Partnerships jobs

The Orpheus Centre is a specialist performing arts college and charity that supports young disabled adults to live more independent and fulfilling lives. Guided by our values—joyful, bold, inclusive, resilient and determined—we empower our students through the arts while providing an exciting, creative and supportive environment for staff.

​The role

We are looking for an energetic, organised and enthusiastic challenge event and corporate fundraiser to join our ambitious fundraising team. This is an exciting opportunity for someone with experience in fundraising, ideally working within the corporate or challenge event fields.

You will play a key role in growing our corporate income by stewarding existing relationships and cultivating new ones. Alongside growing our TEAM ORPHEUS! Challenge event. Recruiting, stewarding and retaining fundraisers. Working closely with the Partnerships Manager and Deputy Head of Fundraising, you’ll help the organisation prepare for significant planned growth and an upcoming capital appeal

If you are passionate about relationship-building, motivated by targets, and want to make a meaningful difference to the lives of disabled young people—this could be your next step.

​Location: Godstone, Surrey

Salary: £26,000- £30,000 per annum

Hours: Full-time, 35 hours per week / 52 weeks per year. Hours may be altered on occasions according to the needs of the curriculum and organisation

Contract: Permanent

​Key responsibilities

• Deliver against corporate income targets in line with our fundraising strategy.
• Identify, cultivate and secure new corporate partnerships, including Charity of the Year opportunities, sponsorships and corporate fundraising campaigns.
• Steward existing corporate supporters with high-quality engagement, communication and reporting.Plan and manage corporate supporter engagement opportunities including meetings, volunteering days and events.Recruit and engage participants to sign up for fundraising challenge events.
• Provide excellent supporter care by guiding participants before, during, and after their challenge.
• Identify opportunities to grow income, including upselling participants to larger events or encouraging repeat participation.
• Maintain up-to-date and accurate records using our CRM system.
• Contribute to industry insight by monitoring trends, opportunities and sector developments.
• Attend meetings, pitches, events and occasional evening/weekend activities (TOIL provided).

​About you​

Essential Experience & Skills​

• Experience in fundraising or B2B account management.
• Ability to build strong, positive relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Experience working to income targets and managing pipelines.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including report and proposal writing.
• Good negotiation, influencing, and presentation abilities.
• Excellent organisational skills and the ability to manage a busy and varied workload.
• Confident user of Microsoft Office and CRM systems.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy.

​Desirable Experience​

• 1+ years’ experience in fundraising.
• Experience developing pitches and securing COTY partnerships.
• Experience in working with challenge events and participants.
• Understanding of disability issues.

​Other Requirements​

• Full, clean driving licence and access to a vehicle.
• Willingness to occasionally work outside standard hours.​

Why work with us?​

• A warm, friendly, and creative working environment.
• Opportunities for training, development and personal growth.
• The chance to make a direct, meaningful impact on the lives of young disabled adults.
• Being part of an ambitious organisation entering a period of exciting growth.​

Join us in making a lasting difference in the lives of young disabled people through the power of the arts.

​Safeguarding and Equality​

Orpheus is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people. All posts are subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and satisfactory references. This post is classed as having a high degree of contact with vulnerable adults and is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. It is an offence to apply for this role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.

As part of our safer recruitment process and in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025, online searches may be undertaken as part of due diligence.

​We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

In order to be considered you must be eligible to work in the UK.

​The Orpheus Centre is proud to be a disability confident employer

We have made a positive commitment to employing disabled people. Reasonable adjustments will be made to the recruitment procedure as required in consultation with the applicant to ensure no-one is disadvantaged because of their disability. If a disabled person is selected for a position, reasonable adjustments will be made to the workplace, including premises and equipment, work duties and practices or policies, as appropriate. All disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role as set out in the role profile and person specification will be considered for interview.

​As a Disability Confident Employer, we are:

• ​Challenging attitudes towards disability
• Increasing understanding of disability
• Removing barriers to disabled people and those with long-term health conditions
• Ensuring that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspiration

No agencies please.

