Senior Social Media Officer

• Salary: £36,600 (outside of London); £38,534 (London)
• 35 hours per week
• Permanent contract
• Hybrid variable (UK) with 1 day a week in our London or Bristol office
• Closing date: Sunday 19 April 2026
• Round 1 interviews: WC 4 May 2026
• Round 2 interviews: WC 11 May 2026

Change lives in a life-changing career

When a child or young person is diagnosed with cancer, their whole world can feel like it’s falling apart. Independence is taken and confidence is stolen. Stability no longer exists. The future suddenly feels uncertain.

The impact of cancer on young lives is more than medical. And that impact can be felt by entire family. That’s why we exist. Our specialist social workers help children and young people with cancer and their families navigate the emotional and practical impact of cancer.

We remove barriers, solve problems and prioritise wellbeing. And we stop at nothing to make their voices heard and their unique needs understood, so they can get the right care and support at the right time

About the role

We’re looking for a Senior Social Media Officer with a genuine passion for conversation, connection, and community to join our Digital Engagement Team.

As the Senior Social Media Officer, you will lead the delivery of the charity’s social media activity, as well as the paid boosting strategy of social media content across all platforms.

This is not a broadcasting role: it’s about fostering meaningful engagement with our supporters and raising the voices of young people and children with cancer.

This role is part of the Digital Engagement team, who are responsible for paid media, email marketing and organic social media activity. While social media will be the core focus of this role, experience in paid media and/or email marketing is desirable.

What will I be doing?

No two days are the same at Young Lives vs Cancer. So, summarising your ‘day to day’ isn’t easy. Here are some of the main things you’ll be doing, but you’ll find more details in the job description.

• Lead the planning, development, and execution of the organisation’s social media strategy across all major platforms (eg TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and more).
• Lead the planning, development, and execution of the organisation’s paid boosting strategy of social media content across all major platforms, to deliver against comms team objectives (for example, Reach or Engagement KPIs month-on-month, or campaign-on-campaign).
• Lead the planning, development, and execution of our smaller paid media campaigns to deliver against briefed KPIs (eg Paid social, PPC; working on smaller conversion campaigns or awareness campaigns).
• Act as a brand and channel guardian, ensuring consistent voice, tone, messaging, and visual identity across all social content.
• Foster a supportive and engaging environment for our digital communities, responding to comments and engaging in discussions; escalate risks where appropriate.
• Deliver and maintain our social media moderation guidelines and rota.
• Oversee the content planning process and maintain a high quality content calendar, identifying gaps, opportunities, and content pipelines.
• Collaborate with teams across the organisation on content creation (copy, stills, audio, short form video), ensuring alignment with brand, accessibility standards, and audience needs.

What do I need? 

The key skills we’re looking for in this role are:

• Proven experience managing and growing organisational social media channels, ideally across multiple audiences and markets. (Desirable: experience in the third sector).
• Demonstrable experience planning, delivering, and evaluating social media strategies and/or multi channel campaigns.
• Proven experience managing and executing paid media campaigns, ideally across multiple channels and campaign objectives (eg. Paid social conversion campaigns; mid-funnel PPC campaigns). (Desirable: experience in the third sector).
• Strong track record of community management, including moderating discussions, protecting online spaces, and managing sensitive or complex enquiries.
• Experience producing engaging content for different platforms (copy, static, video, audio, short form reels).
• Experience using analytics, social listening, and reporting tools to derive insights and drive continuous improvement.
• Experience project-managing the implementation of campaign tracking across various ad platforms and websites.
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders and juggling cross team projects in a fast moving environment.

What will I gain?

For people to reach their full potential, they need the right environment. As a member of Team Young Lives, you’ll be made to feel supported, valued and appreciated. Here’s how we do it:

• Flexible working: we’re open to working hours outside of 9 - 5 and we can talk through your flexibility requirements at interview stage
• Wellbeing, Thinking & Growth Days: four days a year to to step back from the day-to-day and focus on your own learning and development
• Generous annual leave allowance
• Great family/caring leave entitlements
• Enhanced pension
• Access to our employee savings scheme

To find out more about our benefits package, have a look on our website.

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

At Young Lives vs Cancer, we recognise that opportunities for too many people remain a condition of their sex, ethnicity, class, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation – or a combination. This has never been acceptable to us as an organisation. We don’t just accept difference, we value it, celebrate it, nurture it and we thrive because of it.

We’re on a journey to be reflective of the diverse children, young people and families we support. We know we aren’t there yet, and we’re passionately committed to taking actions and making changes to be a truly diverse, inclusive and equitable organisation. This includes taking anti-oppressive action and removing barriers in our recruitment practices. We particularly welcome applications from members of minoritised communities. Our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging strategy will tell you more.

To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed. We recognise the benefits of AI, but if you're considering using it to submit your application, we encourage you to reflect on the value AI adds. AI tools often lack the personal touch and authenticity that set candidates apart. We want to hear your unique perspective, experiences, and skills, so we encourage you to tell us about your skills and experiences in your own voice.

Accessibility

We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always aim to be as accommodating as possible.  Please let us know in your application form of any adjustments or access requirements we could make to help you with the application process and interview.

To arrange an informal chat, please contact Tommy Beattie.

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