Kitchen Assistant
St John’s is seeking a Kitchen Assistant. The successful candidate will be reliable, hardworking, and have a flexible approach to work, reporting directly to the Head Chef.
The salary is £27,372.80 per annum plus £189.64 Oxford Weighting Allowance. Hours of work: 40 hours per week as rostered by the Head Chef on 5 days out of 7 shift patterns, including working alternate weekends, working some bank holidays, and evening work.
Further particulars can be found here.
Please send applications, including a covering letter explaining your suitability for the post, full CV and references (as a single pdf) to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk.
St John’s College, Oxford, is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
Food and Beverage Assistant
This is a role with varied duties. On a daily basis, the Food and Beverage Assistant will be clearing and setting tables, serving meals and/or drinks and dealing with payments. You may also be asked to assist with College functions. The role will also involve some light cleaning duties.
The post holder will be confident and well presented, with experience of working in the catering industry, in a College, restaurant or hotel, serving food and beverages. They will have very good communication and interpersonal skills and be familiar with using IT systems and applications, in particular Microsoft Office applications. An ability to work effectively with others and a flexible attitude towards working hours are essential.
The salary is £27,372.80 per annum, plus £64.84 per annum Oxford Weighting Allowance. Hours of work: 40 hours per week on 5 days out of 7 shift patterns. Work patterns may require you to work nights, Saturdays, Sundays, or Bank Holidays.
Further particulars can be downloaded here. Applicants are requested to complete our voluntary Recruitment Monitoring Form.
Please send applications, including a covering letter explaining your suitability for the post, full CV and references (as a single pdf) to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk.
St John’s College, Oxford, is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
Scouts (Cleaners)
The postholders will be responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and hygiene of student accommodation, offices and related communal areas, including bathrooms, kitchens and laundry rooms. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who has experience within a housekeeping/cleaning environment. A NVQ Level 2 in Cleaning and Support Services would be an advantage as well as training in COSHH and Manual Handling. Good interpersonal skills are essential, as well as excellent time management skills and an excellent work ethic.
The rate of pay is £13.16 per hour, plus excellent benefits. Full-time positions (40 hours per week, 5 out of 7 days) and part-time (30 hours per week) are available. Further particulars can be found here.
Please send applications, including a covering letter explaining your suitability for the post, full CV and references (as a single PDF) to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk, or by post to Ms Tammy Caswell, St John’s College, St Giles, Oxford OX1 3JP. Applicants are requested to complete our voluntary Recruitment Monitoring Form.
Closing date: open until position filled
St John’s College, Oxford, is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
Chef de Partie - Fixed Term (1 Year)
The Chef de Partie plays a vital role within the kitchen brigades. Under the supervision of the Head Chef and Second Chef preparing excellent quality food from fresh, sustainable ingredients for the Fellows of the College, College staff and students along with conference and private events. The post holder will have experience within a similar environment and have the knowledge in all sections of the kitchen to prepare and provide excellent quality dishes using their own initiative involving fine dining and large scale catering events.
Fixed Term 1 Year, Full-time position with a basic salary of £36,925.05 p.a, plus excellent benefits.
Please send your application, including a covering letter outlining the skills that the applicant could bring to the post and a full CV, by email (as a single pdf) to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk.
Applicants are requested to complete our voluntary Recruitment Monitoring Form.
St John’s College, Oxford, is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
Visiting Scholars 2026
Aims: To facilitate visits from senior academics and researchers from other universities and institutions to enable them to carry out scholarly research in Oxford The successful applicants will be able to use the libraries of the University of Oxford, including the Bodleian and the Taylor Institution Library.
Dates and duration: Up to 6 weeks during the long vacation, from 15th July to 15th September 2026.
Number of scholarships available: 6 per year
Included in the award:
- Accommodation in a student room, possibly with shared facilities
- Temporary membership of the SCR
- All meals provided (subject to kitchen opening and availability) with breakfast in the main hall; lunch and dinner in the SCR
Application deadline: Friday 16th January 2026 at 5:00 pm UK time
How to apply: complete this form
Evaluation Criteria:
- Track record of the Applicant.
- Merit of proposed research and amount of work to be accomplished during the visit.
- Relevance of Oxford libraries and facilities for the proposed research.
- Ease of access to Oxford facilities normally enjoyed by the Applicant.
- How recently the Applicant has had access to Oxford facilities, via this scheme or otherwise.
