holistic support to those living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (Duchenne) and their families.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
ABOUT THE ROLE
We are looking for a part time governance and compliance officer to oversee our governance and risk framework as a non-profit regulated by the Charities Commission (England and Wales) and OSCR (Scotland).
You will identify, develop, maintain and implement policies and procedures to ensure compliance and risk mitigation with the various regulations that we must adhere to such as Charities Commission, OSCR, Fundraising Regulator, Companies House, UK Data Protection and Safeguarding.
As governance and compliance officer, you will deliver high quality, professional and compliant governance across the charity, nationally and in supporting our network of support groups (see About IA) ensuring we comply with statutory regulations, that protect our members and the charity itself while applying best practice principles.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Developing and documenting a detailed understanding of charity practices, paying specific attention to areas where IA is bound by statutory regulations
- Developing robust policies and procedures that ensure charity compliance and best practice
- Remaining up to date with current regulations that IA is bound by and ensuring any changes are implemented within any imposed deadlines
- Regularly review and maintain policies and procedures auditing your findings to ensure exemplary record keeping following up with implementing changes
- Implementing policies and procedures amongst staff, volunteers and the Board of Trustees with robust record keeping introducing governance cycles to keep everyone updated with current policy and communicating changes where necessary
- Identifying risks, recommending mitigating actions and reporting your findings to the management team and Board of Trustees
- Reviewing and updating IA’s risk register
- Recommending and monitoring recommended training among staff and volunteers especially where IA is bound by statutory regulations
- Liaise with third-party suppliers to IA who are responsible for providing services to the charity that support our governance and risk framework
- Supporting Trustee recruitment, induction, training, and evaluation processes
PERSON SPECIFICATION
ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE
- Demonstrable experience of at least 12m in governance and risk management within a not for profit environment with working knowledge of UK charity regulations. Exceptional candidates from a commercial background would be considered
- A thorough working knowledge of risk management
- Development, implementation, monitoring and maintenance of governance and risk frameworks
- Documenting, reviewing and mitigating risk
- Demonstrable experience of regular reporting to management
- Strong working knowledge of UK data protection regulation
- Working knowledge of safeguarding requirements
- Exceptional record keeping skills to satisfy audit requirements
- Management of third-party relationships including suppliers to IA and volunteers who are carrying out their volunteering role in line with IA’s policies and procedures
- Team player
DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE
- Experience across the not-for-profit sector
- Working with volunteers
- Basic understanding of AI and the benefits of using it within the not-for-profit sector
- Experience supporting Boards or Trustees
- Regulations governing charity fundraising
SKILLS AND QUALITIES
- Highly organised
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Flexible, adaptable in approach, creative thinker to manage the balance between governance and continuing to provide a personal approach to vulnerable adults
- Commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
- Proactive and solution-focused
APPLICATION SUBMISSION
To apply, please submit:
1. Your CV (up to 3 pages)
2. A covering letter outlining your suitability to the role (max 500 words)
Interviews will be two-stage for successful candidates. Initial interviews will be held via video conferencing (such as Zoom) discussing previous experience and role fit with successful candidates going through to a second round. This includes alignment to IA’s values. Please allow up to 1 hour for this stage.
Second round interviews are expected to be via video conference. Successful candidates will, in advance of the second round, be given a short brief and asked to present at interview their understanding of a governance issue facing charities. Please allow up to 1 hour for this stage.
Applications should be submitted via the advertising platform including your CV and covering letter. See attached role profile for recruitment timetable and further details about us/the role, including contact details for an informal chat, if required, before applying. Applicants are encouraged to ensure availability in line with the recruitment timetable in the attached job specification.
While IA recognises the value of AI technology in the current climate, IA reserves the right to ignore applications where we have reason to believe that they have been wholly produced using generative AI tools.
Please let us know if you require any additional support to attend or undertake an interview or if there is anything we should consider as part of the interview process
Apply as above. Additionally, please refer to the recruitment timetable in the attached job specification
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.