Operations Team Leader

Today, 12 children and young people will be diagnosed with cancer. We’ll stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.   ​

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 an Operations Team Leader with supervisory and process improvement experience to join our Income Operations Team. 

This role sits at the core of our income and fundraising operations, ensuring the systems and processes that underpin our supporters’ journeys are efficient, accurate and high‑quality. You’ll be responsible for keeping central income workflows running smoothly—from processing and reconciling income, to managing supporter data, Gift Aid compliance, fulfilment, and other essential activities that enable our fundraising teams to succeed and our supporters to have a great experience. 

You’ll work closely with the Operations Manager to drive continuous improvement, helping identify challenges, shape solutions and embed better ways of working across the charity. As someone who champions best practice, compliance and operational excellence, you’ll support colleagues in understanding upcoming business requirements including the implementation of D365 as our new CRM. 

People leadership is also central to the role. You’ll share responsibility for managing and developing the Operations team, supporting their daily workflow, training and professional growth. With regular collaboration across teams and stakeholders, you’ll play an important role in ensuring our systems, processes and controls remain robust, fit for purpose and capable of supporting the charity’s mission.

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 and develop the Operations Administrators, setting clear objectives/KPIs, maintaining high performance standards, and ensuring audit‑ready processes. 
• Manage and reconcile all income flows, ensuring bank receipts, Direct Debits, Gift Aid, and multi‑channel donations are accurately processed and recorded in the CARE database. 
• Oversee core operational processes, including data preparation, mass data imports, coding structure administration, receipts/acknowledgements, and Gift Aid declaration compliance. 
• Monitor quality and drive continuous improvement, ensuring efficiency, accuracy, and strong risk‑management practices across all operational outputs. 
• Act as a key collaborator with internal teams, helping to design robust income and data systems and supporting responses to queries and audits. 
• Build strong relationships and communicate effectively, ensuring stakeholders are informed of issues, risks, and operational challenges. 

What do I need? 

Diverse perspectives and unique skillsets are at the heart of Young Lives vs Cancer. If you're passionate about making a positive impact and eager to learn, we encourage you to apply, even if you don't meet the criteria and person specification fully. Your potential is what matters most to us, and we’re committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment to help you develop.

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

• Experience managing or supervising others
• Ability to effectively manage multiple priorities and deadlines at the same time. 
• Strong consultative and listening skills to build a rapport with stakeholders and gain key information. 
• Understanding of financial and fundraising compliance and controls  

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.

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. CVs can be uploaded, but we won't be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history sections of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly and objectively.

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 please contact David Lewis.

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