Full Time – 35 hours per week
The Diocese of Chester is seeking to recruit a Diocesan Secretary who will be:
1) A senior member of the Bishop of Chester's core staff team,
2) The chief officer of the charitable business that undergirds the Diocese of Chester, and
3) The most senior, 'lay' officer of the Diocese of Chester.
The role is complex as well as important. You will need an open heart and deep courage, patience, kindness, humility, determination, and constantly reflective practice. We value competence founded on transparent good character, grounded deeply in Christian faith. You will need to be able to see over the horizon without missing the personal needs of team members, enabling both with persistent grace and strategic focus.
The successful candidate will be inspirational, humble, skilled and experienced in leadership in both ‘first-’ and ‘second-chairs’, a change manager, relational and the technical ability to fulfil the role.
This role is based in Church House, Daresbury, Warrington which is a key operational centre for the life of the Diocese.
For informal conversation, contact the Bishop of Chester - contact details in the attached documents or via the apply/redirect to recruiter button.
The recruitment pack, including job description, person specification and application form can be downloaded from the Diocesan website: Please see website address in the attached documents or via the apply/redirect to recruiter button.
Completed application forms should be returned by email - contact details in the attached documents or via the apply/redirect to recruiter button
Closing date: Sunday 23rd August 2026
Interviews: Tuesday 8th September 2026
The Diocese of Chester is fully committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
An Enhanced DBS Disclosure will be required for the successful candidate.
An Occupational Requirement exists for the postholder to be a practising Christian, in accordance with the Equality Act, 2010.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
ABOUT GLOBAL CANOPY
Global Canopy is a data-driven not for profit delivering real transparency and accountability for market impacts on nature and people. Our special focus is on ending deforestation – an essential step in achieving urgent global goals on climate, nature and human rights.
Our platforms, data and insights are relied upon by Fortune 500 companies, major financial institutions, national and regional governments, and some of the most effective campaigning organisations worldwide.
We work globally, with a focus on both forested regions (particularly across Latin America and South East Asia), and major consumer and financial markets (with a focus on Europe, the US, Singapore and China).
ABOUT THE NATURE POSITIVE PROGRAMME
Shifting financial flows from enabling nature destruction towards activities that credibly support nature protection and restoration is crucial.
Global Canopy is working to enable the mobilisation of investment at scale into activities that deliver positive outcomes for nature and people, and to reverse the current imbalance, where financial flows to nature-destroying activities sit at USD7 trillion while financial flows towards Nature-based Solutions remain at USD230 billion. Turning this tide requires both reducing financial flows to nature-negative activities and significantly scaling up finance for activities that deliver for nature and people.
Many investors lack clarity on how to make this shift. Building on the success of The Little Book of Nature Business, Global Canopy is developing a Nature-Positive Transitions programme that will deliver the evidence, analysis, innovation and energy to mobilise investors, especially asset owners, to support this financial shift.
We are a new, exciting and extremely ambitious programme within Global Canopy and we work closely with likeminded partners, including Oxford University, UNEP Finance Initiative, and UNEP’s State of Finance for Nature initiative.
We also work closely with other teams across Global Canopy, bringing the organisation’s longstanding expertise and market-leading data for finance and corporate supply chains, and nature, deforestation and human rights impacts.
ABOUT THE ROLE
Our very first project under the Nature-Positive Programme, in partnership with the Nature Positive Hub at the University of Oxford, focuses on building the data infrastructure to enable credibility and comparability in assessing nature-related opportunities. To ensure we deliver the data infrastructure that enables credibility and comparability across emerging nature investing opportunities for the financial sector, we are establishing a data infrastructure workstream to define the criteria to assess the potential nature contributions from these opportunities, their risk-adjusted returns, their investability potential and how they can match the mandates of diverse asset owners.
We are seeking two Research Associates with demonstrably strong research and analytical skills and experience in the fields of nature or biodiversity finance who will directly contribute to this data infrastructure workstream.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Research and database development (70%)
- Work with partners and colleagues to define methodologies, relevant frameworks, and criteria for assessing the contribution to nature and the risk-adjusted returns of nature-investing opportunities, with a focus on scaling these opportunities.
- Work with colleagues and partners to design and develop a data repository of nature-related investment opportunities, defining the models, schemas and conventions that enable multiple researchers to record opportunities consistently and comparably.
- Identify and map nature-related investment opportunities across sectors against the defined criteria.
- Conduct interviews with potential investees and investors (including asset owners) for selected nature-related investment opportunities.
- Manage delivery of research in line with project timetable, ensuring alignment with the overall project ambition and strategic direction.
Content and engagement (20%)
- Draft case studies and reports, synthesising the analysis and lessons from the project with the Nature Finance Content Lead and project partners.