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Community Marketing Manager  for CharityConnect/CharityJob

12-month Fixed Term Contract - Hybrid  £37,000 - £40,000

CharityJob is the UK's most trusted job board for the charity sector.   CharityConnect is our community platform.  In 2026/27 we're integrating CharityConnect more closely with CharityJob, and turning it into something the sector wants to be a part of.   The strategy is in place. What's needed now is someone with the energy, creativity and commercial instinct to execute it. 

You'll have genuine ownership, a clear brief, and the opportunity to build something the sector will love. 

What you'll be doing 

This is a hands-on, varied role. You'll own the day-to-day running and growth of Charity Connect, managing the community, planning and delivering events, running email and social campaigns, building sector partnerships, and growing our audience. 

You'll be: 

• Managing our online community.Seeding discussions, supporting super users and refreshing content 

• Planning and delivering a minimum of 10 networking events across the year, including sourcing and managing high-profile sector speakers 

• Driving audience and registration growth through targeted email campaigns and owned channel activity 

• Increasing in-platform engagement through relevant content

• Working with our product and design teams to integrate the CharityConnect and CharityJob brands, creating clearer user journeys between the two platforms 

• Building relationships with sector bodies for co-branded content partnerships 

• Managing early-stage commercial activity including newsletter sponsorship and event sponsorship 

• Owning our KPI framework, reporting monthly to the senior team against agreed targets 

You'll thrive in this role if you 

• Have experience in community management and/or digital marketing, ideally within a membership body, media brand or digital platform 

• Are a strong, confident communicator who can craft discussion threads, newsletters and emails that genuinely engage our community 

• Know how to grow and engage an online audience and have the data literacy to understand what's working and what isn't 

• Are organised enough to juggle events, campaigns, partnerships and community management simultaneously

• Can build relationships with senior sector figures.From event speakers to commercial sponsors, and make them feel valued 

Experience with email platforms, OneSignal, basic SEO and sponsorship relationships would be a bonus, but we're more interested in the right person than a perfect checklist. 

Location:  Hybrid. Tuesdays and Thursdays in our Kingston Upon Thames office 

We're committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the sector we serve. We welcome applications from all bac kgrounds 

This is a new role at High Trees, created because we believe Lambeth’s voluntary and community sector (VCS) is one of the borough’s greatest assets – strong, skilled and rooted in the communities it serves. Place-based organisations like ours play a vital role in supporting individuals, strengthening communities, growing local economies and shaping the policy decisions that affect the people we work with. We want a dedicated Manager who can help make that case, loudly and effectively, both within High Trees and across the wider system.

A key part of this role is our contract to deliver capacity building support to Lambeth’s VCS, commissioned by the local authority and delivered through the Lambeth Hubs Partnership – but this is one strand of a much bigger picture. We want this role to think beyond any single contract, taking a long-term view of what Lambeth’s VCS infrastructure support needs to look like, and leading the development of new approaches, including peer support models and a more circular economy across the sector.

Health and wellbeing is increasingly shaping where funding and investment in our sector flows, and we want Lambeth’s VCS to be ready and well-positioned to respond to this shift. You will play a leading role in this, working with partners including the SEL VCS Alliance to develop shared practice across South East London boroughs, and ensuring our sector’s voice is heard as these opportunities develop.

This role is as much strategic as it is operational – we’re never too far from the ground at High Trees, and you’ll be expected to lead on much of the day-to-day delivery yourself. That means designing and delivering workshops and one-to-one capacity building support, developing resources and toolkits, and running networking events that bring Lambeth’s VCS together. You’ll also build a network of trusted delivery partners – freelancers and facilitators, ideally drawn from within our own sector – helping to keep skills, income and opportunity circulating within Lambeth’s VCS.

As VCS Infrastructure & Development Manager, you will lead High Trees’ work to strengthen Lambeth’s voluntary and community sector, acting as an advocate for High Trees and a champion for the wider sector, while managing funded contracts and programmes that support local organisations to grow their skills, systems and impact.

