Head of Customer Experience and Service Innovation
At CAP, we celebrate diversity and strive to build an inclusive workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We warmly welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds. We particularly encourage applications from Global Majority/UK Minority Ethnic candidates, as these groups are currently underrepresented within our wider workforce. We are committed to creating an environment where every individual can thrive and feel they belong.
Everything we do is rooted in our values. First and foremost, we are Christ-centred. The work that we do is guided by faith and the belief that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and God’s love.
We are bold in fearlessly putting that faith into action to help others and challenge injustice, while also seeking to be compassionate in the way that we want to understand others and offer them meaningful care. We are collaborative in our approach, making time to learn from others and work together to take on UK poverty. And finally, we prioritise being joyful in the face of challenges, because our faith gives us confidence that change is truly possible.
Context:
Our vision at CAP is to see Transformed Lives, Thriving Churches, and an End to UK Poverty. Our core purpose is to inspire and equip churches across the UK to help people out of debt and poverty, and see them become followers of Jesus.
CAP is the catalyst to a church-based movement against poverty, partnering with churches across the 4 nations of the UK. Our products and services equip and inspire nearly 3000 local CAP workers and volunteers in their mission to come alongside those that are in financial crisis or vulnerability to bring practical help and the good news of Jesus.. CAP stands with the local church in its mission to its community. Currently these products include Debt Help, Job Clubs, Life Skills and Money Coaching and it is the development of these offerings that form the core focus of the role.
These service lines have been built at different times by different people and sit quite separately. Today we have a clear view of our target client, a new set of models for how we partner with churches and so we want to architect now are the customer journeys and experiences that draw these threads together.
Purpose:
This role of Head of Customer Experience (CX) and Service Innovation reports to the Chief Agility Officer, and is the chief service architect of the CAP church-based movement’s ecosystem. This role will lead our transition towards a modular suite of services, ensuring every interaction across our audiences are seamless, dignifying and high-impact. The role is responsible for balancing safety, regulation and theology with flexibility and innovation, enabling a national movement to grow at scale.
Passion:
This team is driven by a shared passion to eradicate UK poverty by equipping churches with flexible and innovative tools and resources. You will be a champion for customer experience excellence across the organisation, directly contributing to the transformation of lives and the delivery of hope.
Role:
Accountabilities:
Team and Capability Development
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Capability Leadership: Recruit, manage, and mentor a high-performing, multi-disciplinary team, fostering a collaborative and mission-driven culture.
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Maturity of Practice: Define and establish best-in-class methodologies and quality standards for CX, service blueprinting, user research, and rapid prototyping across the Agility team, ensuring all practices align with the FCA/Safeguarding regulatory requirements.
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Talent and Culture: Actively drive professional development and manage skill gaps within the CX/Innovation function, creating pathways for internal growth and advocating for the retention of key talent.
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Cross-Functional Embedding: Work with peer Heads to embed CX and product thinking principles throughout the movement, supporting other teams to adopt a user-centric, iterative mindset.
Modular Service Architecture (Design to Grow)
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Innovation: Deconstruct complex services into modular components. Ensure the foundation is robust and regulated (FCA/Safeguarding), while allowing churches to adapt services to their unique community context.
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Movement-Led CX: Focus on Partner Effort. Designing digital and physical journeys that make it significantly easier for a church to join, launch, and sustain a CAP ministry.
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Movement-Focused Impact: Simplifying the technology stack church partners are wrestling with. Evolving CAP’s digital infrastructure from a fragmented set of tools, towards an integrated Mission Suite.
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Productisation of Onboarding: Partner with the wider movement to turn the onboarding process into a high-quality product that inspires and equips without lag and reduces pain points.
Decentralised Content & Knowledge Strategy
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Community Drive Content Strategy: Shift content from centralised, high-production manuals to a dynamic, community-curated Knowledge Commons.
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Modular Learning: Ensure all training and coaching materials are bite-sized, searchable, and easily swappable, reflecting the diverse voices of the UK-wide movement.
Impact-Led Design
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Embedded Insight: Work with the Head of Impact to bake measurement frameworks into service design. Ensure that impact data is a real-time byproduct of the service, not an additional task for the church.
