Job Description

Mothers’ Union are looking for an exceptional communicator with proven staff, project and budget management experience, to join us as Senior Development Manager and take on an exciting and  challenging development role with a global remit.

Established in 1876, we are a Christian membership organisation with over 60 affiliated local charities in Britain and Ireland and over 600 worldwide – and we're still growing. Our Development & Policy Team is responsible for project, programme and policy work worldwide. On the Development side, the team supports Mothers’ Union provinces and dioceses in the UK & Ireland and across the globe in their project and programme work, including participatory learning and facilitation-based church and community mobilisation processes.

It is an exciting time to join in this pivotal role. As Senior Development Manager, you will:

• Lead on all areas of our programme and project development work, have direct line management responsibility for six positions and cultivate relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders;
• Oversee our project and programme work both within the UK and Ireland and worldwide, as well as the production and presentation of comprehensive briefing papers and funding applications;
• Work closely with the Head of Development & Policy to develop and implement a development strategy and annual work plan;
• Participate in, and contribute to, faith based discussion and programme resources - for this reason you must be a practising Christian (Occupational requirement Equality Act 2010);
• Keep fully updated on all current programmes and projects, identify future funding needs and develop greater sustainability of our current activities;
• Establish monitoring, evaluation and learning processes and procedures, help develop appropriate safeguarding guidelines and procedures and develop best practice across all our programmes and projects.

To succeed as Senior Development Manager, you will need:

• Extensive experience of  working within a  programmes or projects environment nationally and/or internationally;
• A good understanding of participatory learning and/or strengths based approaches;
• A participative leadership style and a track record of managing a diverse group of people;
• A proven ability to monitor, evaluate and learn from different approaches to measuring impact and effectiveness and a flair for interpreting financial information;
• The communication skills it takes to address a wide range of people confidently and to tailor messages to suit the audience it’s aimed at;
• A flexible approach, calmness under pressure, sensitivity to cultural differences and a willingness to travel to oversee our programmes or projects (some international travel involved).

There is far more to Mothers’ Union than you might imagine.  We don’t work alongside communities, we work inside communities. We are an exciting and growing grassroots charity with over 4 million members in 83 countries bringing Christian care for families right at the heart of communities worldwide. It is a goal that we actively pursue through our faith, programme work, advocacy and policy campaigns.