Research manager jobs in frinton on sea, essex
Imagine a role where your creativity and collaborative approach help connect supporters to a powerful mission, shifting the dial in the food and farming education sector so more children facing disadvantage can discover their connection with the land that sustains us all.
We’re seeking a skilled communicator and digital storyteller equally comfortable crafting social media posts, drafting briefing notes, or capturing and editing film content. You’ll be passionate about amplifying underrepresented voices and supporting social change through engaging communications that inform, connect and inspire.
You will work closely with colleagues across the organisation to drive engagement, raise our profile, and grow our digital presence through impactful multimedia storytelling. Your work will help bring the voices of children, families and communities to partners and supporters nationwide, placing The Country Trust’s mission at the heart of national conversations about wellbeing, education and tackling the poverty of opportunity.
This role involves travel and occasional overnight stays (with mileage reimbursed) across England and North Wales. While we prioritise public transport use, this is not always feasible. Therefore, a valid driving licence is essential.
Key Responsibilities:
Communications & Influence
- Develop and deliver strategic, multi-channel communications that translate complex ideas into compelling messages to increase our influence across media, policy, and partner networks.
Multimedia Storytelling
- Create and deliver impactful, accessible multimedia content that amplifies beneficiary voices, supports advocacy, and aligns with our brand and strategic goals.
Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships
- Develop and tailor impactful communications and materials that strengthen partnerships, engage funders, and support collaborative initiatives with partner organisations.
Press, Media & Digital Oversight
- Support on press and social media communications by managing media relationships, crafting timely content, and optimising outreach to amplify our advocacy and campaigns.
About The Country Trust
The Country Trust believes every child should discover first-hand the connections between the food they eat, their own health and the health of the planet. We are the UK’s leading educational charity on a mission to connect children with the land that sustains us all.
When we don’t understand where food comes from, how it’s grown, or have the chance to spend time outdoors, there’s a significant knock-on effect for our health and the environment. Through nearly 50 years of programme delivery, we know children facing disadvantage often have the most to gain from this connection but are least able to access it.
Through food, farming and countryside experiences, our mission is to empower children to be confident, curious, and create change in their lives and the world around them — so that they and society thrive.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
What if your product vision could transform how one of the UK's largest charities delivers life-changing support to families affected by dementia? Imagine building digital products that empower millions of people to access the support, hope, and breakthrough research they need most?
About the opportunity
As Product Lead, you'll oversee the software products and tools that underpin our vital dementia services, funding generation, and campaigning efforts. You'll be at the heart of our exciting Technology Transformation programme. Leading high-performing product teams to deliver modern, secure and user-centred solutions that enhance our capabilities and maximise our impact.
This is an impactful role within our Digital team and part of our Technology Directorate, working closely with the Associate Director of Digital & Data. You'll line manage Senior Product Managers in a matrix environment while establishing our product approach and community of practice. You'll lead multidisciplinary teams using agile methodology to create products that help thousands of people get support from us daily.
If you're a passionate product expert looking to lead transformational digital change that makes a meaningful difference, we'd love to hear from you.
About you
You're an accomplished Product Lead with extensive experience delivering high-transactional digital products and platforms in large, complex organisations. You have a proven track record of leading multidisciplinary teams using agile methodology, and you're passionate about user-centred design and data-driven decision making. You thrive on mentoring others and building product communities that deliver exceptional results.
You'll have:
- Successful track record of leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver high-transactional digital products and platforms using agile methodology in a large and complex organisation.
- Extensive experience in understanding user, organisational, and technical needs and balancing these when setting product strategy and direction.
- Proven experience of researching, prototyping, launching and scaling products, platforms, and end-to-end services from inception to live.
- Significant experience working with cloud architecture and infrastructure and managing relationships between interdependent technology teams.
- Strong influencing skills with the ability to persuade and negotiate with stakeholders at all levels, including CEO, board and trustee level.
- Commitment to sharing knowledge, having mentored and coached others with a passion for working collaboratively.
- Passionate about Tech for Good with a proven desire to work in an equity-driven organisation solving complex problems.
What you’ll focus on:
- Leading and delivering digital products, platforms, and end-to-end services that directly support people affected by dementia through strategy development, stakeholder management, and value-driven outcomes.