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Data Completeness at Source: Work with the Head of Impact to increase the percentage of impact data points (as defined by the the impact framework) captured automatically during the natural flow of service delivery (reducing the need for manual surveys or back-office data entry).
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Enabling the Impact Community of Practice: Work with the Head of Impact to ensure Insight and Evidence content is accurately and efficiently captured through good design.
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Closing the Feedback Loop: Translating voices across Client, Church and Supporter. Working with insights from across the movement into immediate improvements.
Senior Leadership Team Contributions:
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Be a key member of the Agility and organisation leadership team, demonstrating and living out CAP’s values.
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Provide strategic counsel to the Chief Agility Officer and Executive Leadership Team on product-related matters.
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Represent CAP at industry events and conferences, establishing the organisation as a thought leader in the social impact space.
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Lead cross-functional initiatives to drive organisational change and improve overall operational efficiency.
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Play an active role as a member of the team in:
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Platform Democratisation: Advocate for low-code/no-code solutions that move configuration closer to the business teams, reducing technical bottlenecks and increasing the speed of test and learn.
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Agile Culture Lead: Coaching the wider movement in iterative mindsets, helping teams move from Risk-Aversion to Risk-Awareness.
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Governance: Be an active participant in governance processes, complying with the technical guardrails as defined and championing best practice.
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Measurable Outputs:
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Team Capability Index: Achieve an agreed-upon score on the internal capability maturity assessment for the CX/Innovation function
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Partner Effort Score (PES): A specific metric measuring "How easy was it to launch your latest CAP service?" (Target: Year-on-year reduction in perceived effort).
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Modular Component Adoption: The percentage of church partners using at least one component (e.g. a centre created idea) alongside traditional CAP created products and services.
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Partner Retention Rate: Reduction of the number of centres who leave due to system/process frustration
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Partner Created Content Usage Ratio: Track an increase in the percentage of church-contributed content that is verified and adopted by other churches in the movement.
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Onboarding Automation: The percentage of the Church Partner Journey that is self-service vs. requiring manual intervention from the Church and Client Support team.
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Meantime to innovation: Reducing the time it takes from idea to implementation.
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Innovation Roadmap: Developing an inspiring and impact focused roadmap with detailed business cases and projected impact targets, ready for philanthropic engagement
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Team Engagement/Retention: Maintain an average team engagement score above the organisational target and meet specific goals for voluntary staff turnover within the immediate team.
Culture:
Working at CAP is more than a job; it’s a commitment to a community and movement. We believe that a healthy culture is the fuel for our mission. This means we prioritise spiritual rhythms in our week—including dedicated time for morning prayer, worship, and team huddles. We are a 'joy-filled' office, which means we celebrate every win, from a client becoming debt-free to a colleague’s personal milestone. We expect our team to be 'all in'—not just in their tasks, but in contributing to a supportive, laughter-filled, and prayerful environment.
CAP is a mission-driven, fast-paced, and deeply relational environment. You will find a culture that prioritises:
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Spiritual Rhythms: We start our days with prayer and worship, staying connected to our 'Why.'
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Celebration: We are 'Debt-Free' obsessed. We ring bells, share stories, and celebrate transformation.
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Collaborative Bravery: We tackle big problems (like UK poverty) by working across teams and daring to try new things.
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Inclusive Belonging: We want you to bring your whole self to work, knowing you are valued for who God made you to be.
Other responsibilities include:
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Being willing to pray with staff and fully engaged with our Christ-centred culture.
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Encouraging friends, family and other contacts to support the charity through the Life Changer programme and other fundraising initiatives.
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Attending annual CAP staff conferences.
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Completing all compulsory CAP training within given timescales.
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This role falls within the scope of the FCA’s conduct rules, and you will be provided with training as to how these apply to the role. It is your responsibility to ensure that you follow these conduct rules.
The above job profile is a guide to the work you may be required to undertake but does not form part of your contract of employment. It may change from time to time to reflect changing circumstances.
Person:
Education:
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Degree level or equivalent vocational training.
