The Brilliant Club Recruitment Pack Communities Manager September 2025 Registered Limited Company: 07986971 Registered Charity: 1147771 (England and Wales), SC048774 (Scotland) Registered Office: Fivefields, 8-10 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0DH Communities Manager Start Date: Immediate Salary: £39,423 (plus £2,000 London weighting for those living in London and within the M25). Contract Type: Permanent About the role We are excited to be recruiting a Communities Manager to join our Communities team. You’ll work with our team to deliver the goals set out in Join the Club, our ambitious strategy for 2021-2026, and to develop and deliver our exciting new strategy in the coming years. We want to better connect with, listen to and mobilise the communities we work with. This role will play an integral part in building our parent and carer communities. You will support with the expansion of our ground-breaking Parent Power chapters, supporting with the development of local parent/carer communities and creation of a national parent network. Reporting to the Director of Communities, you will: • Lead the Parent Power delivery team, including the Communities Officers and Parent Power Community Organisers • Line manage two Communities Officers and several Parent Power Community Organisers responsible for delivery of parent/carer 121s and meetings • Manage partnerships with Parent Power partner organisations and schools, ensuring high quality project delivery and dealing with/escalating issues to ensure positive solutions are reached • Manage Parent Power chapter budgets and operational Parent Power processes, including implementation of our evaluation framework and data protection • Manage the process for recruiting and inducting new Community Organisers About you The role will best suit someone who has: • Ability to take a relational approach when working with others • Excellent organisational skills, with an ability to prioritise and manage time effectively • Ability to be flexible and adapt to changing priorities • Project management skills, with appropriate levels of time and resource input • Commitment to own professional development • Commitment to the development of others • A demonstrable passion for furthering The Brilliant Club’s mission • Ability to adhere to information security policies included in the charity’s ISO 27001 manual and complete information security training About The Brilliant Club What we do Access to higher education and the life-changing opportunities that come from attending the most competitive universities is not equal. 28 in 100 of the most advantaged students progress to the most competitive universities. In contrast, only 2 in 100 of the least advantaged young people access these universities. We think this is fundamentally unfair. We work across the UK to support less advantaged students to access the most competitive universities, and to succeed when they get there. Between 2021 and 2026, we will work with 100,000 students across the UK to help them to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to access the most competitive universities. We will also support 10,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed once they enter universities. We hope that you’ll consider joining us, as we work to create a fairer society where no child’s education is limited by their background. Working for us • Hours: 37.5 hours per week Monday to Friday, flexible working with 10am – 3pm core hours, some evenings and weekends required. • Benefits include: 36 days’ holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 41 days, employer contribution to pension, interest-free season ticket loan, five professional development day allowance, BUPA health cover cash plan. • We’re happy to talk flexible working. We have offices in Leeds and London. • After your first month in this role, we expect you to be connecting face-to-face with colleagues on at least one day per week. In your first month, we’ll ask you to be in offices a little more regularly than this to make sure you’re getting to know your key colleagues and feeling connected to the organisation. Our values The Brilliant Club has three core values that underpin how we work. We look for people who share these values: • We get to a solution • We seek and act on the best data available • We understand that little things go a long way “As the first in my family to go to university and having worked as a teacher in a state school, I applied to join The Brilliant Club with a real passion for the charity’s mission. I am grateful every day that I work at a charity that is supportive of both professional development and flexible working, as well as being full of kind and passionate colleagues.” Leanne, Chief Operating Officer Diversity at The Brilliant Club We mobilise the PhD community to support students who are less advantaged to access the most competitive universities and succeed when they get there. We think it is important that our charity reflects the lived experience of the communities we work with, and we want to be an organisation where employees from any background can thrive. We particularly welcome applications from disabled, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Non-binary (LGBTQ+) candidates, and candidates from low-income families. “I am the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Engagement Lead at The Brilliant Club. My role is to help make the charity an inclusive working environment for all of our colleagues. I work with our amazing Staff Networks and colleagues in HR to ensure everyone at the charity has a sense of belonging.” Keasha – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Engagement Lead Safeguarding The Brilliant Club is committed