Kindly note that the College is unable to offer facilities (including accommodation) to spouses, partners or family members, even for short periods.
St. John’s College exists to support excellence in education and research and is committed to equal opportunities.
Junior Sous Chef
The Main Kitchen plays a vital role within the College community. It is responsible for providing breakfast, lunch and dinner for students and their guests and for conferences during the vacation from the modern and spacious kitchen, along with fine dining events in the various satellite kitchens around College.
The post holder will assist the Head Chef and Second Chef with the preparation and production of food for events in all areas of College where necessary.
In the absence of the Head Chef and the Second Chef, the Junior Sous Chef assumes full responsibility for the general running of the kitchen, including placing food orders, maintaining high standards of Health and Safety and ensuring the team is working in an efficient and appropriate way to maintain excellent catering standards. This includes liaising with the Catering Manager and the Events Office and checking the events booking software (Kinetics) to ensure all function and event details are correct.
The successful candidate will be interested in providing high-quality catering in a busy professional kitchen.
Please send your application, including a covering letter outlining the skills that the applicant could bring to the post and a full CV, by email (as a single pdf) to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk.
Applicants are requested to complete our voluntary Recruitment Monitoring Form.
St John’s College, Oxford, is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
Chef de Partie (1 year)
The Chef de Partie plays a vital role within the kitchen brigades. Under the supervision of the Head Chef and Second Chef preparing excellent quality food from fresh, sustainable ingredients for the Fellows of the College, College staff and students along with conference and private events. The post holder will have experience within a similar environment and have the knowledge in all sections of the kitchen to prepare and provide excellent quality dishes using their own initiative involving fine dining and large scale catering events.
Fixed Term contract (1 year), Full-time position with a basic salary of £36,925.05 p.a, plus excellent benefits.
Please send your application, including a covering letter outlining the skills that the applicant could bring to the post and a full CV, by email (as a single pdf) to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk.
Applicants are requested to complete our voluntary Recruitment Monitoring Form.
St John’s College, Oxford, is committed to Equal Opportunities and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.
Head of Access & Outreach
Access is a strategic priority for St John’s. The College’s commitment to academic excellence underpins this mission: academic talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Whilst the College, and the wider University have made significant progress on key access metrics - and remain dedicated to yet further progress - the ambitions of St John’s Access and Outreach programmes extend beyond the College and beyond Oxford itself.
At the centre of this work is the suite of Inspire sustained-contact programmes. Delivered in schools, in the College, and online, Inspire programmes reach thousands of pupils at non-selective state schools each year. While many participants do progress to highly selective universities, the programmes provide academic challenge, enrichment and inspiration for any young person who might benefit. All programmes are completely free, and many include additional financial support to ensure that those most disadvantaged can participate fully. A wider suite of school visits and community partnerships complements this sustained contact work.
The scale, generosity and ambition of this work are unmatched within Oxbridge Colleges. St John’s invests in robust quantitative and qualitative evaluation strategies to demonstrate the programme’s impact and continuously improve. In 2026, it will take an ambitious new step by launching a bespoke virtual learning environment, a massive improvement in the user experience for pupils, teachers, and St John’s staff alike.
The Access and Outreach Office sits at the heart of this mission, coordinating a college-wide effort to address educational inequality, wherever it is found. The ambitions of the St John’s Governing Body are shaped by a Steering Committee comprised of stakeholders from the Governing Body Fellowship, and experienced external advisors. https://sjcinspire.com/about/steering-committee/
The Inspire programme
A summary of our outreach activities and Inspire programmes can be found on the links below:
https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/access-and-outreach/impact-report/access--outreach/
https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/access-and-outreach/inspire-programme/
About the post
St John’s College is seeking to appoint a new Head of Access and Outreach to drive bold, innovative approaches to widening participation.
The Head of Access and Outreach will lead and coordinate the College’s established portfolio of widening participation initiatives, whilst driving growth and innovation to ensure St John’s remains at the forefront of Oxford University’s efforts to address educational inequalities.
The successful candidate will have outstanding interpersonal skills, a relentless focus on addressing educational inequality, and an ability to translate this to the delivery of exceptionally high-quality programmes. The postholder will provide strategic leadership and operational management for a team of six permanent staff and a flexible number of student ambassadors, interns and academic staff contributing to the programmes. An ability to set a positive working culture, leading by example and manage multiple projects is essential.