Strengths / Working Genius:
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Whilst not mandatory, these are the types of Strengths or Working Genius profiles we feel are best suited to this role:
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Strategic Arranger
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Invention, Discernment
Experience:
Essential
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Proven experience (5+ years) in a leadership role with multi-disciplinary teams, with at least 3 years of managing managers and defining organisational strategy.
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Experience of working in regulated industries.
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Experience of working with modular design.
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Track record of developing and executing successful service architecture and design.
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Experience managing budgets and forecasting return on investment.
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Expert knowledge and demonstrable experience of applying Agile/Lean principles, product methodologies, and working with service blueprints in a transformation environment.
Desirable
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Experience of working with Theory of Change.
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Experience working with non-profit organisations, churches, or in a church based social action context.
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Experience of CAP Products and Services or experience within the church-based movement with good knowledge of operations and client base.
Skills/Abilities:
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Systems thinking, with the ability to use data to inform decisions and measure impact.
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Ability to speak the language of UX, Data and Tech.
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Excellent communication skills.
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Experience of inspiring and listening in a movement culture.
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Proven ability to lead and develop high-performing teams.
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Ability to navigate complex regulatory environments.
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High emotional intelligence and ability to understand the human factors involved in the role.
Christian Commitment:
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The candidate must be able to verbally assent to and practically demonstrate Christians Against Poverty’s Statement of Faith and Core Values.
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The candidate must be able to actively participate in prayer and worship, whether individual, small group or corporately, as an expression of their own personal faith and in line with CAP’s Statement of Faith.
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All adults working in or on behalf of CAP have a responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults. This includes:
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A responsibility to ensure a safe environment in which CAP services can be delivered.
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Identifying children and adults where there may be safeguarding concerns.
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Following the CAP Safeguarding policy in addressing any concerns appropriately.
Registered Charity 
101 - 500
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Today, 12 children and young people will be diagnosed with cancer. We’ll stop at nothing to make sure they get the right care and support at the right time.
- Directorate: Innovation, Policy & Systems Change
- Reporting into: Associate Director of Research, Learning and Systems Change
- Colleagues reporting into role: No direct reports at present. However, coaching and managing of volunteers and/or consultants is expected.
- Location: You can be home-based anywhere in the UK, with travel for meetings. You can also choose to work from our Bristol or London offices.
- Closing date: Monday 8 June at 12 midday
- Interview dates: Monday 15 June and Tuesday 16 June (please tell us in your application if you cannot attend interview on one of these days)
Change lives in a life-changing career
When a child or young person is diagnosed with cancer, their whole world can feel like it’s falling apart. Independence is taken and confidence is stolen. Stability no longer exists. The future suddenly feels uncertain.
The impact of cancer on young lives is more than medical. And that impact can be felt by entire family. That’s why we exist. Our specialist social workers help children and young people with cancer and their families navigate the emotional and practical impact of cancer.
We remove barriers, solve problems and prioritise well-being. And we stop at nothing to make their voices heard and their unique needs understood, so they can get the right care and support at the right time.
About the role
We’re looking for a Head of Research & Evidence to join our ambitious Research, Learning & Systems Change Team.
Young Lives vs Cancer has a strong and growing commitment to changing the system for children and young people with cancer, and their loved ones. Our North Star vision and Time is Now Strategy focus on influencing how the wider system works – from services and policy to practice on the ground – so that families get the support they need.
The Head of Research and Evidence sits in the Research, Learning & Systems Change team, within our Innovation, Policy & Systems Change Directorate. The role is responsible for ensuring our work is grounded in strong, credible and useful evidence, and that learning is actively used to shape decisions, practice and change across the system.
This is a leadership role within a small but ambitious team. You will set direction and provide thought leadership, but you will also be hands on – designing, commissioning, managing and using research alongside colleagues and partners.
Building trusted relationships and using evidence to influence thinking and action are central. You will work with colleagues, children and young people, families, and partner organisations (such as the North Star Cancer Collective) to learn, strengthen credibility and create change.
This role is subject to a Criminal Record Check. In the event of a successful application, a Basic Criminal Record Check will be completed. A previous conviction is not necessarily a barrier to employment. We encourage qualified applicants to apply, and we will consider each case individually.
