Independent living service manager jobs in birmingham

Location: Remote with travel across the UK.

About the role  

It’s an exciting and important time for our charity as we work to help more people out of homelessness and poverty as part of an ambitious strategy. 

The newly created role of Federation Development Lead will sit within the Partnerships and Federation Development directorate, to support the delivery of key charity and federation-wide objectives, as part of our mission to empower people affected by homelessness and poverty to change their lives for the better while using our voice to achieve social change. 

The principal responsibility will be to support our ambition to become a best practice national body, responsible for leading on and supporting the development of key projects within Emmaus UK and the wider federation.

This will include providing leadership to support Emmaus communities across the UK to prepare and respond to the introduction of the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act, you will require an understanding and commitment to best practice and legislative requirements related to the provision of supported housing, with the ability to translate regulatory requirements into user friendly support, training, guidance and policies and procedures

The role will also provide a critical role in the implementation and delivery of Emmaus UK’s ambitious plans to seek registration as a provider of social housing. You will provide the project management and technical skills required to support the successful delivery of the application process, ensuring that risk and regulatory requirements are considered and acted upon at each stage, maintaining strong communication with key stakeholders externally and across the federation.

As the Federation Development Lead, you will have the opportunity to make a significant impact on the growth and development of the Emmaus movement within the UK, contributing to a culture of continuous improvement, and supporting the overall success of the federation. Your role will involve supporting the development and delivery of strategic plans, programme design and implementation, stakeholder management, and continuous evaluation and improvement of developed initiatives.

Working with the Director of Partnerships and Federation Development and wider Senior Leadership Team, the role will be central to the delivery of strategic objectives related to the development of the movement.

About Emmaus UK

We understand that a home is more than just a roof over your head; it’s somewhere to belong, where you feel part of a community, and that’s what Emmaus offers. 

Emmaus is a unique, secular organisation supporting homeless and socially excluded people by providing a home for as long as it is needed, meaningful work in a social enterprise and a sense of belonging. 

There are currently over 30 Emmaus communities across the UK, stretching from Glasgow to Dover and Norfolk to South Wales. Collectively the Emmaus federation supports more than 1,000 people with experience of homelessness. 

How To apply 

To apply for the role, please complete our application form and equal opportunities monitoring form and email us. The email address is in the Application Pack with applications needing to be submitted by 9am on Thursday 13th November 2025. 

Please ensure you download the job pack and refer to the job description and person specification when completing your application form.

Those shortlisted will be invited to an interview conducted via Microsoft Teams on Thursday 27th November 2025. Second interviews to be held on Friday 5th December 2025. 

If you would like to arrange an informal discussion about the role, please email us. Email address can be found in the Application Pack.

Reporting to: Co-Executive Director

Benefits:

25 days annual leave per annum, plus UK public and bank holidays (pro rata)
Office closure for a week in December and August
Annual leave allocation increases annually by one day (up to a maximum of five days)
10% employer pension contribution
Other standard Foxglove benefits 

Application deadline: Monday 19 November 2025 at 9am 

About us

Foxglove is a non-profit that exists to make the use of technology fair for all. When Big Tech companies abuse their power, their workers or the planet – and when governments use technology to oppress, exclude or discriminate – we litigate and campaign to fix it.  

Big Tech companies have become so large – gobbling up a huge slice of the global marketplace and an unprecedented treasure hoard of user data – that they’re now more powerful than many states. The harmful effects of this concentration of power are everywhere – threats to our democracy, to our privacy, decimated workers’ rights and platforms rife with disinformation and hate. Big Tech and AI data centres are rapidly expanding, resulting in huge strain on energy and water supplies. Worldwide governments are ploughing ahead with the use of algorithms and mass data systems to cut costs and increase efficiency often resulting in digital tools that entrench unfairness and leave the most vulnerable in society in crisis. All these problems are only getting worse with generative AI. 

Foxglove works to bring the rule of law to the tech and AI giants who have upended our public square, workplaces, and social lives. We have a strong track record. We’ve launched landmark cases seeking structural changes to big tech’s harmful business models, supported 180+ Facebook content moderators fired for trying to form a union to sue Facebook and their outsourcing company, Sama – winning world-first judgements. We're urging competition regulators worldwide to stop Google’s theft of independent news. We’ve filed the UK’s first legal challenge to a data centre permission decision over the government’s failure to properly assess their environmental impact. We’ve forced disclosure of secret contracts between tech giants and the NHS, stopped a racist Home Office visa streaming algorithm, helped make grading fair for UK A level students, forced the government to pause the NHS Data Grab and challenged the Department of Work and Pension’s use of an algorithm unfairly flagging disabled people for benefit fraud investigations.