to proactively safeguarding children, beneficiaries and staff and to taking reasonable steps to protect all those who come into contact with the charity from harm. The safety and welfare of everyone affected by the charity’s activities, especially children, is a key governance priority. As part of our recruitment and selection process and commitment to safeguarding, we will undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check of all individuals in this role. Any offer of employment will be subject to a satisfactory disclosure report. Responsibilities Programme Delivery • Lead the Parent Power delivery team, including the Communities Officers and Parent Power Community Organisers. • Work with the IT and Research and Impact teams to develop and improve monitoring and evaluation processes. • Work closely with the finance team to develop and improve finance processes, as well as manage finance processes for renewals, including invoicing and monitoring. • Collaborate with teams across the charity to align activities with the wider organisational strategy and ensure successful delivery of shared goals. Line Management • Line manage the Communities Officers and several Parent Power Community Organisers responsible for delivery of parent/carer 121s and meetings. Partnership Management • Manage partnerships with Parent Power partner organisations and schools, ensuring high quality project delivery and dealing with/escalating issues to ensure positive solutions are reached. • Seek to build new relationships and develop new business for the charity Wider Support • Manage Parent Power chapter budgets and operational Parent Power processes, including implementation of our evaluation framework and data protection. • Manage process for recruiting and inducting new Community Organisers. • Work closely with the Director of Communities to plan and deliver national Parent Power events. • Collaborate with Citizens UK to ensure Community Organisers are supported with their training and development. • Represent the charity and its work at various conferences, networking opportunities, and industry events, acting as an ambassador to strengthen partnerships and raise awareness. • Across the charity we all pitch in to help different teams and areas of work. This may mean you attend and support with the delivery of other teams’ activities and events. From time to time, you may also work with another team for a fixed period of time, or collaborate on a project to ensure we deliver for the young people we serve. We think this is a good way to gain experiences in different areas of the organisation and enhance your professional skills Person specification Time and Resource Management • Excellent time and project management skills • Ability to be flexible and adapt to changing priorities. • Helps others to develop the skills and behaviours to build good time and resource management. • Manages partnerships and projects, with appropriate levels of time and resource input. External Stakeholder Knowledge and Management • Understands complex external stakeholders as individuals and as part of the wider sector. • Knows the key ways in which their team manages external stakeholder relationships and evaluates strengths of approaches. Takes ownership for learning about stakeholders outside of immediate remit. • Communication • Excellent written and verbal communication. • Understands the importance of promoting collaborative communication – e.g. through effective meetings. • Evaluates the quality of communications within their team, with other teams and with external stakeholders. Initiative and Problem Solving • • Understands the interdependencies between different parts of the charity’s work, and the Identifies patterns and investigates these to ‘design out’ problems and risks. implications for risk management. • Ensures that decisions are backed-up by a strong, evidence-based rationale – drawing on expert advice and support. Developing Self and Others • Stretches self and team members to develop through provision of internal and external development opportunities. • Committed to the development of others. • Self-reflective and committed to own professional development. Role Specific Knowledge and Skills • Essential – Adhere to information security policies included in the charity’s ISO 27001 manual and complete information security training • Essential – Has a demonstrable passion for furthering The Brilliant Club’s mission. • Essential – Ability to take a relational approach when working with others. • Essential – Excellent organisational skills, with an ability to prioritise and manage time effectively. • Essential – Ability to be flexible and adapt to changing priorities. • Essential – Project management skills, with appropriate levels of time and resource input. • Essential – Commitment to own professional development. • Essential – Commitment to the development of others. • Essential – Capable of adapting quickly to new systems and interfaces. • Desirable – Knowledge of community organising tools, including relational 121s and storytelling. Role specific Experience and Qualifications • Essential – Experience of managing a team. • Essential – Demonstrable experience of leading and delivering through others. • Essential – Demonstrable experience of working with senior external stakeholders. What comes next To apply: Please submit your application by clicking here. As part of your application, you will be asked to submit your CV and complete the answers to some application questions. Deadline: 9am on Tuesday 7th October Interviews: First Round Interviews – Wednesday 15th October; Second Round Interviews – Wednesday 22nd October For more information: Visit our website or email recruitment@thebrilliantclub.org.