- Managing and developing product team members, establishing product ways of working that support our mission and strategy while building a culture aligned with our organisational values.
- Taking an active leadership role in our Digital team. Working closely with communities of practice and specialist discipline leads to define and deliver our Digital strategy.
- Developing ambitious product visions and strategies, engaging teams across the organisation to understand priorities, align plans, and communicate effectively with senior stakeholders.
- Using qualitative and quantitative data to make informed, outcome-focused decisions while translating vision into prioritised, deliverable goals that track product performance and user outcomes.
- Creating user-centred solutions by identifying user needs based on evidence, translating user stories, and proposing design approaches that improve overall user experience.
Ready to be part of something impactful? Join the digital transformation of one of the UK's largest charities. Where your product expertise helps build the society it takes to beat dementia and deliver help and hope to millions.
Important Dates
Application Deadline: 23:59 on Sunday 17th August.
Applications will be reviewed: Week commencing 18th August.
Interviews will take place early-mid September.
The interview process will include a task, followed by a competency panel interview taking place via Microsoft Teams on the same day. Candidates will need to allocate 2 hours of time on the day of their interview.
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.
About the opportunity
Would you like to play a key part in influencing national decisionmakers across Wales, England and Northern Ireland to drive major, positive change in the dementia policy space? Then this could be the role for you.
Sitting within Alzheimer’s Society’s National Influencing team, as our new National Influencing Officer (Public Affairs) you would be instrumental in delivering innovative, engaging, collaborative, and evidence-based influencing work. You’d be ensuring that political and health system stakeholders are acting on the biggest issues affecting people living with dementia, working closely with other teams to drive work that is integrated locally and nationally.
While this role is predominantly focused on delivering national influencing activity in England, you’ll also be part of a fluid and flexible team that operates across boundaries and supports with our political work in Wales and Northern Ireland.
This is an exciting time for dementia policy in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We have the chance to ensure that governments are prioritising dementia and the needs of all those affected by the condition. Our National Influencing Officer (Public Affairs) will be at the forefront of taking on this vitally important challenge.
About You
You will bring:
- Excellent knowledge of the political and health system and how to influence national decisionmakers.
- A strong understanding of the external political environment and a proven track record in political or similar stakeholder management at a national level.
- Experience engaging proactively with national politicians and decisionmakers, acting as the first point of contact for their teams.
- Confidence and credibility in working with both internal and external stakeholders, with the ability to influence across geographical and organisational boundaries.
- A proven ability to operate and thrive in fast-paced, multi-dimensional environments, and to adapt well to change and ambiguity.
- Strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex data into accessible, impactful content and recommendations.
- Experience working across multiple UK nations in complex influencing environments.
- A commitment to involving people with lived experience – such as those with dementia or long-term health conditions – in your work.
What You’ll Focus On
In this role, you will:
- Lead or support political engagement across England and potentially other UK nations, using your knowledge of parliamentary structures and influencing routes to drive change.
- Provide oversight and coordination of political monitoring and stakeholder engagement activity.
- Plan and deliver impactful public affairs (or similar) events, including parliamentary receptions, breakfast meetings, roundtables, and party conference activity.
- Translate evidence-based policy positions into compelling and effective influencing strategies that achieve real-world impact.
- Build delivery plans focused on meaningful outcomes and measure their success through evaluation and learning.
- Produce high-quality, accessible content to inform and engage stakeholders, using strong presentational and communication skills.
About Alzheimer's Society - who are we and what’s our mission?
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 part of a minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Alzheimer's Society.
Our hiring process
We want you to bring your whole self to the process. Applications are anonymised until interview stage, and we’re happy to support any adjustments. Share your feedback via our candidate survey when applying to help us improve. We may close early if we receive high interest (with 48 hours’ notice). Some roles may require a DBS check as part of our safer recruitment commitment. Thinking about using AI during the recruitment process? we know this can be helpful in many ways but remember to include your personal and authentic self too. Your voice and experience are what really set you apart.