The role combines strategic leadership – shaping High Trees’ contribution to the future of VCS infrastructure support, and representing the sector within key partnerships – with hands-on operational delivery, including direct capacity building support, training and events. You will be confident managing multiple work streams, and equally comfortable working strategically and on the ground.

The Gloucestershire Infrastructure Collaborative is seeking an experienced freelance Convenor to support an exciting partnership of nine Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations working together to strengthen the sector's role within Gloucestershire's health and wellbeing system.

This is a unique opportunity for an independent facilitator, connector and systems thinker who enjoys working in complexity across organisational boundaries, to build trusted relationships, strengthen collective leadership and help partnerships turn ambition into meaningful action.  The Convenor will build trust, psychological safety and shared purpose, helping the group develop collective leadership, navigate complexity, challenge and learning together.

The role is offered on a freelance basis until March 2028, with a fee of £25,000 inclusive of VAT available. We anticipate the work taking 2-3 days p.c.m. worked flexibly. A travel and expenses budget of up to £3,000 per annum has been allocated.

Who we are:

Hope is here. The Global Returns Project (GRP) is a UK charity unlocking new philanthropy to deliver urgent solutions for our planet.

We are a fast-moving nonprofit that makes donations to high-impact nature and climate charities simple – and we don’t take any fees. We’ve already mobilised over £3 million for top environmental solutions and are working to unlock at least £30 million annually by the end of the decade.

We are growing quickly: Last year's annual fundraising was nearly triple the previous year's.

The problem: Charities protecting our planet can turn the tide on climate change and nature loss. They have the skills, strategies and networks to deliver fast and global impact. But less than 2% of philanthropy goes to climate mitigation.

Our solution: In the UK alone, around £2 trillion sits with “HNW+” individuals – those holding between £100k and £30 million. Yet traditional philanthropy largely overlooks them. We’re unlocking this funding by offering trusted, pro bono advice and a simple, portfolio approach to giving. Our expertise in UK wealth advice offers a unique path to scalability and systems-change.

What we are looking for:

Job Title: Philanthropy Officer

We're looking for an organised, proactive Philanthropy Officer to support our work engaging high-net-worth individuals and the wealth advisers who refer them to our work, maintaining a strong pipeline of partners and donors. 

You'll support prospecting and, where appropriate, outreach and relationship management across wealth adviser partnerships, helping to grow our referrals and giving channels. Alongside this, you'll help coordinate the logistics and admin behind our Planet Adviser Network, helping build and sustain the pool of wealth advisers collaborating with us. 

On the HNW side, you'll support contact mapping across GRP's donors, contacts and Board to help identify high-net-worth individuals and families, and support relationship management with them when appropriate. 

The ideal candidate will be excited to take on admin and logistics for major donor stewardship: including our Planet Leadership Circle, support of big and small HNW events, helping produce major donor impact materials (including reports), and other stewardship touches.

You’ll thrive in a small, fast-moving team – taking initiative, being collaborative, and contributing to shared goals. Crucially, you’ll care deeply about climate and nature. 

Experience preferred:

Some professional experience in fundraising and HNW philanthropy (as a guide, likely 1-3 years).

Please see the full job description attached for information on main duties and responsibilities.

Location: Centrally located, light and airy office on Regent Street, London. Hybrid working: estimated 3-4 days per week in the office. 

Benefits: 25 days’ annual leave, plus statutory bank holidays. Occasional 1–2 days’ additional paid leave over the Christmas period. Flexible working.

Reports to: Chief Partnerships Officer

Timetable: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis; early application is encouraged. 

Preferred start date: 7 September 2026 

This is a pivotal senior leadership role with full strategic and operational accountability.  Leadership and exceptional communication skills will be critical as The DBR Foundation establishes and grows.  Reporting to the Board of Trustees, the Chief Executive Officer will have a proven track record and experience as a CEO or in a similar executive leadership position.  An extensive knowledge of the implementation of charity governance will be essential in this role. 

