Assistant Retail Area Manager

Salary: £27,500 per annual and a car allowance

Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week across seven days (potentially including weekend work)

Closing date: 19 August 2026

Permanent or Fixed Term: Permanent

Location: Harrogate, with regular travel across South and West Yorkshire

About Us

Yorkshire is one of the regions hardest hit by cancer. Together, we can change this.

Yorkshire Cancer Research is a charity dedicated to funding research so that you and those you love live longer healthier lives, free of cancer.

Thanks to supporters, the charity funds vital cancer research and pioneers innovative new services for people with cancer. These life-giving medical breakthroughs are helping more people survive cancer – in Yorkshire, and beyond.

As an inclusive employer, our aim is to ensure our workforce reflects the rich diversity of our region. We believe a diverse workforce is vital to us taking action to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer more effectively in Yorkshire. We offer equal opportunities regardless of race, religion or belief, age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnerships.

We’ve got a strong set of values that inform everything we do, and we’re looking for people who are aligned with these. As a Assistant Retail Area Manager, you will put people in Yorkshire at the heart of everything you do, unite with colleagues and other organisations in this cause, and dare to think big and bold to make positive solutions happen.

To find out more about our values and how important they are to us, please read the role profile linked above.

The Benefits

We offer a wide and generous range of benefits designed to support our employees through every stage of life. To read about these, please see the benefits section of our Careers Page.

The Role

As a Assistant Retail Area Manager, you will play a key support role within the retail team in South and West Yorkshire, ensuring continuity of shop operations, reducing unplanned shop closure dates, and strengthening recruitment and induction processes.

The role supports the Retail Area Manager by maintaining high operational standards, developing shop teams, and embedding consistent policies and procedures across the retail network. The postholder will provide hands-on cover and practical support across multiple shops, particularly during periods of holiday, absence, vacancies, or after new shop openings.

Specifically, you will:

Provide support, knowledge and guidance through effective policies and procedures to keep Retail safe and legal:

• Support shop teams by reinforcing and embedding retail, operational, health & safety, and compliance policies and procedures.

• Act as a practical point of guidance for shop teams when covering shops or providing additional support, ensuring policies and procedures are applied consistently.

• Identify gaps in understanding or compliance and provide clear, supportive coaching to address these.

• Escalate risks, incidents, or non-compliance concerns promptly to the Retail Area Manager, supporting corrective action where required.

• Promote a culture where safety, legality, and good governance are clearly understood as part of everyday retail practice.

Enable managers across the retail estate to build high ownership of risk management:

• Support Retail Area Managers in developing confident, capable shop management teams who understand their responsibilities for compliance, safety, and risk management.

• Assist with recruitment activity, including shortlisting, interviewing, and inducting new starters, ensuring roles are filled effectively to minimise shop closures.

• Provide hands on management cover during periods of absence or vacancy, maintaining team morale, accountability, and operational continuity.

Provide clarity around retail standards, policies and procedures to protect the professional integrity of retail teams and the Yorkshire Cancer Research brand:

• Support shop teams to maintain strong commercial awareness, balancing income generation with appropriate controls and risk management.

• Provide clear, practical guidance to shop teams on visual merchandising, customer service, stock presentation, and shop standards.

• Act as post opening support for new shops, working alongside new teams to embed agreed standards, procedures, and ways of working.

• Reinforce brand presentation and customer experience expectations during shop cover and support visits.

Drive cost control and income generation across Retail while balancing commercial performance and business protection:

• Support shop teams to maintain strong commercial awareness, balancing income generation with appropriate controls and risk management.

• While covering or supporting shops, take responsibility for protecting income through effective stock management, pricing, till procedures, and loss prevention.

• Promote efficient use of resources, helping to control costs and reduce unnecessary spend during periods of cover or transition.

• Support Retail Area Managers and shop teams to maximise trading opportunities, particularly during periods of employee change or after new shop openings.

About You

To be considered for this role, you will need:

• Experience working in a retail environment, ideally within charity or not-for-profit retail.

• Proven experience supporting or supervising multiple stores or teams.

• An understanding of retail key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales, Gift Aid, average transaction value (ATV), and stock rotation.

• Experience supporting recruitment, onboarding, and development of employees and/or volunteers.

• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to motivate and support diverse teams, including volunteers.

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to adapt style to different audiences.

• The ability to build effective working relationships with shop managers, colleagues, and external stakeholders.

• The ability to coach and support shop managers and teams to improve performance and deliver targets.

• A full UK driving licence and access to your own vehicle.

• To be ideally educated to A Level or equivalent or able to demonstrate experience in a similar role at a similar level.

Application

Before applying, please read the full role profile linked above.

Yorkshire Cancer Research is a responsible and flexible employer. We welcome any discussion for flexible working at the interview/offer stage where we will consider an individual’s circumstances against the needs of the charity.

We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. If we can make any reasonable adjustments to support your application please contact us.