Giving back to you
At Alzheimer’s Society, we value our people and take a total reward approach to pay and benefits. You’ll enjoy a generous double-matched pension scheme, 27 days’ annual leave (plus bank holidays and wellbeing days), and access to a free Bupa Cash Plan, 24/7 EAP, Thrive mental wellbeing support, and virtual GP services. Our Society Plus platform offers exclusive discounts, wellbeing resources, and recognition schemes, while our flexible working, family-friendly policies, and life assurance provide peace of mind and work/life balance. We also offer a free Will-writing service and long service awards to recognise your ongoing commitment.
North West Air Ambulance is a hugely reputable and remarkable charity, which provides enhanced pre-hospital care needed to make a lifesaving difference. They quite simply bring the hospital to the patient, regardless of their location across the North West!
“There’s no doubt the North West Air Ambulance Charity saved my life. Without the care they provided so quickly at the scene, before airlifting me to the Royal Preston Hospital, it’s unlikely I would have survived.” (patient)
Do you want to Join a lifesaving crew and form part of the passionate, driven and talented Income and Engagement team that raise funds to keep this life saving service running?
The Role
This is a fantastic opportunity to deliver the community fundraising strategy in the South Lancashire region. You will report into the Senior Regional Fundraiser and focus on building strong relationships with existing supporters, as well as recruiting new support to maximise fundraising activities and income.
Main duties and responsibilities:
- Develop and implement a local fundraising plan to maximise income generation across the designated geographic area.
- Ensure all activities are delivered within budget, achieving agreed ROI and making sure they are in line with the organisation’s values and ethos.
- Support the wider team to achieve income budgets and agreed objectives in line with the overall fundraising strategy.
- Research, identify and develop long term partnerships with appropriate groups and associations, individuals and volunteers at a local level, offering excellent donor stewardship
The Person
We are ideally looking for someone who has experience in a Community Fundraising role with previous knowledge of working to targets. However, NWAA are flexible and will consider applicants with the relevant transferable skills.
Most importantly you should have excellent written and verbal communication skills, be able to build long lasting relationships, and have the ability to engage with a wide range of audiences. In addition experience in developing and delivering plans, managing budgets and financial forecasting would be advantageous as well as working with databases.
The team at NWAA are motivated, with an ambitious can-do attitude. If you think you can make a difference and be part of the inspirational team that drives the future growth at NWAA, we would love to hear from you!
Please note that this role will require a full UK driving license, and access to your own vehicle.
Why NWAA?
NWAA is a widely recognised charity that has a huge impact on saving lives. Now is an especially important time, as the charity celebrates its 25th anniversary and moves forward with its future 5-year strategic plan. This role offers the opportunity to build a career within the charity. There will be huge scope to learn and grow as part of an incredibly supportive, collaborative and fun team.
On top of this, the charity’s benefits include:
- 25 days annual leave + bank holidays
- Can buy up to an additional 5 days annual leave (once passed probation)
- Extra days holiday up to an additional 3 days based on length of service (must qualify by April for leave provision)
- 6% Employer Contribution to pension – Royal London is the provider
- Sick pay
- Cash Back Scheme which includes cash back for dental treatment and a range of medical treatments as well as staff discounts with a range of retailers
- Life Assurance
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- On-site parking
- Site Induction and yearly staff conference
- Medicash and Perk at Work also come through Medicash
- Blue Light Card
If this sounds like the type of environment that would suit you for the next phase of your career, then get in touch! The role is permanent and full-time (although flexible working patterns will be considered) and offers the opportunity to work flexibly from the charity's offices based in Knowsley and Barton, as well as across the region, and from home.
If you think you could be the right person to fulfil the exciting responsibilities of this role, apply here, or get in contact with Charlie or Leanne at Charity Horizons for more information,
Please note: If you would like to submit an application or express your interest in an alternative format such as audio or video upload or require any adaptations for your initial engagement with us, please contact either Charlie or Leanne who will be happy to advise on this.
Please also be aware that we use anonymous recruitment methods when submitting shortlists for all our roles and we only work with organisations that are happy to engage with us in this way.
Charity Horizons is an equal opportunities employer and as such actively promotes equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We welcome and encourage applications from all suitable candidates irrespective of age, disability, hidden disability, race or national origin, religion or belief, gender, gender expression, political view, sexual orientation, medical condition and pregnancy.