The Chief Executive Officer will be responsible for the drafting and implementation of policies and procedures, ensuring financial sustainability, overseeing activities, memberships, fundraising and advocacy.

The Chief Executive Officer will have responsibility for recruitment and establishing a new team, resources and managing key relationships in line with the overall strategic policies, direction, goals and budget, for the purposes of advancing The DBR Foundation’s objectives, purpose and identity worldwide.

The DBR Foundation’s objectives are:

• The improvement of health by furthering the advancement of the theory and practice of Deep Brain Reorienting ("DBR")
• The relief of emotional and psychological distress wherever it may arise by the provision of appropriate DBR training and therapy
• The relief of poverty and distress wherever it may arise by the provision of humanitarian aid, by supporting other like-minded charities

Key Responsibilities

Leadership, Strategy & Organisational Direction:

• Lead strategic initiatives and sustainable organisational long-term development
• Drive sustainable growth and measurable impact
• Lead organisational strategy and service development
  

Operations & Service Quality:

• Oversee all operational delivery
• Ensure members are equipped with relevant, up-to-date, and impactful resources

Financial Management, Corporate Governance & Regulatory Compliance:

• Provide strong financial oversight and sustainability planning
• Ensure regulatory, and governance compliance
• Performance and risk overview to the Board of Trustees

Business Development & Commissioning:

•  Income strategy and fundraising
• Grant applications and partnership funding
• Building relationships and funder partnerships

 People & Values:

• Build a high performing operational team
• Establish a culture that reflects the core values and culture of the Foundation

External Engagement & Stewardship:

• Act as senior ambassador and spokesperson
• Represent the Foundation across statutory, voluntary, education and health sectors
• Strengthen partnerships and influence

Essential Skills:

• Senior leadership experience in the charity, public or social sector
• Strong organisational and operational management experience
• Experience working with a Board of Trustees
• Proven financial oversight and budget responsibility
• Experience delivering organisational strategy
• Fundraising or income generation leadership experience
• Strong partnership and stakeholder management skills
• Commissioning and contract delivery experience

Founded in 1860, Providence Row is a specialist homelessness charity working in East London and the City, deliberately operating at the most acute end of the homelessness spectrum.

The charity reaches around 1,200 individuals (annually) with the most deep-rooted needs; people whose interlinking mental and physical health, and trauma and substance use challenges mean they often struggle to access mainstream support. Providence Row provides a wide range of Crisis and Progression services including showers, meals, advice & support, health and wellbeing services, drug and alcohol harm reduction, psychotherapy, a hospital discharge service, and learning, training and work-readiness programmes, amongst others. In 2025/26, we supported 1,270 people through 36,313 tailored interventions. 

About this role

We have some ambitious income targets over the next few years to help deliver our bold plans in support of our increasing numbers of complex and vulnerable clients. 

If you have experience of delivering against an annual fundraising target of up to, or exceeding, £150k and want to help more people experiencing homelessness to have access to vital, and, often life-changing, services like our award-winning physical and mental health programmes, then we can’t wait to hear from you so you can tell us more about how you meet the criteria detailed in the Job Description and Person Specification, enclosed with this Job Ad.

There are many opportunities for the right candidate to develop in the role while working independently and as part of a committed team by using your excellent creativity, written, verbal and persuasion skills to secure and steward partnerships with existing and new supporters, alongside the Head of Philanthropy, and wider fundraising team.

We are keen to receive applications from people with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in fundraising and partnership development and who want to take their skills to the next level by helping further grow our Trusts and Foundations partnerships, as well as those with other similar supporters including Livery Companies, so we can continue responding to the needs of our clients and the evolving homelessness emergency.

If the above sounds like a good fit for you and you felt motivated and excited to join our small, fun, dedicated and impactful Fundraising and Marketing Team, then we would love to hear from you.

Research shows some people, especially women and marginalised groups, may hesitate to apply unless they match all the criteria. However, we want to assure everyone that we encourage applications from all individuals, regardless of whether they fulfil every point in the job description. Your unique perspective matters to us – please apply with confidence.

