Senior direct marketing manager jobs in Gerrards cross, buckinghamshire

In this role, you’ll be working on the In Memory programme within Individual Giving (IG) to inspire people to donate and engage them in a meaningful way, that reflects their unique motivation for supporting the charity. As part of the team, you’ll be innovative in a changing fundraising and cultural landscape, to achieve ambitious annual income targets.

You'll assist with and when required, project manage areas of the In Memory supporter journeys to drive acquisition and retention, ensuring supporters have the best possible experience.

What you’ll do

• Assist with and, when required, project manage direct marketing campaigns, both online and offline. 

• Support the Senior IG Officer in creating and delivering successful supporter journeys.

• Manage relationships with creative, print and response handling agencies working on campaigns.

• Support the Senior Individual Giving Officers in achieving strategic objectives, monitoring income and expenditure and using database analysis to inform and improve the individual giving programme (with a focus on the In Mem programme).

• Integrate the direct marketing programme into Fundraising and Experience Directorate activities and support the overall Parkinson’s UK strategic plan.

• Manage the administrative tasks for the Individual Giving team, such as processing invoices, ordering stock and updating key documents and materials both online and offline.

What you’ll bring

• Proven experience of successfully scheduling and managing campaigns to deliver results against agreed objectives and targets. 

• Excellent copy-writing, creative and proofreading skills for both online and offline materials. 

• Experience of operating in a modern digital workplace, including using digital tools, platforms and techniques to work collaboratively and productively. 

• Ability to review and evaluate data and campaign results and pull out key trends to inform future work. 

• Logical thought processes and attention to detail. 

This is an exciting time for Parkinson’s UK and we would love you to join us!

Please apply by sending us your CV, together with a detailed supporting statement which will fully demonstrate how you meet all the criteria of the role, as stated in the "What you'll bring" section of the job description.

Please be aware; This role is hybrid, and your in person working depends on your team agreement, requirements of the role and led by activity based principles. 

The in person/office attendance expectation for this role will be a minimum on average 2 days per month.

Interviews will be held online via Google Meet on the 1 and 2 July 2026.

Anyone can get Parkinson’s. It’s vital that the people who work for Parkinson’s UK are representative of our diverse community. We actively encourage people from all sections of the community to apply, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, disability, sexual orientation, or religion.

Job Title: Communications & Engagement Officer  

Reports to: Senior Communications Manager

Location:Contracted to Breaking Barriers’ office in London, with some expectation of travel 

Terms:22.5 hours per week over 3 or 4 days – open to flexible working arrangements

Contract:Permanent

Salary:£30,500 - £33,500 (inclusive of London weighting), pro-rata

Purpose of the Role

The Communications & Engagement Officer is a key role within Breaking Barriers’ Income and Engagement Directorate. It helps refugees find meaningful employment through communications and fundraising activities that maintain and grow relationships with partners, funders, supporters and relevant influential organisations and individuals.

The post holder reports to the Senior Communications Manager, and works closely with the Head of Public Engagement, Senior Digital Marketing Manager and Fundraising & Partnerships Officer. They also lead or participate in activities involving colleagues across Breaking Barriers’ teams and our refugee clients.

This role contributes to the implementation of our communications, engagement and fundraising strategies, and is closely involved in team planning – including input into operational plans and communications campaigns to steward and inspire key audiences.

The Communications & Engagement Officer is responsible for the planning and creation of day-to-day communications across our owned channels, with a particular focus on social media. They are also responsible for managing social media interactions and outreach, and for creating selected content for Breaking Barriers’ website.

The post holder helps the Senior Communications Manager to ensure that organisational content complies with brand guidelines. And they play a key role in data management – maintaining our multi-media asset bank and the storytelling data within our Salesforce CRM.

This role will suit a team player who is able to build strong relationships across Breaking Barriers to support content creation, ethical storytelling and impact. The post-holder should be comfortable in a fast-paced environment, solution-focused and creative, whilst having a good eye for detail. And, of course, they should have a passion for stewarding, inspiring and mobilising audiences through high-quality, engaging communications.

Key Responsibilities

1. Communications planning and delivery (60%)

· Work with the Senior Communications Manager to manage the communications calendar.

· Collaborate with colleagues across Breaking Barriers, especially the Income & Engagement and Services teams, to source content that reaches, engages, stewards our key audiences – including partners, funders and individual supporters.

· Plan, create and schedule written and multi-media (graphics, videos, photos) content on social media platforms.

· Plan and create or coordinate longer-form content, including case studies, articles and blogs.

· Contribute to the delivery of integrated communications campaigns that support income generation, brand awareness and positioning amongst key audiences.

