Programme Manager, Youth & Universities

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Application deadline: 06/05/2026

Job Purpose: Lead delivery of a national climate action programme (BELIEVE in Climate Action), managing cross-sector partnerships, stakeholder engagement and programme operations. Oversee youth-led initiatives and knowledge exchange, while also supporting university teams to deliver the ParliaMentors programme and strengthen student leadership and civic engagement.

• Salary:£40,204 (Band D, Point 3, including London weighting) / £36,501 (Band D, Point 3, elsewhere in the UK)
• Contract:2 years (this is a fixed term contract, linked to the BELIEVE project, ending in September 2030)
• Location:primarily hybrid/remote, open to candidates anywhere in the UK. The project is based in England, so the role will involve regular travel to locations across England, including London.
• Hours:1 FTE (0.8 FTE can be considered)
• Reporting to:Senior Programme Manager, Youth & Universities
• Start date:3^rdAugust 2026

Application deadline: 9am, 6th May 2026

Full details of the role including job description and person specification are available in the Recruitment Pack

We are seeking an experienced and strategic Programme Manager to lead delivery of Believe in Climate Action (BELIEVE), an ambitious national initiative at the intersection of climate action, youth leadership and community engagement (3 days per week). This role will also support the delivery of the UN Award winning ParliaMentors project, providing mentoring, training and leadership development opportunities to students across the country, and maintaining strong relationships with University partners (2 days per week).

This is a unique opportunity to lead a complex, high-impact programme that connects schools, communities, young people, researchers and policymakers, shaping a more inclusive and effective model of climate action across England. You would be joining a team that has been running impactful projects for 19 years, which centres the voices, needs and potential of young people to bring about change.

BELIEVE in Climate Action (BELIEVE) is an ambitious and innovative national programme led by the Faith & Belief Forum in partnership with the Cambridge Interfaith Programme. Together, we are building a bold new model for climate action, one that connects grassroots communities, young leaders, researchers and policymakers through collaboration, co-learning and shared purpose.

At its core, BELIEVE recognises that climate change is not only a scientific or political challenge, but a deeply human one. By bringing faith and belief perspectives into climate conversations, the programme challenges narratives of fatalism and opens up new, values-led pathways for action, rooted in care, responsibility and collective agency.

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced Project Manager to lead a pioneering, cross-sector initiative that is reshaping how climate action happens in England. BELIEVE operates at the intersection of community engagement, youth leadership and policy influence, requiring strategic oversight, strong partnership management and the ability to navigate complexity across local, regional and national contexts.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the delivery of a multi-partner national programme, coordinating activity across schools, community organisations, academic partners and policymakers
• Drive high-level stakeholder engagement, building and sustaining relationships with partners across sectors, including education, civil society, research and government
• Oversee youth-led climate action and movement building, supporting structures that enable young people to design, lead and scale impactful initiatives
• Shape a national knowledge-exchange network, ensuring effective collaboration, learning and influence across regions and sectors

Working on BELIEVE offers the opportunity to lead within a dynamic and values-driven environment, where innovation and collaboration are central. The role combines strategic programme management with hands-on leadership, requiring both vision and operational excellence.

The successful candidate will further develop and apply expertise in:

• Cross-sector partnership building and stakeholder management at scale
• Designing and delivering complex, multi-year programmes
• Facilitating collaboration between grassroots communities and national policy actors
• Embedding co-production and youth leadership within programme design and delivery
• Translating research and evidence into practical, scalable impact
• Leading adaptive, learning-oriented approaches in a fast-evolving climate landscape

BELIEVE is also a platform for sector leadership. It offers the opportunity to influence how climate engagement is understood and delivered, particularly by centring voices often excluded from mainstream climate discourse, including young people and those from diverse faith and belief backgrounds.

Ultimately, this role will play a critical part in building a more inclusive and effective climate movement, one that connects local action with national influence, and supports communities to shape their own sustainable futures.

For nearly 30 years, the Faith & Belief Forum has worked to build connected communities, a society that celebrates diversity, and to tackle faith and belief based hate, discrimination, division and polarisation.

We are a dynamic organisation, who puts the voices of our beneficiaries at the forefront. We work in schools to build connection, understanding and empathy, in universities to build confidence, skills and connection in the next generation of interfaith leaders, and in communities to celebrate the role that faith plays in society, and pilot new, innovative approaches to tackling hate and division at the local level.

Our team is diverse, talented, sensitive, and creative. We value building meaningful connection amongst ourselves, and with our partners and stakeholders. We believe that a central solution to tackling division, polarisation and hate is connection, that is both expertly facilitated and heartfelt. In our projects this takes place through education, dialogue, social action projects, mentoring, training and development, public engagement events, and community led responses to local issues.

