Worcester Students' Union
Chief Executive Officer
Salary: £62,000 - £64,000 per annum
Working Pattern: Full-time
Location: Worcester
Contract: Permanent
Atkinson HR is pleased to be supporting Worcester Students' Union in the recruitment of their next Chief Executive Officer.
Worcester Students' Union (WSU) exists to represent, support, and enrich the lives of students at the University of Worcester. As a charity, everything they do is guided by a commitment to members, ensuring they have a voice, access to outstanding services, and a community they are proud to be part of.
This is a genuinely exciting moment for the organisation. WSU has a fantastic opportunity to reshape its strategy and culture, supported by a dedicated and talented staff and officer team, and is determined to deepen its reach across a diverse student body, strengthen partnerships, and build on the energy and momentum that defines life at Worcester.
About the Role
As CEO, you'll provide overall leadership and management of WSU, taking responsibility for delivering its charitable objectives and ensuring excellent services for students. You will develop a sustainable, strategically focused organisation that is ready to meet the opportunities and challenges ahead.
Working in close partnership with elected student leaders and the Board of Trustees, you will bring professional expertise to support governance, operational delivery, and long-term planning. You will lead a committed staff team, model the values of the organisation, and ensure that WSU continues to grow in reach, relevance, and impact across the student community.
About You
WSU are looking for a strategic and inspirational leader with significant senior leadership experience in a complex organisation, and a demonstrable track record of developing and delivering successful organisational strategy. You'll be financially and commercially astute, able to interpret data to inform sound decisions, and experienced in working constructively with Boards and senior external stakeholders. Experience within the higher education, students' union, charity, or membership sectors is desirable, though not essential.
You'll be an empowering and energetic leader, someone who builds inclusive, high-performing teams, encourages creativity, and is willing to engage with operational delivery as well as strategic direction. You'll bring the ability to balance challenge and support, fostering a culture of collaboration and accountability across the organisation.
Above all, WSU are looking for someone with a genuine commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, and a real passion for working in a democratic, student-led environment. You'll believe in the importance of student voice, be able to communicate a compelling shared vision to a wide range of stakeholders, and demonstrate a lasting commitment to WSU's charitable objectives and long-term development.
How to Apply
Please click 'Apply' to be redirected to the Atkinson HR website, where you can download the Candidate Information Pack and find details of how to apply.
For an informal conversation about the role and application process, please contact Atkinson HR via. the information in the candidate pack.
Key Dates
Closing date: Midday, Tuesday 5th May 2026
Longlist Interviews (Remote): Tuesday 26th May 2026
Final Stage Interviews (In-person, Worcester): Monday 1st June 2026
Using Anonymous Recruitment
This organisation is using Anonymous Recruitment to reduce bias in the first stages of the hiring process. Submit your application as normal and our system will anonymise it for you. Your personal information will be hidden until the recruiter contacts you.
As Philanthropy Officer, you will build strong, lasting relationships with individuals, families and organisations, helping them to achieve their philanthropic goals while increasing charitable income and delivering meaningful impact in communities across Wales.
We’re looking for someone with a strong understanding of social issues and community needs in Wales, who can use that insight to build networks, identify opportunities and develop tailored support for existing and prospective donors. This role will play a key part in securing new funding, growing our donor base and building high-quality, long-term relationships.
To be successful in this role, you will have:
- Proven experience in a philanthropy or fundraising relationship management role.
- Ability to identify and develop new philanthropic opportunities, including prospecting and converting new donors.
- Excellent interpersonal skills and experience of developing, managing and growing relationships.
- Strong communication, evidencing excellent customer relationship with a focus on trust, respect, confidentiality and attention to detail alongside the ability to juggle multiple relationships simultaneously.
- Confidence speaking publicly to a variety of audiences.
- High levels of motivation, be results-driven and able to work independently as well as collaboratively within a team.
- Experience of producing compelling reports, narrative and presentations alongside creating tailored donor experiences to inspire donors.
- A strong commitment to your own learning and development.
Read more in the full job pack.
We turn philanthropy into lasting community impact across Wales. We’re a trusted bridge between donors and the grassroots communities they care about.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
About Action Tutoring
At Action Tutoring, we believe every child should be given the opportunity to succeed in school. But in the UK today, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to
achieve the grades they need to progress in life. This isn't because they are any less able; they have less access to the tools to help them reach their potential.
