Programme communications lead jobs

Age UK is looking for an experienced statutory funding professional play a vital role in supporting local Age UK federation partners to sustain and grow statutory income - including leading/supporting collaborative bids to regional/combined commissioners; creating and maintaining statutory commissioning knowledge hubs - with shared tools and knowledge; enabling access to quality third party support; providing 'critical friend' and other opportunity specific support through clear pathways and Service Level Agreements. This is a great opportunity for someone who enjoys enabling others to succeed, navigating complex commissioning environments, and turning collective effort into lasting impact for older people.

This role is one of two newly created Business Development Manager positions. While each post will have a distinct focus - one on local/regional commissioners and the other on national commissioners - the two managers will work closely to ensure strategic alignment and balanced workload across the portfolio.

This is a 24-month fixed term contract. There is potential for the role to become permanent depending on a review of business needs.

We operate a hybrid-working model, a blend of home and office working. This role will include regular days working from our London office - currently once a week on a Thursday and may involve occasional travel for meetings and cultivation events. Travel costs to the London office are the responsibility of the postholder and are not covered by the charity.

Age UK internal grade: 5L

Last date for applications Friday 22^nd May 2026.

Must haves:

The below competencies will be assessed at the indicated stage of the recruitment process:
Application = A, Interview = I, Test = T, Presentation = P

Experience

• Experience leading or supporting securing six and seven figure statutory contracts for charities. A, I
• Experience of managing or supporting relationships with key individuals from public sector bodies. A, I

Skills and knowledge

• Understanding of statutory funding processes, including commissioning and procurement. A, I
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral - with the social skills and presence to communicate complex issues to a variety of audiences. I, T
• High levels of gravitas and influencing skills: credible and confident with senior level contacts internally and externally. I
• Excellent levels of financial management and numeracy. A, I
• Ability to distil complex information and convey it powerfully to a variety of different people, including distilling complex issues to understandable and actionable items. I, T
• Ability to manage multiple priorities within a fast-paced environment, ensuring our prospects and donors are at the heart of our fundraising. A, I
• Sound administration skills, including a good working knowledge of MS Office products. I

Personal attributes

• A passion to join Age UK in supporting older people and a belief the support from statutory fundraising is critical to achieving our strategic goals. A, I
• Takes ownership of responsibility - able to identify and deliver the key activities - whilst collaborating and challenging others - that ultimately provide the best pathway for the organisation to realise statutory funding opportunities. I
• Makes things happen, links with others, thinks outside the box, spots where new approaches can achieve desired results, and then delivers at pace. I
• Thrives on collaboration - linking with others with a friendly and engaging approach that enables close working cross-organisationally, two-way challenging conversations and the ability to work confidently and effectively with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. A, I
• Is resilient to change -flexible, pragmatic, and able to quickly adapt plans in alignment with organisational priorities. I

Great to haves:

The below competencies will be assessed at the indicated stage of the recruitment process:
Application = A, Interview = I, Test = T, Presentation = P

Experience

• Experience with framework agreements and call offs. A, I
• Experience with shared learning and knowledge management (e.g. bid libraries, support tools, sharing of good practice) A, I
• Experience creating or supporting partnership brokering/consortia bids A, I

Skills and knowledge:

• Understanding of trends in local/regional commissioning. I

Please look at the attached job description for more information on the role responsibilities.

What we offer in return

• Competitive salary, 26 days annual leave + bank holidays + annual leave purchase scheme
• Excellent pension scheme, life assurance, Health cashback plan and EAP
• Car Benefit Scheme, Cycle to Work Scheme and Season Ticket Loan
• Techscheme - buy any tech from Apple or Currys, up to £1000, and spread the cost over 12 months, interest free
• Blue Light Card Scheme
• You Did It Awards - recognition awards from £100-250
• Many additional benefits

Additional Information

Supporting statements and anonymisation
Candidates are expected to provide a supporting statement that explains how they meet the competencies annotated with an 'A' in the job description, to assess suitability for the position. Age UK acknowledges and accepts that AI may be used to support the application; we do expect candidates to personalise experience, knowledge and skills and failure to do so, may result in your application being rejected.

Please submit a Word version of your CV as it will be anonymised by our recruitment system when you apply for a role. Our system is unable to anonymise supporting statements and heavily formatted CVs. Please could you remove any personal information including your name before you upload to support our inclusive recruitment process. All equalities monitoring information is also anonymised and not shared with the hiring panel. Your name and address will only be known to us if invited for interview.

Equal opportunities & Disability Confident Scheme
Age UK is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity. Age UK is a Disability Confident Scheme employer. Due to high numbers of applications received, Age UK reserves the right to limit the overall number of interviews offered, and therefore, it may not always be practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job.

Reasonable adjustments
Disabled job seekers can access reasonable adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. All requests for reasonable adjustments are considered on a case-by-case basis, in collaboration with the disabled job seeker to best meet their needs, by contacting the Recruitment Team. Disability disclosures will be kept confidential and only shared on a need-to-know basis to support the implementation of adjustments. Disclosures will not be used to inform hiring decisions.

Age UK is committed to safeguarding adults at risk, and children, from abuse and neglect. We expect everyone who works with us to share this commitment.

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert at any time.

Age UK politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.

For a full list of benefits please visit our website.