Senior direct marketing officer jobs in Birmingham

Cerebra is the national charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with neurological conditions and their families. We provide vital research, support, and practical solutions that empower families facing complex challenges.

With an annual income of £3 million and a headcount of 68 employees, we have ambitious plans to double our income between 2025 and 2027, ensuring we can extend our impact, reach more families, and drive real change. To achieve this, we are investing in fundraising innovation, income generating ventures, and strategic partnerships, alongside enhancing our brand to increase our national recognition.

Our work is underpinned by our values ensuring that everything we do aligns with our mission to create a better world for children with neurological conditions.

This is an incredibly exciting time to join Cerebra, as we are preparing to launch our new strategy and brand. The COO is a vital leadership role that will support the drive towards even greater impact for children and families across the UK.

Our Services

Sleep Advice Service

Cerebra understands that if you have a child that doesn’t sleep, the whole family suffers. Many children with neurological conditions suffer from disrupted sleep. Our sleep advice service provides bespoke advice and support so that everyone can get a good night’s sleep.

Legal Rights Service

Our Legal Rights Service provides help and support to families of children with neurological conditions when they are faced with barriers and difficulties in accessing statutory support services they are entitled to. The service provides information on their legal entitlements.

Book and Toy Library Service

Our specialist postal lending library contains a wide range of books for both adults and children, plus a selection of sensory toys specifically chosen for children with a neurological condition.

Innovation and Product Design Service

Our Innovation Service designs and builds bespoke products that cater to the specific needs of children with neurological conditions. The aim of the service is to make products that are desirable and exciting, therefore promoting social inclusion, peer acceptance and enabling children to participate in everyday activities that are so often close to them.

Information Products

Cerebra publishes different information products to help families with a child with a neurological condition. Our information products offer comprehensive, up-to-date support and research-driven strategies to assist families with a wide range of issues.

Buzgi and Toy Adaptation Service

Cerebra designs and builds bespoke assistive equipment for disabled children, this includes creating custom mobility aids, switch‑adapted toys, and other innovative solutions to help children access play, learning, and independence.

The Bugzi - a mini powered wheelchair for children offers many children their first experience of independent mobility. It uses either a joystick or switches and adaptable seating for complex needs, and helps develop spatial awareness, confidence, and early mobility skills. The Bugzi is available through a national loan scheme.

Additionally, we operate commercial services (including a web shop) to supplement our income to support children and their families.

Our services are provided to families free of charge.

Job Title:

Chief Operating Officer

Reports To:

Chief Executive Officer

Direct reports:

3 senior managers (Finance (headcount of 3), HR (headcount of 1), IT (headcount of 5))

Purpose of the Role:

The Chief Operating Officer will play a vital role in supporting the Chief Executive Officer, Board and Leadership Team to deliver Cerebra’s vision and ambitious strategic aims. The Chief Operating Officer will provide strategic leadership and operational management across key areas within Cerebra including:

• Operational Systems
• Governance
• Compliance
• Finance and Growth

This is a pivotal executive leadership role, responsible for driving organisational performance, sustainability and growth. The COO will translate Cerebra’s strategic ambitions into effective operational delivery, ensuring robust governance, financial stewardship and a high-performing, values-led culture.

As a trusted advisor to the CEO and Board, the COO will lead core operational services and commercial activity, enabling the charity to maximise impact and generate sustainable income in support of its charitable objectives.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic & Executive Leadership

• Partner with the CEO and Board to deliver strategic priorities, growth and long-term sustainability
• Collaboration with the Director’s Group to ensure strategic alignment across the charity. The Director’s Group consists of:

            Chief Executive Officer

            Chief Operating Officer

            Director of Fundraising, Marketing and Communications

            Director of Research and Support Services

• Provide expert advice on finance, operations, commercial performance and organisational risk
• Lead organisational planning, business continuity, and operational resilience
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability and inclusion

Finance, Commercial & Sustainability

• Lead financial strategy, planning and performance, ensuring long-term sustainability
• Oversee budgeting, forecasting, cashflow and financial controls
• Lead and develop Cerebra’s strategy for commercial income , ensuring alignment with charitable objectives
• Support funding growth through strong financial insight and business case development
• Ensure robust financial governance, audit and compliance

Operations & Infrastructure

• Lead and strengthen operational functions including HR, IT, governance and administration
• Ensure effective systems, processes and infrastructure that enable growth, efficiency and impact
• Oversee procurement, contracts, facilities, and organisational compliance
• Drive innovation and value for money across operations

People & Culture

• Champion a positive, inclusive and high-performing organisational culture
• Oversee HR strategy, workforce planning and leadership development
• Ensure compliance with employment law and best practice
• Promote wellbeing, engagement and organisational effectiveness

Digital & Technology

• Provide strategic oversight of IT, data and digital development
• Ensure systems are secure, resilient and aligned to organisational needs
• Leverage data and technology to improve insight, decision-making and organisational impact

Governance, Risk & Compliance

• Ensure effective governance frameworks, risk management and regulatory compliance
• Support the CEO and Board with high-quality reporting and strategic insight
• Lead safeguarding, data protection and organisational risk strategy
• Drive a strong culture of accountability and ethical practice

Leadership & Management

• Lead and develop a small senior team across finance, HR and IT
• Build capability, strengthen performance, and embed a collaborative culture
• Model Cerebra’s values and leadership behaviours

Key Attributes

• Strategic and commercially minded leader with strong operational delivery experience
• Strong financial leadership and business acumen
• Proven track record of driving income growth, sustainability and organisational performance
• Skilled in governance, risk and stakeholder engagement

Please see attached job description for the Person Specification.

Acorns Children’s Hospice provides specialist care and support for babies, children and young people who are life limited or life threatened. Supporting over 750 children and nearly 1,000 families annually, Acorns is a vital lifeline for families across the West Midlands and Gloucestershire during unimaginably difficult times.