We don't think this is fair. We know tutoring is an effective way of improving academic attainment and so we harness the power of volunteer tutors to bridge the gap and ensure this help can be accessed by every pupil who needs it, not just those who can afford it.
We specifically help pupils facing socio-economic disadvantage and who are at risk of leaving primary or secondary school without reaching national standards in their exams. We work in partnership with schools in different cities and regions across the UK, delivering weekly tutoring in English or maths to those pupils who need it most.
About the opportunity
The Director of Finance and Operations works closely with the CEO to build the organisation, operations and systems to enable us to scale and respond to emerging opportunities. A critical strategic role, they are a hands-on financial leader that brings strategic insight and challenge. Passionate about our mission, they lead a small team and use their experience and expertise to make our strategy a practical reality.
Closing date: Sunday, 17th May 2026
Interviews:Thursday, 28th and Friday, 29th May 2026, in our London office. There will be a second round of interviews.
Start date: Ideal start date is asap. However, we’re happy to wait for the ideal candidate.
Contract and hours: Permanent. Full time. We offer flexible hours with 9.30-4 as core hours. A full working week is 37.5 hours.
Place of work: Hybrid/flexible. This role requires 6 days a month in our London Office, Fivefields, Grosvenor Gardens, London SW1W 0DH.
Duties and responsibilities
Finance
Lead financial strategy and long-term planning to support the development of the organisation, as well as holding overall responsibility for finance processes and controls.
Operations
Drive continuous improvement of operations to increase productivity, quality of delivery and value for money. With the operations team, provide oversight of all operational matters to ensure compliance and the smooth running of the organisation.
HR and team development
Action Tutoring has a Head of People & Culture who oversees day-to-day HR operations. However, with a permanent staff team of around 60, this role holds strategic responsibility for talent development and HR processes. This includes training and development strategy, effective diversity and inclusion policies and regular reviews of performance and reward systems.
Senior Leadership
As one of the four members of the Senior Leadership Team of Action Tutoring, you will contribute to leadership decision-making, representing your own areas of expertise but also advocating for the best strategic options for the charity as a whole.
Legal compliance, risk management and governance
This role ensures legal compliance of the organisation.
Line management
Overseeing a small team, this role has direct line management responsibility for the Head of People & Culture, the Operations Manager, and the Senior Finance Officer. You will also, with support from your team, manage relationships with external support agencies, including the outsourced management accountant, IT support company, and HR and employment law consultancy.
This role also plays a key part in a number of internal working groups, including leading the Digital Systems working group and serving as a member of both the Sustainability and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion working groups.
A full list of duties and responsibilities can be found in the job description attached to the BreatheHR advert.
Person specification
Qualifications criteria:
- The right to work in the UK.
We are looking for some of the following attributes, though you might be more experienced in some areas than others:
- Deep finance and operations experience as well as a track record of strategy development. You will have significant experience overseeing finances and managing budgets and be able to demonstrate a high level of understanding of financial management and forecasting within a fundraising setting. Familiarity with charity accounting and SORP will be essential.
- Someone with the ability to see the big picture and lead long-term strategy while being able to zoom into the detail and set high-expectations for the team and wider organisation.
- An excellent eye for detail and an experienced project manager who relishes delivering long-term projects through to completion, you will be a self-starter with a strong ability to take initiative to drive change.
- An ability to identify areas for organisational development and growth. You are someone who leads change and development. Alert to reputational risk, proactively preventing errors.
- An established track record in delivering results in a growing environment at the management level.
- Experience with a range of business functions and systems, including budgeting, finance, legal, IT and human resources or a willingness to build expertise in these areas.
- Understanding of developing policies and procedures; experience in good governance practices, including:
- Familiarity with routine HR legislation and processes.
- A good understanding of GDPR compliance and processes.
- Familiarity with reporting at Trustee level (or equivalent).
- Excellent team leadership skills.
- A commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
- A commitment to the mission and values of Action Tutoring.
- A commitment to promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children.
- Always aiming to help more pupils and have a bigger impact, we continually seek ways to improve tasks, processes and culture.
You will likely be more successful in this role if you have:
- Additional formal qualifications relevant to the role (e.g. qualified accountant, MBA, CIPD Level 7).
- Experience or knowledge of safeguarding procedures.
- Digital transformation project management.
- Experience in the charity sector or the education sector, particularly in charity legislation and accounting.
- Experience in monitoring and evaluation processes and/or school data.
- Experience in improving systems and processes.
Award-winning national education charity working towards a world in which no child’s life chances are limited by their socio-economic background.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.