Recognition Adviser

About us

Our purpose is simple, to save lives at sea. At the heart of the RNLI are thousands volunteers and their passion, talent and kindness has supported saving lives for over 200 years. Recognising the incredible contributions of our volunteers, supporters, and staff is vitally important to us — their commitment is what makes saving lives possible.

About the role

Recognising the huge contribution that volunteers make to the organisation is something we are immensely passionate about and to help us do this, we are looking for a talented Recognition Adviser to join the Volunteering Development and Inclusion team. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape our approach to volunteer recognition both now and for the future. In addition to leading the team in delivering our existing awards and events programme, the post holder will co-ordinate the review of current ways of working whilst exploring new ways of recognising volunteers.

About you

You will be an experienced, motivated volunteering professional who has developed and implemented volunteering recognition initiatives on a similar scale. Your communication and stakeholder engagement skills will be first class with experience of delivering volunteering recognition and most importantly, you will be passionate about making a difference.

Some of the benefits

• Flexible working
• 26 days’ annual leave plus Bank Holidays
• Competitive pension scheme
• Life assurance

An understanding of volunteering or previous experience of working in another charity would be helpful, but is not essential.

For more information and to apply, please visit our jobs page.

Closing date: 5 April 2026.

Interview date: w/c 13 April 2026.

The RNLI is committed to safeguarding; protecting a person’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect. We expect all employees and volunteers to share this commitment and have a zero-tolerance approach. The suitability of all prospective employees and volunteers will be assessed during the recruitment process in line with this commitment. This will include relevant criminal record checks being carried out dependent on the eligibility of the role. (England & Wales; DBS check, Scotland; Disclosure Scotland PVG, Northern Ireland; Access NI, Republic of Ireland; Garda Vetting; International, International Child Protection Certificate process).

Our staff and volunteers have been saving lives at sea without prejudice for 200 years. We respect and value diversity of background, skills and perspectives within our teams, and consider it essential to help us deliver a world-class lifesaving service. We are an inclusive organisation and welcome applications from everyone. In addition to having the skills needed for the role, we also look for applicants who share our commitment to living our RNLI values (trustworthy, courageous, selfless, and dependable), and helping us work towards Our Vision: To save Every One.