Location: MSSC National Support Centre, London, SE1 7JY
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Salary: Up to £80,000 gross per annum, depending on experience
Closing Date: 22 March 2026
Are you looking for a new challenge where you can have a positive impact on the lives of young people? We’re looking for an exceptional leader with significant experience of youth, volunteering, safety and business support.
The Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is the leading maritime charity for youth development and lifelong learning. We are a vibrant and growing charity inspiring young people to achieve their potential through challenge and nautical adventure, while also enabling seafarers and maritime professionals to realise their potential through learning and career development.
Thousands of young people take part in Sea Cadets activity every week. We want to reach thousands more. We have a strong vision and are on the cusp of rolling out a new multi-year growth strategy to meet the growing demand for what we provide for young people. We aim to equip them to achieve their potential and thrive in a rapidly changing world. We are immensely proud of the breadth, quality and safety of activities we offer to young people.
We are looking for an exceptional individual who wants to be at the heart of this project to reach more young people through our extraordinary, highly skilled volunteers. This individual will drive quality and consistency across everything we do.
About the role
The Director of Young People, Volunteer & Business Support is a full-time employee of Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) and reports to the Chief Executive Officer. The post holder is a member of the MSSC Senior Management Team. The post is based at the National Support Centre in London but will require some travel, mostly within the UK, in order to fulfil the responsibilities of the role. The nature of the role will also involve occasional evening and weekend work.
Responsibilities
- Growth, Development & Outreach
- Health, Safety & Environment
- Young People Support & Safeguarding
- Volunteer Support
- Business Support & Legal
- Policy & Impact
Requirements
Knowledge and understanding of health and safety
Knowledge and experience of managing youth safeguarding issues
Knowledge and experience of volunteering and volunteer management
Experience of leading management processes, compliance, assurance and driving change
Experience of leading a large team with strong people management capability and driving high performance including remote management
For further information, please download the . If you are interested in this role, please apply now!
Benefits
- 25 days annual leave per annum, increasing with length of service
- Hybrid working for many roles (minimum 2 days per week in the London office)
- Volunteering Leave
- Life assurance (4x salary)
- Private medical insurance
- Generous pension (employer contribution up to 10%)
- Cycle to work scheme
- Access to the Marine Society Digital Library
- Wellbeing portal and EAP with one-to-one counselling
- Employee development
Additional Information
MSSC positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates from all backgrounds. Equity, diversity, and inclusion really matters to us, so we can best serve our beneficiaries from every community. We work to ensure a fair and consistent recruitment process and aim to be a charity where diversity of experience, identity and skills are valued and welcomed. MSSC is an equal opportunities employer.
We recognise our responsibilities to safeguard and protect the young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We do all we can to promote their health, safety and wellbeing, and we expect our staff to share this commitment and work in line with safeguarding policy, the MSSC’s values and ethos of inclusivity. We adhere to safer recruitment practices and therefore employment is subject to detailed pre-employment checks for successful candidates, including references and criminal disclosure checks and the completion of a disclosure questionnaire.
All successful applicants are required to attend safeguarding training and undergo pre-employment checks including a criminal record check.
We help launch young people for life through adventure.


The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
This is an exciting role in our committed policy team leading the fight to end child poverty in the UK. The government has just published a UK wide cross-government child poverty strategy, and made some historic commitments to reduce child poverty including scrapping the two-child limit and expanding free school meals in England. However, there is more to do, and this is a great time to join CPAG as we look to monitor the impact of these changes and influence policy makers and parliamentarians to ensure child poverty is high up the agenda.
We are looking for someone with a track record of communicating complex policy areas in an accessible manner to a range of non-specialist audiences. You will have knowledge of parliamentary processes and the different advocacy levers that can be used to influence change. You will enjoy working collaboratively to identify policy issues and develop solutions, working closely with colleagues across the organisation as well as externally.
In addition, in a senior policy officer we are looking for someone to take a lead role in developing CPAG’s policy and research programme, including leading the delivery of research projects, helping to shape our press and campaigns work, and contributing to the development of future projects including fundraising.
You will have a track record of producing high quality research and analysis, including policy briefings, on social policy issues.
The postholder will be working in a fast moving, high profile and complex policy environment and will need to balance short term priorities with long term objectives. Current priorities include influencing the implementation of the forthcoming child poverty strategy, sharing analysis and expertise as part of the DWP’s review of universal credit, and monitoring the development of the green paper on the changes to disability benefits.
We welcome applications from individuals with the skills and experience outlined and we can be flexible about working arrangements, including considering part time hours. We operate a hybrid working system and would be happy to discuss any flexibilities required. CPAG is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion which you can read more about in the job pack.
Please note we are recruiting for one person with the right fit at either the policy officer or senior policy officer level.
For more information about this post and to apply download the (Senior) Policy Officer job pack.
If you have questions or need specific arrangements or reasonable adjustments to take part in the selection process please contact us.
Closing date for applications: Monday 16 March (midnight)
Interviews will be held in London w/c 23 March.
Child Poverty Action Group works to prevent and end child poverty – for good.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.