Assistant to director of communications jobs

Reports to: Senior Grants & Commissioning Manager

Line Manages: No direct reports (subject to change)

Salary: £43,120 - £47,659 (Professional Level 3)

Location: Central London or Hybrid

Contract: 1-year fixed term – potential to extend

Interview dates: Week Commencing 16th March 2026

About the Youth Endowment Fund

We’re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence.

We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.

In recent years violent crime has risen significantly. Homicides, assaults, robberies and offences involving weapons have all seen sustained growth. We have also seen large increases in violent crime involving children and young people. This is a tragedy. Every child captured in these numbers is an important member of our community and society has a duty to protect them.

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) is a charity with a £200m endowment and a mission that matters. We exist to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by funding great initiatives, finding what works

and working for change - scaling and spreading the practices that make a difference.

One of the most important things we do is make sure our commissioning and procurement processes run smoothly and efficiently. We manage complex grant agreements and partnerships that support projects designed to create real impact. To do this well, we need accurate data, clear processes and strong coordination across teams and partners. The Delivery Operations Manager role is critical to making that happen. Reporting to the Senior Grants and Commissioning Manager, you’ll be the central point for operational delivery; drafting and managing grant agreements, maintaining data integrity in Salesforce and ensuring payments and requirements are processed correctly.

You’ll onboard partners, resolve issues quickly and keep everything organised so our teams can focus on delivering change. By supporting operations and improvements, you’ll help us maximise the impact of every pound we invest.

Key Responsibilities

Your role would be essential to keeping our commissioning and procurement processes running smoothly and efficiently. By ensuring consistency, accuracy and timely communication, you’ll help our teams work brilliantly and enable the organisation to deliver funding that makes a real difference. A detailed list of your key responsibilities on how you’ll do this is given below:

Manage grant agreements and contract administration in response to the needs of each team:

o Draft, prepare and execute initial grant agreements and subsequent variations, using Adobe e-Sign where required.

o Accurately input and maintain all project data in Salesforce, including requirements, financial commitments, payment schedules and supporting documents.

o Process adjustments to grant commitments, payment schedules and requirements promptly and accurately.

o Conduct regular data accuracy spot checks in Salesforce to maintain data integrity.

Coordinate grantees and partners

o Onboarding new grantees, evaluators and researchers onto our designated community platform when they are approved by each team.

o Act as a main point of contact for Programmes, Evaluation, Change and Evidence teams to resolve payment approval issues and discrepancies when they come up.

o Chase external partners for outstanding invoices and ensure timely resolution of payment-related queries.

Provide directorate-specific support

o For the Programmes team: Manage the team inbox, allocate new

applications to assessors, set up interviews and provide GEM administrative support when required.

o For the Evaluation team: Maintain an evaluation report tracking system to monitor deadlines and ensure timely submissions.

o Ensure data archiving is completed and shared with ONS/DfE as required.

Support process improvements and system integrity

o Assist the Senior Grants and Commissioning Manager and Assistant Director of Finance and Operations in implementing improvements to commissioning and procurement processes.

o Provide backup technical support for Salesforce during periods when the Senior Grants and Commissioning Manager is unavailable or requires assistance.

o Identify and suggest process enhancements to drive efficiency and consistency across commissioning operations.

Enable effective communication and reporting

o Serve as the main point of contact for initial commissioning and procurement requests when they arise, ensuring streamlined processes and avoiding duplication.

o Provide timely responses and clear communication to internal teams to improve stakeholder experience.

o Keep senior leadership informed with forward plans, dashboards and progress updates to support better strategic decisions.

Please visit our website for the full 'About you' information.

While it’s not a criteria, we’re especially interested to hear from applicants who have lived experience of youth violence.

It’s also important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.

To Apply

Please send a CV, your answers to the two questions below and complete the monitoring form by clicking on "Apply for this" button by 12pm on Sunday, 8th March 2026. When applying for this role, please ensure that your cover letter can answer, within a maximum of 400 words per answer, the following questions below:

1. Please provide an example of when you’ve supported a team to develop a new process or system. What did you do, what impact did it have, and what did you learn?

2. Please provide an example of when you’ve had to quickly learn a new operational process or system and put it to immediate use. How did you go about it and what challenges did you face.

You’ll be required to provide proof of your eligibility to work in the UK. As part of our commitment to flexible working we will consider a range of options for the successful applicant. All options can be discussed at the interview stage.

Interviews will take place in the week commencing the 16th March 2026.

Benefits Include

• £1,000 professional development budget annually

• 28 days holiday plus Bank Holidays

• Four half days for volunteering activities

• Employee Assistance Programme – 24hr phone line for free confidential support

• Volunteering days - 4 half days per year

• Death in service - 4 times annual salary

• Flexible hours. Core office hours 10am – 4pm

• Financial support including travel and hardship loans

• Employer contributed pension of 5%

Personal Data

Your personal data will be shared for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes our HR team, interviewers (who may include other partners in the project and independent advisors), relevant team managers and our IT service provider if access to the data is necessary for performance of their roles. We do not share your data with other third parties, unless your application for employment is successful and we make you an offer of employment. We will then share your data with former employers to obtain references for you. We do not transfer your data outside the European Economic Area

Job Title - Research Manager

Contract – 1-year fixed term contract

Work pattern - Full time or 0.8 FTE (for flexible working, including term time working)

Salary - £42,000 - £48,000 per annum (or pro rata)

Location - Flexible, with an expectation of working at Coram’s campus in London on average at least once a week.