Benefits

• 27 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Pension scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Employee assistance programme
• Access to shopping discounts
• Learning & development opportunities

To apply

Please upload your CV with a covering letter, detailing how you meet the job specification by Friday 21 Aug 2026 at 23:30.

Interviews
Please note that we may interview on a rolling basis and therefore encourage early applications.

Providence Row is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales; company number 07452798 registered charity number 1140192.

We are looking for a dynamic and enthusiastic Outreach Executive who is passionate about the mission of Smart Works Bristol and committed to helping more women access the support they need to secure employment.

This is a rare opportunity to join Smart Works Bristol at an exciting stage in our journey. As a new charity, we are recruiting our first Outreach Executive, giving you the chance to help shape the role from the ground up. You will play a pivotal role in developing our outreach strategy, building partnerships, and influencing how we grow our reach and impact in the years ahead.

In this role, you will build and maintain strong relationships with referral partners across Bristol and the South West, increasing awareness of our service and driving referrals. You will represent Smart Works Bristol at community events, job fairs, networking opportunities, and stakeholder meetings, acting as a representative for the charity and identifying opportunities for partnership working.

A key part of the role will be working with organisations that support women facing additional barriers to employment, including young women, women from minority ethnic communities, and women with disabilities. Through targeted outreach and partnership development, you will help ensure that more women from underrepresented communities can access our service and achieve their career goals.

Working closely with the wider team, you will play an important role in delivering our strategic objectives and helping us expand our reach and impact across the region.

To apply, please use our online portal to submit your CV and answer the following questions by Monday 17th August:

• Why do you want to work for Smart Works Bristol? (max 200 words)
• What impact do you think you could have in this role? (max 200 words)
• Why do you think it is so important that Smart Works has a presence in Bristol? (max 200 words)

The primary purpose of this role is to lead Together Active's Active Environments work, creating the conditions for physical activity to become a safe, easy and attractive choice for everyone. Working across systems, sectors and communities, you will influence the design, development and use of places and spaces so they enable more people to be active, with a particular focus on those experiencing the greatest inequalities.

You will provide leadership for Together Active's Active Environments agenda, building strong partnerships across local authorities, planning, transport, health, education, environmental organisations and community groups to influence long-term change. Through advocacy, collaboration and place-based working, you will champion the role that active environments play in improving health, reducing inequalities and supporting more environmentally sustainable communities.

Lead change. Shape policy. Amplify the voices of bereaved families.

Child Bereavement UK is looking for an accomplished Head of Policy & Research to lead our evidence and policy agenda at a pivotal time for the charity.

You'll bring a strong track record of leading policy and research activity, developing influential partnerships, and translating evidence into meaningful change. With an established understanding of the policy landscape and the credibility to engage senior stakeholders across health, social care, government and the voluntary sector, you'll play a key role in shaping policy and practice for bereaved families across the UK.

You'll lead our research programme, develop evidence-based positions, build strategic partnerships, and ensure the experiences of bereaved children, young people and parents bereaved of a baby or child are reflected in policy and practice across the UK.

We're looking for someone who:

• Has experience and established networks in policy and research.
• Can translate complex evidence into compelling recommendations for change.
• Is an exceptional relationship-builder, communicator and strategic thinker.
• Is passionate about improving outcomes for bereaved children, young people and parents.

This is a rare opportunity to shape national conversations, influence decision-makers and ensure lived experience is at the heart of policy and practice.

Join us and help create lasting change for bereaved families across the UK.

Manchester, UK

Starting salary for this position is £41,628 per annum (plus contributory pension)

About MAG:

MAG (Mines Advisory Group) is an international humanitarian organisation based in Manchester, UK, and working in 32 countries. We remove landmines and unexploded ordnance to release safe and productive land for communities, and work to reduce the threat of armed violence by supporting governments to safely manage weapons and ammunition. In 1997, MAG was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for our work campaigning for the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.

