Country research manager jobs

We are looking for a Community Organiser, based in Manchester, to work with us on a short-term, freelance basis to organise with people in debt.

Deadline for applications: Tuesday 1 September, 9am
Location: Manchester
Contract: Three days per week for four months
Start date: as soon as possible
Rate: £200 per day, to be invoiced on a freelance, self-employed basis.

You will support members of our Manchester campaign group, led by people with lived experience of the debt crisis, to demand and win policy change to end the use of bailiffs for council tax debt collection. And work directly with  allies in Manchester and officials at Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and target councils.

Please read the role profile (.pdf) for full details.

Application process: please email your CV and a covering letter outlining how you meet the skills and experience in the role profile by 9am on Tuesday 1 September.

If you have a question about any aspect of the role, please do get in touch. 

We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented in the sector, including black and brown people, women and non-binary people, people who identify as LGBTQIA+ and people who identify as working class or have done in the past.

Salary: £118,750 per annum

Hours: Full time

Contract: Permanent

Benefits:

• 27 days’ annual leave + statutory holidays + three closure days over the Christmas period.
• Flexible working for all staff including working from home/hybrid working, and flexitime/TOIL scheme.
• Attractive family friendly policies.
• Private healthcare cover.
• Season ticket loans.
• Employee awards, and training and development opportunities.

For more information about our benefits please visit our website.

Office location: London based but with extensive travel around England

Please note, the successful candidate will be expected to carry out two days in-person working per week on average which will include attending the office.

An exciting opportunity has arisen at the National Housing Federation (NHF) for an Executive Director of Public Impact. The NHF is the voice of housing associations in England. We are the trade body to almost 600 housing associations, who have grown from philanthropic roots to provide 2.6 million homes to around six million people. You can find further information about the NHF on our website.

After years of campaigning, the government's recent Spending Review delivered a transformational package of funding for social housing. It will enable us to deliver the biggest social housebuilding programme since the post-war period and to better protect our existing social homes. It couldn’t be a more exciting time to join our organisation.

Over the coming years we’ll be a key partner in helping the government achieve its housebuilding targets, delivering long-term benefits to residents and communities.

We also have exciting plans to boost the public’s understanding of our sector and ensure that housing associations are seen as an employer of choice.

This is a chance for someone with significant leadership experience, and a real interest in social housing, public affairs and policy to join us and help make those ambitions a reality. You will find great colleagues and a brilliant team, and get the opportunity to work on some of the toughest (and most interesting) social, economic and policy issues in the country.

Quite simply, this role is one of the best jobs in housing! It’s challenging, rewarding and thought provoking, giving you the chance to make a real difference.

If this sounds like you, we would love to hear from you.

Please apply demonstrating the following:

• Significant leadership and management experience as part of senior leadership team.
• In-depth understanding of the political environment and how this impacts on housing.
• Proven track record of developing relationships with government and associated bodies at a senior level.
• Understanding of policy development and how it can be supported by research to influence and change the operating environment for housing associations.
• Experience in developing successful organisational strategies and translating those strategies into actionable plans to deliver results.
• Confident media spokesperson with experience of giving high profile interviews.
• Proven track record of delivering high performance through management, coaching and driving culture change.
• Ability to manage budgets effectively and deliver value for money.
• Ability to work flexibly to meet the requirements of the job role.
• Experience of working in a membership organisation/trade body (desirable).

Further information can be found in the job role profile and recruitment pack linked at the bottom of this page.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are proud to be an inclusive workplace and we value the contribution each individual makes to our work. We are champions of diversity and encourage and welcome applications from people with the widest possible range of backgrounds, personal or professional.

Disability confident employer

We are a disability confident employer and if you are a disabled person who meets the skills and experience, we consider essential for the role, we will offer you an interview.

Please note: there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as high-volume of applications, we may be required to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.
In these circumstances the NHF will select the disabled candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as we would do for non-disabled applicants. This is in line with the Disability Confident guidelines.

We are happy to consider reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process if you have a disability or have a condition that you feel may affect your performance during the recruitment process. Please e-mail the People team with your request or to arrange a time to discuss in more detail.

Our role profile and job advert can also be requested in large print or in accessible format via this email address.

Uploading your CV and cover letter

If you decide to apply for this role, when requested, please upload a version of your CV that does not include any personal details, such as name, gender, age etc. You should also ensure that you do not add your name at the end of the cover letter. This will help us to shortlist candidates for interview based solely on their knowledge, skills and experience.