We are looking for someone who is passionate about using their research and evaluation expertise, including involving children, young people and their families in research, to join our growing Impact and Evaluation team to help improve support for vulnerable children and young people, and ultimately make a positive difference in their lives.

About Coram and the team

Established as the Foundling Hospital in 1739, Coram is today a vibrant charity group of specialist organisations, supporting hundreds of thousands of children, young people and families every year from infancy to independence. We champion children’s rights and wellbeing, making lives better through legal support, advocacy, adoption and our range of therapeutic, educational and cultural programmes.

Coram’s vision for children is a society where every child has the best possible chance in life, regardless of their background or circumstances.

Building on our legacy as the first and longest continuing children’s charity, we have launched the Coram Institute for Children, the dedicated research and development organisation for children. The Institute will be instrumental in realising this vision by acting as a catalyst for change and collaboration, seeking evidence-based solutions to the challenges facing children in the 21st century in policy, law and practice.

This role will be based in Coram’s Impact and Evaluation team[1]which sits at the heart of Coram’s Institute for Children dedicated to improving the life chances of children.[2] This role will play an important part in building the Institute and the strategic direction of the team. The role offers exciting opportunities to work within the Coram’s Impact and Evaluation team to lead a portfolio of mixed methods research projects and evaluation studies. As well as build links across Coram as well as externally with research partners and universities to pursue research dedicated to improving the lives of children and young people.

As a team, are core research principles are to be child-centred, rigorous, grounded in experience, collaborative and impactful. We are dedicated to delivering child-centred research to ensure their voice is at the forefront of our work. We use co-design and participatory research methods to challenge power imbalances within research and work with marginalised groups.

About the role

The Research Manager will play an important role in working with the Head of Impact and Evaluation and across Coram to develop and expand work of the team within Coram’s Institute for Children.

Working within Coram’s growing Impact and Evaluation team (which currently includes eight permanent researchers) the Research Manager will lead the delivery of high quality, innovative qualitative and quantitative studies including externally commissioned research and evaluation to support the improvement of policy and practice for vulnerable children, young people and their families. This will include implementation and process evaluations with children/young people, parents/carers and professionals as well as quasi-experimental and experimental impact evaluations.

We welcome applications from mixed-methods, quantitative and qualitative researchers who have knowledge of a range of research methods and evaluation approaches. We are dedicated to delivering child-centred research to ensure their voice is at the forefront of our work. We use co-design and participatory research methods to challenge power imbalances within research and work with marginalized groups.

The Research Manager will work with colleagues across Coram and with external partners in local authorities, central government, businesses and other third sector organisations. They will have the opportunity to shape the work of the Institute by designing new research funding bids, responding to tender opportunities and developing our academic partnerships.

The role also comes with a range of personal and professional benefits including dedicated time for continuous professional development, 25 plus days of annual leave, regular team reflective practice sessions and flexible working arrangements.

This is a great opportunity for an experienced research manager who has a passion for innovative, participatory research to take the initiative to design and deliver high-quality evidence which improves policy and practice for children, young people and their families.

Coram is an equal opportunities employer and we are genuinely committed to encouraging candidates from all sections of the community we seek to support. This includes those from global majority groups, those that identify as LGBQT+, those with disabilities, those with lived experience of care, those with neuro-diversity, and those from other groups who are underrepresented in research roles. If applicants feel comfortable, we would encourage them to draw on lived experience in their personal statement as part of their application.

To apply for this role, please click on the 'apply now' button below to complete the application.

Closing date: 15/03/2026 @ 09.00AM

Interview dates: W/C 23/03/2026

We will also make any reasonable adjustments at the interview stage for applicants invited to interview to support inclusivity.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and where appropriate will require the successful applicant to undertake a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Registered Charity No. 312278.

Project Accountant ​

​Are you ready to take on a new challenge with a leading charity making a real difference in brain tumour research?

​This is a fantastic time to be joining our ambitious and growing charity and we are keen to share this with likeminded and talented individuals. Brain Tumour Research is seeking a qualified and experienced accountant who is able to join our team on a Fixed Term contract (2-4 months) to support our team and undertake some important projects.

​​As the Project Accountant you will play a crucial role in helping the charity meet its strategic plans and objectives. You will be reconciling transactions between our internal records and those of our external partners, developing our cashflow model for our granting programme, housekeeping on our VAT records and more.

• Do you want to make a difference in one of the most innovative and exciting medical research fundraising charities in the UK?
• Do you have outstanding attention to detail and experience working with Access Financials and/or Access CRM?
• Are you a qualified and experienced accountant?​
• Are you able to start as soon as possible?

​Have you answered yes to these questions?

Do you want the chance to make a real difference? 

​If you are excited to learn more about this position, please take a read through our recruitment pack. 

If you have the skills and ambition that we are looking for we welcome your application. We are really looking forward to welcoming a new member to our team!

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We are asking for a CV as the first step but applicants may be asked to provide a targeted covering letter as part of the selection process.  Interviews will be conducted during the application window as appropriate, and will consist of a first interview via MS Teams, progressing, if successful to a face to face second interview, held at our offices in Milton Keynes.

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​We reserve the right to close the application window early and advise candidates to apply in good time to avoid disappointment.

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Closing Date: 29th March 2026

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We are looking for people who share our passion for finding a cure for brain tumours and who have the skills and experience to make a difference. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, cultures, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, and ages. We believe that diversity enriches our organisation and helps us achieve our mission. We are committed to providing an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone can be themselves and contribute to our vision.