147 Head of operation jobs in Lambeth, Greater London

About Alexandra Rose Charity

We should all be able to eat healthy food. But right now, healthy options cost more than twice as much as junk food. It’s getting harder and harder for people to put good food on the table. In fact, the poorest fifth of UK households would need to spend 50% of their disposable income to eat the UK Government’s recommended healthy diet. We need to put this right. Access to a choice of high quality, culturally appropriate fruit & veg is an essential building block for our mental and physical health.

We’re on a mission to give people access to their choice of fresh fruit & veg, where they live. At Alexandra Rose, we are proud to deliver a mix of practical, place-based projects and national advocacy to shape a fairer future, where everyone can afford and enjoy fresh fruit & veg with dignity.

If this aligns with how you see the world, and you want to use your skills and experience to help us build towards it, you’ll feel at home here.

About the role

As a member of Alexandra Rose Charity's Senior Leadership Team, you will lead Alexandra Rose's policy insight, public affairs, influencing, communications, and brand work streams.

Working at the intersection of evidence, lived experience and policy change, you will shape and deliver our advocacy strategy, ensuring Alexandra Rose is a trusted and influential voice nationally and locally in healthy food access, health inequalities and food insecurity.

You will lead our efforts to influence national and local policy, strengthen our profile amongst policymakers and partners, and use compelling communications to build support for our mission. Working closely with colleagues across the organisation, you will ensure our evidence, programme learning and lived experience insights drive meaningful change for communities facing the greatest barriers to healthy food.

This is a pivotal role in delivering our new five-year strategy and achieving our ambition of creating a society where everyone can afford and enjoy fresh fruit and vegetables where they live.

Alexandra Rose is a small but national charity. We are looking for a hands on leader who is happy to develop and deliver our strategy, and build the department and advocacy function over the coming years.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Lead the development and delivery of Alexandra Rose's advocacy and communication strategies in line with the organisation's five-year strategy.
• Provide strategic leadership for the charity's external affairs activity, ensuring alignment between policy, public affairs, communications, campaigns, brand and organisational objectives.
• Work with the CEO and Senior Leadership Team to identify opportunities to advance Alexandra Rose's mission through influencing, partnerships and public engagement.
• Contribute to organisational budget development and ensure that budgeted advocacy and communications work is executed in line with forecasts.

Policy, Public Affairs and Influencing

• Lead Alexandra Rose's policy and advocacy agenda, building support for policies that improve access to healthy food and reduce health inequalities.
• Deliver the priorities set out in the organisation's advocacy strategy, identifying opportunities to influence government policy, legislation and public debate.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with ministers, MPs, peers, civil servants, local authorities and policy leaders.
• Build and strengthen partnerships with other organisations working in food and health to advance shared policy objectives.
• Represent Alexandra Rose externally through speaking engagements, conferences, roundtables, coalition meetings and media opportunities.
• Monitor political and policy developments, providing strategic analysis and recommendations to the CEO and Senior Leadership Team.
• Lead the charity's lived experience influencing approach, with support from the Operations Team, ensuring the voices of communities are meaningfully represented in policy discussions.

Communications, Media and Brand

• Lead Alexandra Rose's communications function, ensuring it supports organisational influence, programme delivery and brand development.
• Lead the delivery of the charity's rebrand across communications, digital platforms and operational activity.
• Oversee the development and delivery of a strategic communications plan that raises awareness of Alexandra Rose's work and strengthens the organisation's reputation and influence.
• Ensure the charity's brand remains consistent, compelling and reflective of our values, mission and strategic ambitions.
• Lead media relations activity and support the identification and development of spokesperson opportunities.
• Oversee the creation of high-quality content across digital, print and media channels, ensuring communications are evidence-led and audience-focused.
• Ensure communications effectively translate research, programme insights and policy positions into compelling narratives that engage policymakers, funders, partners and supporters.
• Lead on reactive issues and crisis communications.

Evidence, Insight and Impact

• Work closely with the Head of Operations and Impact & Evaluation Manager to ensure Alexandra Rose develops a robust evidence base to demonstrate programme impact.
• Ensure that the Alexandra Rose’s policy research is commissioned, delivered and quality assured so that it delivers maximum impact.
• Ensure policy positions, communications activity and advocacy priorities are informed by high-quality data, evaluation and lived experience.

Leadership and Team Development

• Lead, support and develop a high-performing team, creating a collaborative, inclusive and ambitious culture.
• Provide line management, coaching and professional development to direct reports.
• Foster strong cross-organisational working, ensuring policy, communications, and operations functions work effectively towards shared goals.

This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of responsibility. Alexandra Rose is a small charity and as such all staff are expected to vary their duties as necessary to meet the needs of the organisation

Person Specification

You will have a strong knowledge of the UK policy and political landscape and be comfortable and confident in engaging with stakeholders in Westminster and local government across the political spectrum. You will also have a knowledge of policy related to the food system, health inequalities and food insecurity.

Knowledge and experience

 Essential:

• Significant experience leading policy, public affairs, advocacy or external affairs functions.
• Experience of developing and delivering successful influencing strategies that have achieved policy or systems change.
• Experience of leading strategic communications, media relations and reputation management activity.
• Excellent understanding of how communications, campaigns and public affairs can be used together to drive change.
• Experience of translating research, evidence and lived experience into persuasive policy and communications outputs.
• Experience building relationships with senior political, policy and sector stakeholders.
• Experience managing and developing high-performing teams.

Use of AI in applications

We recognise that candidates may choose to use AI tools to support aspects of their application, such as grammar, formatting, or drafting. We understand that using AI tools in this way can help you express your strengths more clearly. However, your final submission must be a genuine, accurate reflection of your own skills, experience, and understanding of the role. 

To support integrity and transparency in our recruitment process, we ask that you include a brief note explaining where and how AI tools were used in your application. Applications that appear overly generic, inconsistent with interview performance, or rely heavily on generative AI without clear attribution may raise concerns during the selection process.

Everyone is currently using AI to write CVs and cover letters for job applications, so the best way to stand out, is to not.

Additional information

We want our organisation to reflect the diversity of the communities we work in, and we welcome applications from people from all backgrounds.

Applications will be reviewed as they are received, and we may close the vacancy early if sufficient suitable applications are received. We encourage interested candidates to apply as soon as possible.