· Support the continual improvement of our communications by monitoring and evaluating their own work and implementing recommendations.

· Support the development of communications, engagement and fundraising strategies and input into team planning.

2. Community and supporter engagement (30%)

· Manage and engage with our organic social media communities.

· Pro-actively engage with relevant organisations and individuals via social media, in line with agreed strategies.

· Help develop and manage our growing community of storytellers with lived experience of life as a refugee.

3. Other responsibilities (10%)

· Update storytelling data in the Salesforce CRM, and undertake other administrative tasks.

· Take responsibility for maintaining Breaking Barriers’ asset bank of photographs, videos and graphics.

· Advise and support colleagues on compliance with brand guidelines, and create brand resources.

· Represent the Public Engagement team at selected events, including photographing or filming key moments and activities.

· Support other teams with ad-hoc requests for communications support.

· Take a proactive approach to professional development.

· Take on other marketing and communications tasks as required.

Person Specification
Essential

· Demonstrable knowledge of and/or interest in refugee, employment or migration sectors

· Experience in a communications or fundraising role (this doesn't have to be in the UK)

· A demonstrable understanding of key communications and fundraising principles, whether through direct experience or study, and including:

o Understanding audiences

o User journeys

o Developing key messaging

o Audience stewardship

o Working with brand guidelines

· Experience of creating high quality campaigns or content to inspire or drive action

· Experience creating written and multi-media (photography/graphics/video) content for social media, websites and/or emails

· Strong copywriting, editing and proofing skills, and the ability to tailor content for different audiences and channels

· Excellent relationship-building skills, and confidence working with colleagues at all levels of seniority

· Ability to work on own initiative, take responsibility for work, and learn from challenges and successes

· A proactive and creative approach to problem solving and idea generation

· Comfortable within a fast-paced team and able to prioritise multiple projects

· Ability to pay close attention to detail, to maintain communications quality and accuracy

· Experience with administrative, team communication and workload management applications, preferably including the Microsoft Office 365 suite.

· Experience with one or more of the following:

o Design tools such as Canva

o Photography and film editing

o Website CMS software

o Email broadcast platforms

o Social media scheduling platforms

Desirable

· Lived Experience of Breaking Barriers’ cause

· Experience using Salesforce, or another CRM system

· Knowledge of GDPR and data protection principles as they apply to communications and fundraising

· Experience of monitoring and evaluating communications or fundraising activities

Other considerations:

· Breaking Barriers is committed to protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect and for their views, wishes and beliefs to be fully taken into account when deciding action. 

· We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief. 

· Breaking Barriers particularly welcomes applicants with experience of seeking asylum and/or a refugee background. 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, we are committed to offering an accessible recruitment process and guarantee an interview to all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for the role.  

About the role

Venture Associates play a key role in delivering our strategy, supporting our portfolio of over 30 organisations to help create a fairer society where all young people thrive. This is a hands-on role suited to someone who has developed a foundation in a structured and analytically rigorous environment, has a demonstrable interest in working in the charity sector or the education sector, and is excited to combine analytical problem-solving with mission-driven work.

You will work across the full investment lifecycle - from portfolio strategy setting, to sourcing and due diligence through to capacity building (such as strategy and business planning support) and grant management. This includes working closely with colleagues, charity partners and our incubations to understand complex challenges, develop clear and structured approaches to solving them, and support the development of mission driven organisations. The role requires both analytical thinking and the ability to build trusted relationships with stakeholders and communicate clearly and effectively with a range of audiences.

You will gain experience across investing, strategy, and capacity building our portfolio organisations -developing core skills in problem-solving, analysis, stakeholder management, and delivering high-quality outputs. Over time, you will work across different programmes and portfolios, building a broad and practical understanding of how to select, fund, and strengthen organisations working to improve the lives of children and young people.

Examples of projects undertaken by Venture Associates include supporting an early years charity to reach more children, working on a fund for schools to improve maths outcomes, and helping an early-stage incubation to launch a competition around ways in which AI could support the education ecosystem.

This is an opportunity to apply and further develop your skills in a context where your work contributes directly to meaningful, long-term change for children and young people across systems that shape their lives, for example education and care systems. You will be supported by a dedicated line manager, with opportunities to build your skills through on-the-job experience, training, and exposure to senior leaders and partners. We see this role as a springboard for your career, whether that is within Purposeful or beyond.

Why apply for this role?