Individual Giving is a key pillar of Acorns’ fundraising strategy, delivering sustainable income through supporter retention, stewardship and meaningful donor engagement. Following a recent team restructure and significant investment in the function, Acorns is now looking for an Individual Giving Manager to help shape and grow its retention programme.

Reporting to the Senior Individual Giving Manager, you will manage the delivery of warm fundraising campaigns across a range of channels, including appeals, newsletters, telemarketing, email and regular giving. Contributing to a team income target of c.£1.5m, you will focus on retaining and developing supporters, using data and insight to maximise performance and supporter lifetime value.

This is an exciting opportunity for a driven fundraiser who enjoys testing new ideas, using data to inform decisions and taking ownership of campaign delivery. With strong support from senior leadership and the freedom to put your own stamp on the role, you will play a key role in the future growth of Individual Giving at Acorns.

Hybrid, 2 days per week at preferred location (Birmingham, Worcester or Walsall).

As Individual Giving Manager, you will:

• Deliver multi-channel retention campaigns including appeals, newsletters, telemarketing, email and regular giving activity
• Support a team income target of c.£1.5m by maximising supporter retention and increasing lifetime value
• Develop and grow the mid-value programme for donors giving between £200 and £5,000 annually
• Create tailored supporter journeys, stewardship plans and small-scale events that bring supporters closer to Acorns’ work
• Develop engaging fundraising concepts and write compelling copy across print and digital channels
• Work closely with colleagues across Data, Marcomms and Fundraising to deliver excellent supporter experiences
• Identify opportunities to test new approaches, challenge existing activity and drive continuous improvement

Essential skills and experience: 

• Campaign delivery experience within individual giving, direct marketing or supporter engagement
• Experience using data and insight to improve campaign performance and supporter retention
• Copywriting skills and the confidence to develop fundraising concepts
• Experience managing budgets, forecasts and campaign reporting
• A curious, analytical and test-and-learn mindset
• A proactive, solutions-focused approach and the confidence to work independently
• Experience working across a range of fundraising or marketing channels

Desirable, but not essential:

• Experience working across more than one organisation
• Experience delivering supporter retention programmes
• Confidence working independently and taking ownership of campaign delivery

This role could suit an experienced Individual Giving Officer looking to take the next step in their career. As the team grows line management opportunities may become available.

Benefits include:

• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• 5 days holiday buyback scheme
• 5% employer pension contribution
• Life assurance scheme (2 x annual salary)
• Retail discounts (including the Blue Light card)
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounted gym membership
• Access to expert financial health and wellbeing support

For over 60 years the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) has been building a better childhood for all.

Research and Development Officer
Contract: Permanent
Work Pattern: Part Time, 28 hours per week (0.8 FTE)
Salary: £34,408 per annum, FTE (£27,526 per annum for 28 hours per week), with annual salary increments for the first three years
Location: Homebased – however NCB and RiP has offices in Sheffield, Newton Abbot, London and Belfast that staff can work from should they choose.

The Vacancy

We are looking for a talented Research and Development Officer to join our children and families team at Research in Practice. In this role you will develop and deliver accessible content and learning activities that promote evidence-informed practice and policy across child and family social care, youth and family justice as part of our annual delivery programme for our partners. You will also be involved in the delivery of commissioned project work.

The successful candidate will have experience designing and delivering resources, workshops, webinars, and events for a range of audiences, including senior leaders.

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone with strong written and editorial skills, excellent facilitation skills and who is confident distilling complex information into accessible learning materials. While the position requires engagement with and understanding of research, it is not a primary research role.

Key responsibilities are:

• Producing evidence-informed practice and policy resources in a range of formats (e.g. publications, videos, podcasts, animations). This includes evidence scoping, content development, commissioning, project management, editing, writing and quality assuring resources from inception to publication.
• Leading the development and delivery of concise, accessible content and learning activities to enable the development of evidence-informed practice and policy in the sector.
• Developing and facilitating learning sessions and events with a range of participants, including senior leaders across the sector.
• Working on a range of commissioned project work, from development/design through to analysis; presenting findings on completion and representing Research in Practice in project teams with academic and practice partners.
• Building strong relationships with sector experts and effectively managing relationships with authors, facilitators, people with lived experience and those working in research, policy and practice.

Research in Practice

Research in Practice is part of the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) family. For over 60 years, the NCB has been building a better childhood for all.

Research in Practice works with organisations across the adults and children’s social care, health and criminal justice sectors, supporting them to develop an evidence-informed approach to their work. Our focus is on using evidence from research, practice and lived experience, to provide resources that improve policy and services, in order to achieve positive outcomes for people of all ages.

About NCB

For more than 60 years, the National Children’s Bureau has championed the rights and amplified the voice of children and young people in the UK. We interrogate policy and uncover evidence, blending in lived and learnt experience to shape future legislation and develop more effective ways of supporting children and families.

Bringing people and organisations together is fundamental to how we improve the systems that babies, children, young people and their families rely on to thrive. We push boundaries, even looking beyond childhood itself to consider transitions into adulthood and the impact of childhood issues on an entire lifespan. We are united for better childhoods and brighter futures.

The Benefits

• 30 Days Annual Leave
• Generous Pension Scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Flexible Working
• Winter Holiday Closure & Break
• Employee Assistance Programme

Closing date: 8am, Wednesday 8th July 2026
Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage interested candidates to submit their applications as soon as possible.

Interested?

If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

We are actively seeking to broaden the diversity of our staff group and warmly welcome applications from candidates underrepresented in the charity sector, including those from Black and Global Majority communities, disabled people, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with lived experience of the issues NCB works on.

No agencies please.