- Maintain ongoing technical engagement with partners at the University of Oxford and other key technical contributors
- Coordinate external consultations on the project’s technical aspects, in collaboration with partners and the project’s engagement associate.
- Support in the organisation of events that raise awareness and amplify project results.
Strategy and Fundraising (10%)
- Contribute to monitoring, evaluation and learning, including donor reporting.
- Contribute to fundraising efforts and the ongoing development of the nature-positive strategy
REQUIREMENTS
To be successful in the role, these are the things that will matter most:
- Applied environmental research skills and experience, particularly with nature impact and assessments
- Deep understanding of financial analytics
- Data collection and data modelling experience with a view to inform decision-making
- Programmatic data analysis skills (strong preference for Python using pandas) to clean, structure and analyse complex datasets, compute derived metrics, and produce clear summaries and visualisations for reports and case studies
- Experience delivering collaborative projects with technical components and with external partners
- Demonstrable project management experience, with capacity to independently manage work according to agreed project timelines and to a high standard
Essential behavioural competencies:
- Demonstrable motivation and alignment with the project’s vision and mission, as well as Global Canopy’s strategy
- Proactive and self-motivated
- A team player who takes ownership of their own work, listens to feedback and supports their colleagues’ contributions
- Honesty, curiosity and resilience
Desirable
- Experience building strong data models within spreadsheets or low/no code tools, and/or relational database experience, ideally with PostgreSQL.eans.
- Coding skills (ideally Python) to support and streamline the data work
- Experience with social impact analysis
- Familiarity with the nexus between human rights and nature-related issues.
BENEFITS
Salary: £50,000 full time equivalent. This role sits within Band D on Global Canopy’s remuneration framework.
Nature of contract: x2 full-time, permanent contracts. Our office is in Oxford, with flexible home-working arrangements in place. Attendance at the office will be expected on a monthly basis. We are willing to support UK visa sponsorship for the successful candidates.
Holidays: 36 days (including bank/public holidays) for discretionary use across the annual leave year. Option to purchase up to an additional 5 days or equivalent of one week’s leave.
Pension: Employer pension contribution of 8%.
Healthcare cashback plan: Covering dental fees, eye-care, wellbeing, physiotherapy, chiropody and much more – for you and any children.
Employee Assistance Programme: Which provides free, confidential advice on personal and legal matters.
Other: Huge range of discounts and cashback deals at gyms, restaurants, holidays, and much more.
HOW TO APPLY
To apply for the position, please follow the links and submit an up-to date CV and answers to the following questions (please no more than 150 words each):
- Describe a time when you used code to clean, reshape, combine or otherwise modify datasets to prepare them for analysis. What was messy or difficult about the raw data, what did your code do, and how did you verify the result was correct?
- Describe a time when you assessed the environmental benefits and/or the financial performance of an investment that presented itself as potentially beneficial to nature. What was your thought/analysis process, what data did you use, and what difficulties did you encounter in conducting the analysis? How did you address them?
- Why is this role at Global Canopy an attractive opportunity at this point in your career?
All candidates are asked to complete an anonymous diversity monitoring form when they apply.
The closing date for applications is Monday, 10 August 2026 at 9am BST. Early application encouraged. We may close applications early if enough suitable candidates are identified.
First round interview calls are provisionally planned for 21 and 24 August and will be conducted remotely via a video call.
Those successful in the first round will then be invited to complete an assessed exercise which will determine who we invite for a final interview.
Final interviews will be held via video call and are tentatively scheduled for w/c 7 September.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Community Fundraising Assistant – East
Are you ready to take on a new challenge with a leading charity making a real difference in brain tumour research?
Brain Tumour Research is an exciting, innovative, and ambitious charity. We are passionate about finding a cure for brain tumours through the establishment of dedicated Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence around the UK.
After a successful 2025, we’re building on our momentum and looking ahead with ambition. As our work continues to expand, so does our impact. We are now looking for passionate people to join us on the next stage of our journey!
It is a fantastic time to be joining us and we are keen to share this with likeminded and talented individuals. We currently have an opening for a Community Fundraising Assistant - East, to join our Income Generation and Development team.
- Do you want to make a difference in one of the most innovative and exciting medical research fundraising charities in the UK?
- Are you able to provide friendly and professional support to fundraisers and supporters?
- Do you have experience in supporting events or community activities?
- Do you live in our East Region (which includes Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, London, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Essex)?
Have you answered Yes to these questions?
Does this sound like the opportunity to really take the next step in your career?
Excited to learn more about this position? Then please take a read through our recruitment pack below.
If you have the skills and ambition that we are looking for we are excited to receive your application. We are really looking forward to welcoming a new member to our team!
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.
We reserve the right to close the application window early and advise candidates to apply in good time to avoid disappointment.
Closing Date: 30th August 2026
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.
To find a cure for all types of brain tumours To increase the UK investment in brain tumour research
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.