This is an opportunity to do impactful work on complex challenges affecting children and young people — and to do it at an organisation that combines rigour and evidence with a deep commitment to long-term change. You will:

• Gain practical experience and build your skills: gain experience across the full venture lifecycle, building a strong foundation in strategy, investing, and organisational development
• Work on meaningful challenges: apply structured problem-solving to complex issues that contribute to long-term, system-level change
• Develop trusted relationships: work closely with founders, partners, and senior colleagues, building your ability to influence and collaborate effectively
• Build a platform for your career: benefit from dedicated support, broad exposure across programmes and portfolios, and pathways for progression or future opportunities

Job Description

Purpose

Venture Associates play a key role in delivering our strategy, supporting our portfolio of over 30 organisations to help create a fairer society where all young people thrive. Venture Associates work across the full investment lifecycle - from portfolio strategy setting to sourcing and due diligence through to capacity building (such as strategy and business planning support) and grant management, and may also have the opportunity to take on strategic and/or operational roles for our incubations.

Responsibilities and duties

Support the design and refinement of our investment strategy

You will contribute to shaping where and how we deploy funding and support, ensuring our work is grounded in robust analysis and a clear understanding of impact opportunities.

• Conduct structured research into priority sectors, including market dynamics, policy context, key stakeholders, and barriers to change.
• Identify and map high-potential opportunities for intervention, including emerging organisations and unmet needs.
• Work with Venture Partners and Portfolio Leads to synthesise insights into clear recommendations that inform investment priorities and strategic focus areas.

Build pipelines for our investment strategies and conduct due diligence on specific organisations

You will help identify, assess, and prioritise organisations for partnership and investment.

• Proactively source and build a pipeline of organisations aligned with our strategy, through direct research, expert conversations and potentially designing open application processes.
• Conduct initial due diligence assessments, including mission alignment; strategy, business model and financial sustainability, assessment of programme design and evidence of promise, monitoring and evaluation processes, and capacity for partnership and investment.
• Engage with internal and external stakeholders to develop and test hypotheses and understand key risks.
• Produce clear, concise materials (reports, presentations) to support decision-making.

Support the development of our partner organisations

You will work directly with funded organisations as they scale their impact, supporting strategic decision-making and organisational development.

• Working with Venture Partners and Portfolio Leads, build relationships with individual organisations and work closely with them to identify their most significant challenges and design the appropriate support model.
• Support capacity building projects for funded and incubated organisations across a range of topics (e.g. strategy development, business planning, operating and financial model design).
• Break down complex strategic questions into clear, structured workplans and analytical tasks.
• Gather and synthesise inputs from multiple sources, including data analysis, stakeholder interviews, and expert perspectives.
• Develop high-quality outputs (presentations, written documents, models) to communicate insights and recommendations.
• Contribute to board- and leadership-level discussions, ensuring recommendations are clear, evidence-based, and actionable.
• Provide ad hoc problem-solving support to funded organisations on key challenges (e.g. growth strategy, operating model, partnerships).

Support grant management and performance tracking

You will help ensure our portfolio is effectively monitored and supported to deliver impact.

• Collate, review, and analyse data from funded organisations for quarterly and annual reporting.
• Assess performance against agreed milestones, impact metrics, and financial targets.
• Identify risks, challenges, and opportunities by organisation, and across the portfolio, and flag these to the team.
• Support the preparation of internal and external reporting materials (e.g. updates for stakeholders, funders, or boards).
• Contribute to improving our grant management processes, tools, and frameworks over time.

The job description is subject to change and the postholder may be required to undertake tasks not specifically referred to above. Such duties, however, will fall within the scope of the job description.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for people who are motivated by our mission and excited to apply analytical, problem-solving, and relationship-building skills in a collaborative, purpose-driven environment. We recognise that strong candidates may bring a range of experiences and perspectives, and we encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and career paths.

If your experience is not an exact match, but you believe you would thrive in the role, we would still encourage you to apply.

Key requirements

Essential

Behaviours and Ways of Working

• Passionate about creating a fairer society where all young people thrive.
• Motivated by Purposeful’s mission, with a clear and demonstrable commitment to contributing to meaningful, long-term change in support of children and young people.
• Curious and evidence-led, actively seeking out data, insights, and diverse perspectives to inform thinking.
• Takes ownership of your work, following through on commitments and delivering to a consistently high standard.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity, structuring your own work and adapting as priorities evolve.
• Collaborative and relationship-oriented, working effectively with colleagues and external partners.
• Builds open, respectful and trust-based relationships by acting with integrity, reliability, and transparency.
• Balances attention to detail with an understanding of the broader context and strategic goals.
• Open to feedback and committed to continuous learning and development.