Joining our team means joining a supportive environment where you will have the space and structures to grow and thrive. It means joining a team of deep thinkers, genuinely connected to the communities and sectors we serve, who talk regularly about how to innovate our work to meet our rapidly changing context. We value equity, and co-production, and this is reflected in our culture and our decision-making processes.

Programme leadership & delivery

• Lead the strategic and operational delivery of BELIEVE across its three interlinked workstreams
• Ensure effective planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a multi-year national programme
• Manage programme timelines, budgets, reporting and risk

Stakeholder engagement & partnerships

• Build and maintain strong relationships with cross-sector stakeholders, including schools, community organisations, funders, academic partners and policymakers
• Act as a senior point of contact for programme partners, ensuring alignment, accountability and collaboration
• Convene and facilitate high-level stakeholder spaces, including national workshops and knowledge-exchange forums

Team & youth leadership oversight

• Line manage the BELIEVE project Coordinator, ensuring timely and high quality delivery of workplans, supporting their development and training, managing any performance issues, and helping them to grow and thrive.
• Oversee delivery of the youth leadership strand, including internship programmes and youth-led climate action projects

Strategy, learning & influence

• Design internal evaluation frameworks and processes, in collaboration with University of Cambridge academics
• Translate research, learning and evaluation into programme development, communications and external influence
• Contribute to shaping national conversations on inclusive climate action
• Responsible for delivery, and ensuring programme outputs (reports, toolkits, events, digital platforms) are high-quality and impactful

Manage 2 teams of ParliaMentors students

• Support with delivery of the ParliaMentors programme, including facilitating workshops, having meetings with students, organising the logistics for various events throughout the year
• Mentor and support two teams of students at two universities as they work together to deliver a social action project
• Contributing to communications for the programme on social media, LinkedIn, and newsletters
• Support with delivering trainings for university staff

Essential Experience

• Significant experience managing complex, multi-partner programmes (ideally national or multi-regional)
• Demonstrable expertise in stakeholder engagement at a senior level, including building and maintaining strong partnerships across sectors
• Strong track record of delivering complex programmes on time and within budget
• Confidence and proven experience in line management (this role will line manage 1 Project Coordinator, and oversee an internship programme of up to 8 paid interns per year)
• Strong financial management skills, and experience managing large budgets (this role will be responsible for financial management of the BELIEVE project, and reporting to funders)
• Strong experience and understanding of Safeguarding, in charities and/ or school settings

Skills & Competencies

• Excellent project management skills, experienced in using project management tools
• Excellent relationship management and influencing skills
• Strategic thinking combined with strong operational delivery
• Ability to navigate complexity and work across different sectors and perspectives
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Desirable

• Experience in climate action, sustainability or environmental programmes
• Understanding of faith, belief and/or intercultural engagement
• Experience working with research partners or translating evidence into practice
• Project management qualification
• CRM development experience

• Opportunity to work mainlyremotely from home, with occasional travel to London and other locations across England required for schools, events, and activities.
• Generous annual leave from 25 days (pro rata) plus UK bank holidays, increasing with length of service and including a birthday day off after three years.
• 2 days paid volunteer leave (pro rata)
• Generous pension scheme to help you save for the future.
• Interfaith and intercultural learning opportunities
• Access to internal learning sessions on topics relevant to our sector
• Team events / away days
• Supportive and inclusive work environment with a focus on staff wellbeing

We value sensitivity to the issues at the heart of our work and a strong commitment to The Faith & Belief Forum’s goals. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and lived experiences. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic communities, as well as from faith or belief communities currently underrepresented in our organisation, including Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian communities. We warmly welcome applicants of all ages and experiences who share our vision and values, and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace, regardless of protected or unprotected characteristics, including but not limited to gender, disability, sexual orientation, and religion or belief.

We recognise that valuable experience can be gained through work, study, volunteering, or community involvement.

Unfortunately, we can only consider applications from individuals who have the unrestricted right to work in the UK, as we are unable to offer visa sponsorship. Applicants must also already be resident and based in the UK at the time of application.

Application deadline: 9am, 6th May 2026

Submit your application using the form below where you can your CV (max 2 pages) uploading a cover letter (max. 1 page) outlining why you meet the person specification we’ve outlined in the recruitment pack.

You will receive an email confirmation once your application has been submitted (please check your spam folder if you don’t immediately see this in your inbox). You will also need to fill in the anonymous EDI Recruitment Form.

Interviews will be held in May 2026.

To apply you need to fill out Job Application Form AND the anonymous EDI Recruitment Form. On completing the first form, you should automatically be asked to fill in the EDI Recruitment form.

If you have any problems completing these forms or accessing the recruitment pack, please email Sara Aresco on recruitment@faithbeliefforum.org

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