Help shape our approach to working with partners in countries across the globe.

MAG works with local and national partners around the world to deliver life-saving Humanitarian Mine Action and Armed Violence Reduction programmes. We are looking for a Partner Delivery and Assurance Manager to help ensure that our partnerships are high-performing, equitable, well-supported and delivering meaningful impact. You will lead the development of effective partnership management and assurance approaches, providing practical support to country programmes throughout the partnership lifecycle, from due diligence and contracting through to performance monitoring, compliance and capacity strengthening.

Working closely with our programme teams, the Contracts Director, and Partnerships Development Advisor, you will help translate strategic partnership opportunities into successful implementation arrangements, ensuring risks are managed, standards are applied consistently and partners are empowered to succeed. Success in this role will be measured through stronger partner performance, improved delivery assurance, enhanced partner capability and better programme outcomes for the communities MAG serves. If you are passionate about building effective partnerships, strengthening organisations and driving positive humanitarian impact, we'd love to hear from you.

Please note that as part of MAG's commitment to safeguarding, this post is subject to background checks before an offer of employment is confirmed. For more information on MAG’s approach to safeguarding and background checks on our website.

MAG is committed to the principles of diversity, equality and inclusion. If you think you would be suited to one of our roles we would welcome your application regardless of your background. We strive to provide an inclusive and supportive working environment where all employees feel respected and supported in fulfilling their potential.

About you:

You will be an expert in the design and implementation of programmes, with a strong understanding of key trends in humanitarianism and development and the practical implementation of project delivery within these contexts. You should be an empathetic communicator, with experience creating, developing and implementing high quality policies, procedures and guidelines in a complex, diverse organisation. Experience managing collaborative programme/project activity with local or international partners in relevant contexts is essential, as is experience designing and leading capacity assessment and capacity support initiatives between partners. You should be organised, self-motivated, and able to work autonomously, with a strong attention to detail to produce high quality proposals and reports. Ultimately you should be interested in and committed to MAG’s humanitarian mandate and able to represent our work and key issues with authority in order to effectively advance our mission, vision, and values. Fluency in English is essential, and fluency in a relevant second language would be advantageous.

We’re looking for someone with:

· Proven experience in the design and implementation of humanitarian, development or peacebuilding projects and/or programmes.

· Proven experience of managing programme/project activity implemented with local or international partners in humanitarian or development contexts.

· Experience of designing and leading capacity assessment and capacity support initiatives between partners in humanitarian and development contexts.

· Experience of creating, developing and implementing high quality policies, procedures and guidelines in a complex, diverse organisation.

Benefits and Further Information:

• Salary: £41,628 per annum and this increases with service.

• Pension: MAG has a salary sacrifice group personal pension plan in place, and matches employee’s contributions up to 5%.

• Leave: We recognise our staff work hard and need the appropriate time out to stay motivated. Annual Leave starts at five weeks each year and increases with service to six weeks.  We also offer paid sick leave, and the amount of the entitlement increases with service. Once you’ve been with MAG for two years, you’re entitled to 13 weeks. MAG also has policies on compassionate leave, flexible working and family leave, including maternity, paternity, adoption and surrogacy leave.

• Insurance: MAG provides personal accident insurance and life assurance to all staff, as well as medical and repatriation insurance for any period spent overseas whilst working for MAG.

• Professional Subscriptions: MAG will pay for the cost of your annual subscription/membership fee for one professional body in certain circumstances.

• Employee Assistance Programme: MAG offers free access to Health Assured, a service providing 24/7 confidential support and expert advice on a wide range of issues.

This role is based in the UK, therefore, a pre-existing right to work in the UK is a requirement and MAG will not be able to sponsor visa applications. Please note that if you have not declared your right to work in the UK on your application, we will not be able to consider you for this role.

We are happy to receive flexible working and job share requests in your application. If you are applying with an existing job share partner email us at recruitment [@] maginternational [.] org for further guidance. 

