The Royal Ballet and Opera continues to lead the way in opera, ballet, music and dance both live on stage and through multiple digital platforms, from live streaming to worldwide cinema screenings. Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies: The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera.
This role sits within the highly committed and successful Development and Advocacy Department, which generates over £41m revenue annually, plus additional capital funds, and secures the annual Arts Council England grant (currently £22.9m). The Department’s revenue generation and advocacy to Government of the value of our creative sector ensures the RBO can retain the best artists and crafts people, deliver our thriving National Schools’ Programme, maintain our beautiful grade I listed building, deliver on our charitable mission, and continue to produce world class performances.
The Membership Team, responsible for Friends and Patrons, are responsible for circa £10m annually. Friends and Patrons also make up 30% of ticket income, 55% of other donations and 88% of legacies, emphasising the importance of community building, good processes and customer service. The Patrons of the Royal Ballet and Opera are a core loyal audience who provide vital philanthropic support to the RBO. As a thank-you for their support, they enjoy premium benefits including a concierge Box Office and special events.
The Patrons Manager will be responsible for both Individual and Corporate Patron relationships from prospecting to renewal, managing recruitment, stewardship and overseeing excellence in customer service via the Patrons Box Office. This is a strategic role, with responsibility for managing and growing the Patrons Scheme, ensuring members make the most of their Patron membership to achieve maximum renewal and upgrade rates.
Our ideal candidate will be results driven, with a pro-active, can-do attitude that is role modelled in the small team of reports and more widely across the Department. You will be solutions focused with experience of taking accountability for improvements and resolutions. You will be able to lead and develop a small team, manage a busy workload with high output and productivity and demonstrate highly effective influencing skills.
You will have:
- Experience of working in a membership organisation and/or with high-net-worth individuals in a philanthropic environment. Experience in a box office/ticketing environment is also highly desirable.
- Experience of working in revenue growth environments, with an aptitude for working toward KPIs.
- A firm understanding of Gift Aid and other charitable legislation and laws.
- Demonstrable experience leading on relationship management (including face to face) within a Patrons or Philanthropy scheme or similar
- Experience identifying new initiatives and ways to enhance Patron experience, with experience delivering in a culture of continuous improvement and customer service excellence.
- Developed communication and rapport building skills; able to tailor communications effectively and quicky forge strong relationships, both internally and externally
An understanding and knowledge of the art forms is not essential but the ability to learn and communicate effectively and persuasively about opera, ballet, music and dance to Patrons is critical for this role.
The Royal Ballet and Opera is one of the UK’s leading arts organisations and our aim is to inspire imagination, ignite emotion and make the extraordinary for everyone. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion underpin all that we do. We want our people to be representative of the diversity in the UK. We understand the creativity and innovation that diversity can bring and strive to create an inclusive environment in which everyone can thrive.
We encourage applications from people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to join our teams. We particularly welcome applications from those who are from a global majority background and/or those who are disabled, as they are under-represented within our organisation.
We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means that we are actively working to ensure that candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will endeavour to offer an interview to candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they meet the essential criteria for the role, though sometimes due to the volume of qualified candidates with declarations this is not possible.
The RBO is also committed to safeguarding and protecting all children, young people, and adults and we implement robust safer recruitment practices. Due to our safeguarding promise, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check before commencing employment with us, which will be indicated in the advertising.
Closing date for applications: 11:59pm, Sunday 15th February 2026.
Interviews will be held over two stages. The 1st stage will be online via Microsoft Teams w/c 23rd February 2026. The 2nd stage will be in person at ROH Covent Garden w/c 2nd March 2026.
To ensure a fair process, late applications will not be considered under any circumstances.
Applicants must have work authorisation for the UK. No agencies.
Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies.



The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
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About Young Roots
At Young Roots, we want to see a compassionate and welcoming society for young refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. We work alongside young people seeking safety in the UK, building trusted relationships, providing practical and emotional support and promoting young people’s rights and power.
Our youth clubs and casework are transformative for young refugees, allowing young people who have fled danger, had traumatic journeys and who are often here alone, to find community and connection, have a space to be a young person and access support in addressing a whole range of practical challenges they face. We also draw on our evidence from working every day with young refugees and asylum seekers to call for change to the laws and policies which are harming young people.
About the role
Young Roots is looking for a proactive, values-driven Head of Youth Work to shape our life-changing youth work services for young refugees and asylum seekers. This is a rare opportunity to take strategic ownership of a high-impact service, influence organisational direction as part of our Leadership Group, and work alongside inspiring young people and passionate colleagues.
You need significant experience leading a face-to-face service for people facing complex challenges (for example in youth services, homelessness, mental health or refugee support). You’ll bring strong safeguarding expertise, excellent people leadership and programme management skills, and a track record of developing high-quality, inclusive services.
In this role you will:
- Set a clear and ambitious vision for youth work at Young Roots
- Lead and support Youth Work Managers and multidisciplinary teams
- Champion youth participation and co-production
- Ensure services are safe, compliant, and impactful
- Build partnerships and help shape new projects and funding
If you’re excited by the idea of combining strategy with hands-on leadership, and want to use your skills to support young people to thrive, belong, and build their futures, we’d love to hear from you.
Why join Young Roots
- A senior role with real influence in a respected, impactful organisation
- A collaborative leadership team, highly skilled colleagues and values-led culture
- Flexible, hybrid working
To Apply:
To apply, please submit your CV alongside a personal statement by the closing date outlining how you would be a great fit for the role.
Your personal statement should be no more than 800 words, answering the following questions:
- What is your motivation for working with Young Roots? (100 words)
- What is your motivation for applying for this role specifically? (200 words)
- What skills and experience would you bring that will enable you to be successful in this role? Please ensure you refer to the essential criteria on the person specification and provide examples to demonstrate how and where you meet the criteria. (500 words)
Please submit your application via Charity Jobs.
No agencies, please.
Closing date: 18th February
Interview dates: 25th February (panel interview in Croydon) and for those successful at the first stage 27th February (young person’s panel).
Young Roots recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equity and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly those who can face disadvantage in employment, such as people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, LGBTQ+ individuals and people with disabilities. As an organisation that supports refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, we particularly welcome applications from people within these communities. We offer a guaranteed interview for those with lived experience of the asylum system and those with disabilities, where they meet the essential elements of the person specification. If aspects of the application process create barriers to you applying and you’d like any adjustment to the process or you’d like an informal discussion or advice on your application, please get in touch. We would also like to alert you to the existence of organisations which support people from under-represented groups to access employment, who can advise you on applying for this role. For example, Scope, Young Women’s Trust and Experts by Experience.
Young Roots is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff to share this commitment. We take this duty very seriously.
Our work is underpinned by policies and procedures which promote safe working practices. We have a framework of training and supervision which everyone is expected to comply with and systems for monitoring, quality assurance and gaining service user feedback. On joining you will be expected to be part of this approach to safeguard our service users.
Working alongside young people seeking safety - building trust, providing practical and emotional support, and promoting their rights and power.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.