We are a small but growing team of lawyers, communications experts, and campaigners. Our work is global, and we work in partnership with lawyers, civil society, unions, and people impacted by Big Tech.

The role

As Head of Operations, you will lead all operational functions of Foxglove. You will ensure that our finance, HR, legal compliance, fundraising, systems and internal processes enable the organisation to carry out its mission effectively. You’ll work across Foxglove and closely with leadership, as well as with external partners to build a resilient and well-governed organisation, able to manage growth and complexity while staying mission driven. This role manages one member of staff and multiple consultants. 

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Financial Management & Accounting

1.Oversee financial operations: budgeting, forecasting, cash flow, expenditure controls, financial reporting, payroll.

2.Ensure compliance with accounting standards, audit requirements and donor / funder financial reporting obligations.

3.Manage relationships with external accountants, auditors, banks, and financial service providers.

4.Ensure appropriate and best practice financial policies and controls are in place. 

5.Ensure financial risk is identified and managed appropriately.

Fundraising & Development

1.Contribute to the organisation’s fundraising strategy in collaboration with the Co-Executive Directors and Head of Strategy.

2.Ensure systems are in place to track and manage grants, philanthropic donations, and other income streams.

3.Support the preparation of funding proposals and reports and ensure accurate and timely reporting to funders.

4.Support relationship management with key donors, foundations and partners.

Operational Systems & Processes

1.Develop and maintain efficient operational processes and systems (e.g. finance, HR, IT, data protection, office management).

2.Ensure proper policies and procedures are in place for procurement, vendor management, travel & expenses, and record-keeping.

3.Oversee the infrastructure that supports remote / hybrid working, ensuring tools and systems support collaboration, security, and productivity.

Compliance, Risk & Governance

1.Lead on organisational compliance: legal, regulatory, health & safety, data protection / GDPR, employment law.

2.Ensure the organisation’s policies and procedures are best practice, legally compliant and up to date.

3.Establish and monitor risk management frameworks and our risk register.

4.Support governance structures (internal reporting, director meetings etc.), ensuring decisions are well informed and documented.

Human Resources & People Operations

1.Oversee recruitment, onboarding, performance management, and staff development.

2.Ensure policies on equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing are embedded in how we work.

3.Foster a positive culture in line with Foxglove’s values.

Team Leadership & Collaboration

1.Lead the operations team, ensuring clarity of roles, responsibilities, performance and support.

2.Work closely with the rest of organisation including the legal teams and advocacy to ensure operations enables, not hinders, impact.

3.Contribute to organisational strategy, helping translate strategic ambitions into operational plans.

Person specification

Below are the essential and desirable criteria for a successful candidate.

Essential

·Qualified accountant (e.g. ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent), with proven experience in financial oversight and reporting 

·Minimum of 5-7 years of senior operations / finance / business operations experience, including line management 

·Strong experience of budgeting, forecasting, audit & financial compliance 

·Excellent strategic thinking and planning skills, able to bridge between high-level strategy and operational detail 

·Strong risk-management and governance experience; familiarity with compliance, data protection / GDPR, employment law etc. 

·Highly organised and able to manage multiple priorities; excellent time-management skills 

·Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to present complex operational, financial or legal information clearly 

·Strong collaboration skills; ability to work across teams; good leadership and people management skills

Desirable

·Experience of operating in non-profit / mission-driven / legal organisations 

·Legal or compliance experience

·Experience of international operations, dealing with cross-border legal / regulatory issues 

·Experience of change management and scaling teams or systems 

·Understanding of, or interest in, legal, tech justice issues 

·Experience of hybrid / remote team leadership 

·Experience with fundraising finances, grants management, donor reports

Please note we know this role is wide in scope, if you meet some but not all the criteria and are interested in applying please reach out – we are keen to hear from you. 

Length and salary

This is a permanent full-time role with six-month probation period. 

How to apply

Please make your application via Applied here, answering the application questions and uploading your CV. We will not review applications sent via a job board or to our email. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with first round interviews likely to take place in mid to late-November for selected candidates.

Foxglove does not use AI in its recruitment processes, except to detect applications for AI use. As a tech-justice organisation, we ask the same of our candidates.

Foxglove is growing and we are striving to build a team that is inclusive. We will create a diverse and adaptable environment where we support people to do their best work. We believe an effective and creative team is made up of people from different walks of life. You can read more about how we work and what we offer our staff here. 

If you require any reasonable adjustments to complete this process, or have any questions, please get in touch with us.

If you would like to know more about how we process your data as part of the recruitment process you can read our recruitment data use policy here.