Knowledge and Experience

• Experience working in a structured, analytical environment (for example, consulting, corporate strategy, investing, or similar), with exposure to project-based work involving multiple priorities and timelines.
• Strong grounding in core business concepts such as strategy setting, market sizing, business planning, and competitive dynamics.
• Demonstrated ability to build a working understanding of new sectors, topics, or contexts and to apply this to real challenges facing our portfolio organisations.
• Experience contributing to strategy development, due diligence, or complex problem-solving projects involving ambiguity and multiple stakeholders.
• Experience supporting financial analysis, reviewing financial information (for example, annual accounts) and assessing financial risk.

Skills

• Applies structured, analytical thinking to break down complex or ambiguous problems into clear components, hypotheses, and actionable approaches.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analysis skills, including working with imperfect data, identifying key drivers, and drawing sound, defensible insights.
• Synthesises information from multiple sources into clear, well-structured outputs and recommendations.
• Clear, effective and nuanced communicator, both in writing and verbally, with the ability to produce materials suitable for senior audiences.
• Effective influencing skills, and the ability to adapt communication style and medium to the audience and context to achieve the best outcome.
• Effectively engages and manages relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Plans and manages their work effectively, taking ownership of workstreams and delivering high-quality outputs within timelines.
• Uses sound judgement to identify risks, assess trade-offs, and determine when to seek input or escalate.

General

• Right to work in the UK.

Desirable

Knowledge and Experience

• Understanding of the charity and/or education sectors gained, for example, through a previous work experience, pro-bono work, volunteer or trustee role.
• Experience of creating financial models to support budgeting and scenario planning; building income generation strategies.
• Understanding of or experience with programme design, monitoring and evaluation.

For over 60 years the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) has been building a better childhood for all.

Research and Development Officer
Contract: Permanent
Work Pattern: Part Time, 28 hours per week (0.8 FTE)
Salary: £27, 526 per annum, with annual salary increments for the first three years
Location: Homebased – however NCB and RiP has offices in Sheffield, Newton Abbot, London and Belfast that staff can work from should they choose.

The Vacancy

We are looking for a talented Research and Development Officer to join our children and families team at Research in Practice. In this role you will develop and deliver accessible content and learning activities that promote evidence-informed practice and policy across child and family social care, youth and family justice as part of our annual delivery programme for our partners. You will also be involved in the delivery of commissioned project work.

The successful candidate will have experience designing and delivering resources, workshops, webinars, and events for a range of audiences, including senior leaders.

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with strong written and editorial skills, excellent facilitation skills and who is confident distilling complex information into accessible learning materials. While the position requires engagement with and understanding of research, it is not a primary research role.

Key responsibilities are:

• Producing evidence-informed practice and policy resources in a range of formats (e.g. publications, videos, podcasts, animations). This includes evidence scoping, content development, commissioning, project management, editing, writing and quality assuring resources from inception to publication.
• Leading the development and delivery of concise, accessible content and learning activities to enable the development of evidence-informed practice and policy in the sector.
• Developing and facilitating learning sessions and events with a range of participants, including senior leaders across the sector.
• Working on a range of commissioned project work, from development/design through to analysis; presenting findings on completion and representing Research in Practice in project teams with academic and practice partners.
• Building strong relationships with sector experts and effectively managing relationships with authors, facilitators, people with lived experience and those working in research, policy and practice.

Research in Practice

Research in Practice is part of the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) family. For over 60 years, the NCB has been building a better childhood for all.

Research in Practice works with organisations across the adults and children’s social care, health and criminal justice sectors, supporting them to develop an evidence-informed approach to their work. Our focus is on using evidence from research, practice and lived experience, to provide resources that improve policy and services, in order to achieve positive outcomes for people of all ages.

About NCB

For more than 60 years, the National Children’s Bureau has championed the rights and amplified the voice of children and young people in the UK. We interrogate policy and uncover evidence, blending in lived and learnt experience to shape future legislation and develop more effective ways of supporting children and families.

Bringing people and organisations together is fundamental to how we improve the systems that babies, children, young people and their families rely on to thrive. We push boundaries, even looking beyond childhood itself to consider transitions into adulthood and the impact of childhood issues on an entire lifespan. We are united for better childhoods and brighter futures.

The Benefits

• 30 Days Annual Leave
• Generous Pension Scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Flexible Working
• Winter Holiday Closure & Break
• Employee Assistance Programme

Closing date: 8am, Wednesday 8th July 2026
Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage interested candidates to submit their applications as soon as possible.

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

We are actively seeking to broaden the diversity of our staff group and warmly welcome applications from candidates underrepresented in the charity sector, including those from Black and Global Majority communities, disabled people, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with lived experience of the issues NCB works on.

No agencies please.