What will I be doing?
No two days are the same at Young Lives vs Cancer. So, summarising your ‘day to day’ isn’t easy. You’ll work as part of a strong internal team, collaborating closely with colleagues across the organisation and with key external partners to generate, use and apply evidence that supports learning, influence and system change. Here are some of the main things you’ll be doing, but you’ll find more details in the job description and pack:
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You’ll be setting the direction for research and learning, leading a clear and purposeful research programme focused on the psychosocial experiences of children and young people with cancer. You’ll ensure research is high‑quality, ethical and impactful, including commissioning work with partners and contributing to research funding bids.
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You’ll be understanding needs and experiences to grow a strong, credible evidence base, building and using robust evidence on need, inequality, impact and progress to inform strategy, services, policy and system change. You’ll ensure children, young people and families meaningfully shape research and that insight is shared in clear, practical ways.
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You’ll be providing system insight and leadership, analysing how the system works, identifying trends and pressures, and using evidence to guide where change is most needed. You’ll build trusted relationships across the voluntary sector, NHS and research community, sharing learning and strengthening our credibility and influence.
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You’ll be turning learning into action and influence, helping teams apply research to real‑world practice and supporting testing, learning and improvement over time. You’ll put feedback and learning loops in place and assess how research‑informed change is affecting practice and outcomes.
What do I need?
Diverse perspectives and unique skill sets are at the heart of Young Lives vs Cancer. If you're passionate about making a positive impact and eager to learn, we encourage you to apply, even if you don't meet the criteria and person specification fully. Your potential is what matters most to us, and we’re committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment to help you develop.
The key skills we’re looking for in this role are:
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Experience leading and delivering research, including setting direction, choosing methods, commissioning or carrying out research, analysing data, and ensuring high quality and ethical practice.
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Strong research and analytical skills, with confidence working with both qualitative and quantitative data and evidence, and turning insight into practical action.
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Experience using evidence to support change, such as shaping strategy, influencing policy, improving services or supporting system change.
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Experience working across organisations, building trusted relationships with colleagues, partners, and where appropriate, children, young people and families.
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Ability to communicate complex research clearly and accessibly to different audiences, in writing and in conversation.
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A collaborative way of working, with strong people skills, curiosity and a learning mindset, and a clear commitment to equity, inclusion and anti‑oppressive practice.
What will I gain?
For people to reach their full potential, they need the right environment. As a member of Team Young Lives, you’ll be made to feel supported, valued and appreciated. Here’s how we do it:
- Flexible working: we’re open to working hours outside of 9 - 5 and we can talk through your flexibility requirements at interview stage
- Well-being, Thinking & Growth Days: four days a year to to step back from the day-to-day and focus on your own learning and development
- Generous annual leave allowance
- Great family/caring leave entitlements
- Enhanced pension
- Access to our employee savings scheme
To find out more about our benefits package, have a look on our website.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
At Young Lives vs Cancer, we recognise that opportunities for too many people remain a condition of their sex, ethnicity, class, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation – or a combination. This has never been acceptable to us as an organisation. We don’t just accept difference, we value it, celebrate it, nurture it and we thrive because of it.
We’re on a journey to be reflective of the diverse children, young people and families we support. We know we aren’t there yet, and we’re passionately committed to taking actions and making changes to be a truly diverse, inclusive and equitable organisation. This includes taking anti-oppressive action and removing barriers in our recruitment practices. Our Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging strategy will tell you more.
To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed. We recognise the benefits of AI, but if you're considering using it to submit your application, we encourage you to reflect on the value AI adds. AI tools often lack the personal touch and authenticity that set candidates apart. We want to hear your unique perspective, experiences, and skills, so we encourage you to tell us about your skills and experiences in your own voice.
Accessibility
We’re committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we’ll always aim to be as accommodating as possible. Please let us know in your application form of any adjustments or access requirements we could make to help you with the application process and interview.
To hear more about this role, please sign up to one of our informal drop in sessions taking place at 12:30pm on Tuesday 26th May and 17:30pm on Monday 01st June.
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