Policy research officer jobs in london, greater london

What if you could build your finance career at one of the UK's leading charities while gaining professional qualifications and hands-on experience? Imagine being part of a team that keeps our cash flow and income processes running smoothly, enabling us to deliver life-changing support to people affected by dementia?

About the opportunity

As Accounts Assistant focusing on Treasury and Accounts Receivables, you'll play an important role in delivering a high-performing, efficient financial transactions operation with partnership and improvement at its core. This is both an operational and developmental role, offered with the possibility of pursuing a formal qualification such as a financial accounting apprenticeship or another appropriate finance or administration-related qualification.

You'll be part of our Finance & Assurance directorate, reporting to the Financial Transaction Team Officers and working alongside other assistants and trainees. Focusing specifically on Treasury and AR activities, you'll gain broad experience across cash management, income processing, and receivables. From recording and processing financial transactions to supporting month-end and year-end processes, you'll monitor daily communications and role-model brilliant partnership and customer service, support reconciliations and audits, and work in an agile way across multiple projects and workstreams.

This is a role where your success is built on strong collaboration across multiple teams. You'll have opportunities to undertake specific improvement projects, identify ways to enhance processes, and support colleagues across the organisation to operate within best practice when it comes to financial transactions.

About you:

You're someone with a willingness to learn and develop on the job, sharing your learnings with colleagues to foster whole-team development. You have a working interest in quality improvement and an enthusiasm for a career in finance with ideas to help us constantly improve. You have experience with problem-solving, preferably in a financial environment, and you're willing to proactively reach across to colleagues in different teams.

You'll have:

- Willingness to learn and develop on the job (including undertaking specialist training), sharing those learnings with colleagues.
- Working interest in quality improvement in processes, analysis, communications, or customer service, and experience supporting it.
- Enthusiasm for a career in finance and ideas to help us constantly improve.
- Experience of problem-solving, preferably in a financial environment, and willingness to proactively reach across to colleagues in different teams.
- Good grasp of data and how it can be analysed and presented to improve understanding, engagement, and performance.
- Experience of developing basic financial reports and performing simple bank reconciliations.

What you’ll focus on:

- Supporting the effective running and performance of the Financial Transactions team, with a specific focus on Treasury and Accounts Receivables activities.
- Undertaking specific projects to demonstrate or drive improvements across Treasury and AR processes.
- Monitoring and responding to daily communications from colleagues and role-modelling brilliant partnership and customer service.
- Recording, processing, and filing financial transactions in line with internal procedures, including completing reconciliations.
- Assisting in month-end and year-end closing processes, including preparing for and supporting audits.
- Identifying ways to improve processes and making recommendations to senior colleagues.
- Supporting colleagues across the organisation to operate within best practice for financial transactions.
- Role-modelling working in ways that always adhere to internal policies, procedures, and compliance requirements.
- Liaising with suppliers and other third parties where appropriate.
- Supporting officers and managers with reconciliations, reports, and analysis related to cash management and receivables.

Could your enthusiasm for finance and quality improvement help strengthen our Treasury and Accounts Receivables operations? Are you ready to develop your skills while gaining qualifications in an environment where learning and collaboration are valued? If you're looking for a role where development meets meaningful purpose, we'd love to hear from you.

Important Dates

The deadline for applications is 23:59 on Sunday 9th November 2025.
Interviews will take place on W/C 17th November 2025.

About Alzheimer's Society

Dementia is the UK’s biggest killer. One in three people born in the UK today will develop dementia in their lifetime.

At Alzheimer’s Society, we’re the UK’s leading dementia charity and the only one to tackle all aspects of dementia by giving help and hope to people living with dementia today and in the future. We give vital support to people facing the most frightening times of their lives, while also funding groundbreaking research and campaigning to make dementia the priority it should be.

Together with our supporters, we’re working towards a world where dementia no longer devastates lives.

Our values make sure that our focus is clear for the challenges and opportunities ahead and remind us of what we all stand for.

Our commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging

We need to ensure the voices around our table better reflect and understand the communities we exist to serve. We strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment or health condition or individuals who identify as Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Alzheimer's Society.  

We want everyone we work with, as a colleague, volunteer, supporter, or someone we support, to feel included and that they belong at Alzheimer's Society. 

Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy here along with our internal employee forum and Employee Lived Experience network groups help us promote inclusion and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people. 

Our hiring process

During your recruitment process we want to make sure that you bring your whole self and can be at your best. We are working hard to ensure our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible, so please do inform us of your experience and anything you think we could do better by completing our candidate survey when you apply.  Please also contact Alzheimer’s Society Talent Acquisition Team via [email protected] for application support or any adjustments you might need.

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 it truly 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 showcase them in your own voice.

We try to avoid closing roles early where possible, however if we receive a high volume of applications, we may close earlier than the advertised closing date. Should this occur, we will aim to provide you with at least 48 hours' notice.

We are committed to safer recruitment and ensuring the welfare of those we work with, due to the nature of some of our roles, we might need to carry out a DBS check at the relevant level.

Giving back to you

Our employees work hard every day to make a true difference in people's lives. We are proud to support them with a range of benefits, recognition and many options for working agilely, all contributing to a strong work life balance. We also have various learning programmes to support you in your development and help you grow to realise your potential and shape a career with Alzheimer's Society. 

You can also visit our Working for Us pages, which give you more information about what it’s like to be an employee at the Society.

