Volunteer Support Officer

Location:            MSSC National Support Centre, 200b Lambeth Road, London SE1 7JY

Contract:            35 hours per week

Salary:                £27,300 gross per annum

Closing Date:     Monday 25 May 2026

Interviews:         Assessment Day at MSSC NSC on Monday 1 June 2026

Are you passionate about supporting volunteers and looking for a new opportunity?

The Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is the leading maritime charity for youth development and lifelong learning. We are a vibrant and growing charity inspiring young people to achieve their potential through challenge and nautical adventure and also enabling seafarers and maritime professionals to realise their potential through learning and career development. Working with our employees, cadets, and volunteers, we have built a strong vision and five-year Future Ready strategy to meet the growing demand for what we provide, both for young people, seafarers and maritime professionals – and the thousands who aspire to be the sea cadets and marine professionals of the future. It is also about equipping them to achieve their potential and thrive in a rapidly changing world, while growing our charity to benefit even more people – including those from under-represented or marginalised groups.

We are currently looking for a Volunteer Support Officer with proven administrative and IT skills to join our busy Volunteer Support team based at our National Support Centre.

This role plays a vital part in supporting the smooth and safe onboarding of adult volunteers within Sea Cadets. As a key member of the Volunteer Support Team, you will ensure that all administrative processes are completed. You will act as a first point of contact for volunteer enquiries, maintain high quality records throughout volunteers’ membership, maintaining MSSC’s commitment to safer recruitment and compliance.

Responsibilities

• Support the processing of adult volunteer applications to join Sea Cadets, ensuring all personnel records are accurately updated on the CRM system.
• Review and approve volunteer references in line with MSSC’s Safer Recruitment Policy.
• Administer the enhanced disclosure process, acting as an MSSC counter-signatory.
• Process grants and claims relating to volunteer uniform allowances.
• Review and submit applications for UKSV Security Clearances and MOD 90 ID Cards.
• Respond to all Volunteer Support enquiries received by MSSC via email, post, and phone.

Requirements

• Experience working in a customer‑focused role, handling a wide range of enquiries by phone and email, including challenging conversations.
• Excellent IT proficiency, particularly in Microsoft Excel and Outlook.
• Experience using data protection procedures and handling confidential information appropriately.
• Experience organising own workload and managing deadlines effectively.

Desirable

• Experience of database inputting, record maintenance, and data management.
• Experience working with volunteers.

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave per annum increasing with length of service
• Hybrid working for many roles
• Life assurance (4x salary)
• Private medical insurance
• Generous pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
• Cycle to work scheme
• Wellbeing portal and EAP with 121 counselling
• Employee development: We are investing in our employees' development and have an annual calendar of learning and development opportunities, designed to support employees to develop into their roles and stretch them to achieve their full potential.

Additional Information

MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matters to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunities employer.

We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity. We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references and criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire. 

All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo pre-employment checks.