Please also ensure that your cover letter is no longer than one side of A4 and includes a clear explanation of why you are applying for this role and the skills and experience you would bring.

Right to work in the UK/UK VISA sponsorship

You must have the right to work in the UK and it is important to note that the NHF does not sponsor individuals to work in the UK.

Closing date for applications: 31 August 2026

First interview date: 17 and 18 September 2026

Second interview date: 1 October 2026

About us

Carers UK’s vision is to create a society that recognises, values and supports carers. As the leading national charity for unpaid carers, we exist to make life better for carers, however caring affects them. Our support, advice, information and campaigning work are now needed more than ever, as unpaid carers are providing more and more care, adversely impacting on their own health and wellbeing.

About the role

We recognise the value of social media in communicating with all our audiences; whether unpaid carers or their friends and families, employers, politicians, service providers, supporters and all those people who may become a carer for a partner, family member, friend or neighbour and will need information, support, and to know that there are people working to make their lives better.

This role works with colleagues across the organisation, including our senior management team - but also in partnership with external organisations and agencies - with targets set for engagement (and other indicators of the success of our campaigns). We're working on multiple campaigns simultaneously; whether that's Carers Week, campaigns to influence changes to the law to better support carers, encouraging unpaid carers to join us as members, updating on activities in the devolved nations or getting people to fundraise for Carers UK. And we use a mix of owned, earned and paid communications to drive engagement in a challenging and crowded environment in order to get our messages to cut through. It's a busy, but varied role, in a supportive and collaborative team.

About you

Working within the communications and marketing team, you'll be confident in managing our social media accounts (we have many), ensuring we're using platforms to get our messages out to both wide and targeted audiences with engaging and timely content.

You'll be happy using tools for social listening, interacting with our audiences and building our reach. You'll be familiar with key metrics for social engagement and will be reporting back to colleagues and other stakeholders - and using this data to constantly improve our communications.

You'll be skilled in writing longer form content for our members' magazine, Caring, proof reading articles, posting content on our websites, creating graphics and making sure our content is engaging, audience focused and dynamic. Oh, and you probably know your way around an emoji set and are not scared of a well timed pun. Plus you'll have a great eye for detail and be confident in your ability to prioritise (and sometimes reprioritise) your workload as needed.

We're a small but effective communications team and pride ourselves on getting stuck in and supporting each other when we need to deliver big on fast moving projects, so you'll need be able to juggle lots of demands while recognising the importance of always hitting deadlines.

Diversity and inclusion

Carers UK is committed to becoming a diverse and truly inclusive organisation; fostering an environment and working culture that celebrates and promotes diversity and inclusion.  We strive to create a workplace where our colleagues and volunteers can truly be themselves and feel like they belong and constantly seek to ensure all voices are heard.

To embrace this culture of diversity, our employee and volunteer recruitment should reflect our stakeholders and the society that we serve and support, regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, disabilities or religious practices. We value individual diversity and are actively building diverse teams here at Carers UK and value our colleagues from a wide range of backgrounds.

As a membership charity for carers, we particularly seek employees and volunteers with a real understanding of the issues faced by carers. Reasonable adjustments can be made to the process and role, dependent on the needs of the applicant.

We are proud to be an Employers for Carers member. We have signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge and achieved the Disability Confident Employer accreditation. We aim to offer interviews to those who have a disability covered under the definition outlined in the Equality Act 2010 and who meet the minimum criteria for the role. The minimum criteria can be found under the Essential section of the Person Specification of the recruitment pack. Please let us know if your application is being made under the Disability Confident Scheme. You are not required to share the nature of your disability or long term health condition. You will need to state in your email application that you are making your application under the Disability Confident Scheme as you consider yourself to be disabled, or as having a disability. If you meet the minimum criteria then you will be offered an interview.

At Carers UK we want our application process to be as accessible as possible. If you need any adjustments to apply please contact us to discuss.  

The closing date for applications is 5pm, Tuesday 18 August.

Carers UK anonymises all applications prior to shortlisting.

Carers UK reserves the right to appoint at any stage, should an outstanding candidate emerge.

Carers UK are actively interviewing as we receive applications.

Carers UK may carry out online and social media checks before a formal offer is made.