HOW TO APPLY

Please apply by submitting an application detailing your suitability for the role through the link below before the closing date of 12:00 (midday) on Thursday 13th August 2026.

We are looking for a Safeguarding Lead to provide dedicated safeguarding leadership as our flagship Drive Project working with high-harm, high-risk perpetrators of domestic abuse, scales across England and Wales. Acting as a Safeguarding Lead, you'll hold oversight of safeguarding governance across our network, lead a shift from compliance towards collaborative, relational learning, and support delivery partners as a trusted peer and source of expertise. This is a pivotal, newly created role for someone energised by culture change, skilled at holding both accountability and compassion, and comfortable working in complexity.

Closing date: Tuesday 25th August, 9am. Please refer to the job description for further details.

To apply, please visit Respect UK website 

About the role

The Academy runs some of the most valued grant schemes and development programmes in UK biomedical and health research. Springboard Awards help researchers establish their independence. Starter Grants keep talented clinicians in research alongside their clinical work. Leadership programmes like FLIER develop people who can work across academia, healthcare and industry to tackle real-world challenges, and alongside these sit opportunities to spend time working in industry, the NHS or government. Moving between sectors should be a normal part of a medical research career (it is not yet), and much of our work is built with that belief: a more connected and mobile workforce is better able to turn discovery into benefit. Between them, these schemes change the course of people's careers, and the research they enable reaches patients across the UK and beyond.

This role leads that portfolio. The heart of the job is excellent delivery: schemes that are well designed and well run, and that make a real difference to the people they reach. You will work closely with the Fellowship, whose expertise and generosity run through the whole portfolio, and you will make sure the schemes serve the whole of the medical sciences community (across the devolved nations and the regions, in industry as much as academia), not just those already inside the most established institutions. And science is global, so this work is too: the portfolio draws on evidence and partnerships from around the world, and the mentoring and networks around the people we support reach well beyond the UK.

Today much of the portfolio's focus is research talent and careers. That will always be a substantial part of the portfolio, but over time we plan to expand it further. That expansion could go in several directions, and what matters is that we are taking an evidence-based approach to ensure that our efforts are responding to what the medical sciences sector needs. Whatever we launch next, the same principles apply; good design, sound funding, proper governance and solid evaluation, with our effort concentrated where it delivers the most impact. So, the job is twofold: run today's portfolio brilliantly and build the future portfolio. It is a role where you can see your work land in people's lives, with real scope to shape what comes next. And none of it stands alone: what we learn from the people we fund sharpens our policy voice, the community our programmes build strengthens our engagement and public trust work, and insight flows back the other way to shape what we design next.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, you will share in the leadership of the Academy as a whole, working closely with the other directors: the Chief Operating Officer and the Directors of Policy, Communications and Engagement, and Translation and Enterprise. The relationship with Translation and Enterprise matters especially. That team will shape new partnerships and initiatives that your team is best placed to deliver, so the two of you will work in very close partnership.

What we are looking for

These are the six areas we will explore with candidates. They match the six parts of the role above, so you can read straight across — and your supporting statement can follow the same structure if that helps. We do not expect anyone to arrive with every part fully formed, but the strongest candidates will be convincing across most of them.

1. Excellent delivery

A strong track record of running grant schemes or of significant programmatic delivery. Much of this is operational: holding an annual cycle to time and budget, catching problems early and getting stuck things moving again. It is also about making sure the portfolio adds up to a coherent whole rather than a collection of separate schemes, with the governance discipline — sound contracts, clean compliance, rigorous oversight — that sits behind delivery done well.

2. Building partnerships and negotiating well

A track record of building and sustaining partnerships with funders, delivery organisations and industry, and the skill and pace to turn them into agreements where appropriate. We will want to hear how you have handled a complex negotiation and brought it to a close. The Chief Operating Officer leads the Academy’s income strategy, so we will also explore how you develop partners in concert with colleagues.