Barnardo's is seeking an experienced and collaborative leader to join our Fundraising & Marketing Directorate as Interim Head of Individual Giving. This is a pivotal senior management role, responsible for leading a team delivering a supporter and data focused fundraising programme, inspiring the public to donate, do more and build loyalty through authentic and compelling communications aligned to Barnardo's strategy. It is a critical income stream—raising over £13 million annually.

About the Role 

As Head of Individual Giving, you will lead a high-performing team of fundraising specialists across regular giving, cash, raffle, lottery, and legacy marketing. You will support in the development of the long term growth plan, work in inter disciplinary teams on campaign development and delivery supporting your team in this new way of working and be responsible for executing the plan so that it drives growth in acquisition, retention, and lifetime value of supporters. 

You will play a key role in the Fundraising & Marketing Leadership Team, contributing to the development of the charity's overarching fundraising & marketing strategic plan and embedding a culture that strives for excellence, focuses on continual improvement, and delivers in collaboration with others. 

This is a role for a experience professional who can translate insight into action, lead complex programmes with agility, and inspire teams to deliver outstanding results. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Strategic Leadership: Support the development of a Fundraising & Marketing growth plan and deliver a multi-year Individual Giving programme that supports sustainable income growth and deepens supporter engagement. 

• Programme Oversight: Lead the planning, delivery, and optimisation of multi-channel fundraising campaigns, ensuring they are data-driven, audience-centric, and aligned with Barnardo's brand values. 

• Financial Stewardship: Manage a multi-million-pound income and expenditure budget, with responsibility for forecasting, contingency planning, and risk mitigation. 

• Cross-Organisational Collaboration: Work closely with colleagues across Digital, Brand & Marketing, Supporter Care, Services and Compliance, Supporter Data & Insight, Communications and Children's Services to deliver integrated campaigns and a seamless supporter experience. 

• Insight led continual improvement: Embed a culture of test-and-learn, using market intelligence, segmentation, and performance data to inform strategic decisions and drive continuous improvement. 

• Leadership & People Development: Lead and develop a large team of direct and indirect reports, fostering a high-performance culture and supporting professional growth. 

About You 

You are a senior fundraising professional with: 

• A proven track record in strategic planning and delivery within a large, complex organisation. 

• Extensive experience in direct marketing and individual giving, with demonstrable success in income growth and supporter engagement. 

• Strong financial acumen and experience managing substantial budgets. 

• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills. 

• A collaborative mindset and the ability to influence at all levels. 

• A commitment to Barnardo's values and a passion for making a difference in the lives of children and young people. 

Please note due to the high volume of applications for some posts, this advert might close before the displayed closing date. We recommend that you apply for this role as soon as possible. 

Pay & Reward Framework

We know that our colleagues go above and beyond in delivering our vital work, driven by their passion and commitment to Barnardo's values.  We also know that we can only realise our ambitions and achieve better outcomes for more children, thanks to the talent, hard work and creativity of our people. 

For all these reasons, we are committed to a new approach to pay and reward, to ensure it is fair, attractive and progressive, which was rolled out in April 2023. This is a positive change for the charity, and a part of our People & Culture Strategy. It will assist us in supporting colleagues to belong, thrive and grow in their colleague journey at Barnardo's and in time will offer clear routes of progression for colleagues in both their career and their pay. 

Whilst the full pay band and salary range is advertised, our approach to starting salaries is to appoint between the minimum to mid-point of the pay band – this ensures that pay steps are available to reward our colleagues annually based on their contribution to excellence and alignment to our values and behaviours.  More details on Barnardo's pay framework can be found upon application. 

Manage and deliver our place based programmes for young people.
 

Since 2022, we’ve been growing our place-based programmes in key regions across the country - communities full of potential, creativity and ambition, but where young people can face barriers to accessing the same networks and opportunities as their peers.

Our new strategy, Ambition 2030, puts these local programmes at the heart of helping young people build the future they choose. With almost one million young people currently not in education, employment or training (NEET), the need to create meaningful pathways into work and learning has never been greater.

Through our place-based projects, backed and funded by industry leaders, we are focusing on the young people who are most at risk of missing out on the benefits of school.

We believe earlier intervention is key to solving the NEET crisis. This means delivering opportunities to practise and apply skills in real-world contexts. Providing meaningful encounters with a wide range of industries and professionals. And meeting young people where they are to build their confidence.

We’re seeking a project manager to lead this work with our trusted industry partners, working in collaboration with employers, local and combined authorities, schools and charities. We are currently delivering Ignite projects in Blackpool, East Riding of Yorkshire, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Northampton, Rochdale and London, and may take on additional projects in new locations.

Key responsibilities

• Lead our Ignite place-based programmes, managing workshops, employer engagement, and volunteer coordination, while ensuring local partners stay central to design and delivery.
• Oversee programme delivery, stakeholder relationships, coordination and logistics
• Through targeted interventions ensure the right workshops and people are in place to support young people to raise their aspirations, develop their skills and bridge the gap between education and employment

This role is a hybrid of strategic and operational work.

Please note, these projects follow The Talent Foundry delivery model of being facilitator-led and supported by industry volunteers. As the project lead you will not be facilitating or teaching workshops, or providing 121 support to students.

To read the full job information pack please download the attachment. Please read this before completing your application as it contains some helpful advice of what we are looking for. For safer recruitment purposes - please ensure your CV includes the month and date of your previous employment and includes information about any employment gaps. 

Safeguarding

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing and welfare of children and we require everyone associated with The Talent Foundry Trust, including all trustees, employees, and volunteers to share this commitment. Successful applicants will need to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the role, including completing our Safer Recruitment process, references from past employers and Disclosure and Barring Service checks.