3. Range and credibility across the community

This role runs from Fellows (some of the most eminent scientists in the country) to researchers at the very start of their careers, and from government and funders to industry partners. We are looking for someone with the range to work well across all of them, and the credibility to be taken seriously at every level. We will also explore how you have widened access and drawn talent in from beyond the usual places.

4. A focus on impact

A commitment to looking at what difference the portfolio you lead makes. We are looking for someone who treats evaluation as a source of learning and uses what it shows to decide what the Academy should do next, keeping sight of the people and patients the work is for.

5. Leading and empowering people

A brilliant leader of people: someone who gets the best from a talented team by giving them space and ownership, backing them with real support and coaching, and building a culture where people thrive and develop.

6. Collective leadership

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, you would share responsibility for the Academy as a whole, not only your own directorate. We want someone who takes that seriously, brings challenge where it is needed, backs colleagues when it counts, and helps make the Academy a brilliant place to work.

Benefits

We offer a competitive and evolving benefits package designed to support your wellbeing, development and work–life balance, including:

• Competitive salary and pension
• 26 days’ annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Option to buy or sell annual leave 
• Additional paid closure between Christmas and New Year
• Hybrid and flexible working
• Health, wellbeing and employee support programmes
• Cycle-to-work scheme and everyday benefits
• Structured learning and development
• Enhanced maternity, adoption and paternity leave
• Enhanced occupational sick pay

For further information and to apply, please visit our website via the apply button.

Closing date for completed applications: Midday on Monday 17 August 2026.

First interviews will be held 25-26 August 2026 with the CEO, Roz Campion, and the COO, James Lawrence, and focused on two competencies – leadership and delivery.

Second interviews will be held on 1 September 2026 with an external panel.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Fundraising Delivery

· Deliver challenge and community fundraising campaigns and events that achieve agreed income and participation targets.

· Support the Community & Challenge Events Manager with the delivery and stewardship of Back Up's London Marathon programme, taking ownership of agreed areas of delivery.

· Support delivery of The Push, No Limits Ride, Do the Loop and other Back Up Challenge Events.

· Deliver accessible, inclusive Community fundraising opportunities.

· Coordinate suppliers, volunteers and event logistics.

· Maintain accurate CRM and financial records.

Supporter Experience & Stewardship

· Build long-term supporter relationships that maximise fundraising, retention and lifetime value.

· Coach and motivate supporters to exceed fundraising targets.

· Deliver timely stewardship, thanking and impact reporting.

· Identify opportunities to improve supporter experience, fundraising performance and operational efficiency, making recommendations to the Community & Challenge Events Manager.

Planning, Performance & Insight

· Monitor recruitment, participation, fundraising and stewardship KPIs across the community and challenge fundraising portfolio.

· Maintain accurate supporter records, event information and financial data within the CRM and fundraising platforms.

· Produce performance reports and updates for the Community & Challenge Events Manager.

· Gather and share supporter feedback and learning to help evaluate and continually improve fundraising activities.

· Support the effective administration and evaluation of fundraising activities, ensuring accurate reporting and compliance with fundraising policies and procedures.

Collaboration

· Work with Communications & Marketing on recruitment and stewardship.

· Work with Services to engage participants and volunteers.

· Support Corporate Partnerships.

· Champion fundraising across the organisation.

The above list is not exclusive or exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such duties as may reasonably be expected within the scope of this role.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

Essential:

· Experience delivering community or challenge fundraising.

· Excellent supporter stewardship skills.

· Experience achieving income targets and KPIs.

· Strong project management and organisational skills.

· Experience with CRM systems and online fundraising platforms

· Ability to use data and insight.

· Creative, proactive and collaborative.

· Commitment to inclusive and accessible fundraising.

· Willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends.

Desirable:

· Experience delivering London Marathon or other mass participation events.

· Experience working with volunteers.

· Experience working with people with lived experience of disability/health conditions

· Knowledge of fundraising regulation.

· Experience with Salesforce, Fundraise Up, Raisley and Enthuse platforms

· Understanding of spinal cord injury or disability sector.