This is a new and strategically important post at the College and is a unique opportunity for candidates. As part of a transitional restructure of the College’s access and outreach functions, key responsibilities previously held by the Fellow for Access and Outreach will be transferred to this role. The postholder will work closely with the Fellow and other senior staff to ensure a smooth handover and continuity of strategic direction. It is envisaged that this role will eventually report into a senior professional manager in due course, with the Fellow for Access and Outreach providing Governing Body and Committee oversight for this critical area of the College’s strategy.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Leadership
• Provide overall leadership and direction to the College’s Access and Outreach team
• Ongoing development of our existing in line with College and University objectives for access and participation
• Represent the Access and Outreach Team at the termly Academic Services Committee
• Coordinate the Inspire Steering Group, working closely with the Fellow for Access and Outreach
• Ensure the delivery of a coherent and high-impact suite of Inspire activities
• Champion new ideas, pilot creative initiatives, and explore opportunities for disruption and improvement in outreach approaches
Team and Operational Management
• Line-manage a talented team of six permanent staff with diverse roles [Inspire Programme Lead, Academic Lead (0.4 FTE), Access Lead, Digital and Marketing Lead, Digital and Operations Manager, Access Assistant (0.4 FTE)]
• Oversee the recruitment, training, and support for student ambassadors and vacation internship positions
• Promote cross-departmental work within college
• Foster a positive, inclusive, and performance-focused team culture that encourages experimentation and continuous improvement
Programme Oversight and Delivery
• Ensure high-quality, consistent delivery across the Inspire Programme and other outreach activities
• Oversee design, delivery, and evaluation of all Year 12 and Year 13 Inspire Programme activities to ensure coherence, accessibility, and effectiveness
• Oversee the Oxford for South East cross-college programmes
• Commission and oversee internal and external programme evaluations, and apply these insights to enhance programme efficacy
• Use evaluation and usage data to make targeted decisions about resource usage and impact
Stakeholder Engagement
- Build and maintain strong relationships with school leadership teams in the primary and secondary education sectors regarding new and existing collaborations
- Liaise with the central University and other College Access and Outreach teams to encourage collaborative work
- Represent the College at external access and outreach forums
Governance, Compliance, and Reporting
• Ensure compliance with safeguarding, GDPR, and health & safety regulations across all outreach activities
• Hold the role of delegated Safeguarding Lead for access events, including summer schools
• Lead on reporting responsibilities, including internal briefings and external reports to donors and the University
• Coordinate the College’s contributions to university-wide Access and Participation Plans (APPs)
• Monitor and evaluate outreach activities for impact and effectiveness
Finance and Fund Management
• Manage the departmental budget and oversee expenditure in line with College procedures
• Provide financial reporting and forecasts for University returns and for internal governance purposes
• Oversee management of restricted funds in collaboration with the Development and Finance teams
• Contribute to donor engagement and reporting, ensuring transparency and impact-driven updates
Selection Criteria
Essential
• Experience in access and outreach or elsewhere in the education sector
• Demonstrable experience of working at a senior level with an understanding of the positive impact of academic endeavour
• A willingness to rapidly learn about issues, trends and norms relevant to the access and outreach sector
• Experience managing and motivating staff and leading cross-functional teams
• Experience of successful management of ambitious programmes
• Exceptionally strong strategic planning, organisational, and communication skills
• Budgetary management experience
• Excellent IT skills, including experience and confidence with Microsoft Office packages and databases
• An ability to analyse evaluation and usage data
• The ability to work to multiple deadlines and to prioritise diverse workloads
• An ability to work calmly and competently under pressure
• A passion for social justice, educational equity, and making a tangible difference in people’s lives
Desirable
- An understanding of the use of virtual learning environments for digital programme delivery
- Experience of working with funders/donors
- Experience with safeguarding and GDPR compliance (training can be provided)
Reporting Structure
The Head of Access and Outreach reports to the Fellow for Access & Outreach.
Personal Documentation
The selected candidate will be required to present documentation demonstrating the Right to Work in the UK.
Terms and Conditions
Salary: Grade 8 of the University salary scale (currently £47,389 - £56,535 per annum). Plus an Oxford weighting allowance of £1730.
Hours of work: Normal office hours are 35 hours per week. Normal hours of work are to be
agreed but are expected to fall within the period 9:00am – 5.00pm, with an hour for lunch. Some flexibility will be required according to particular responsibilities; some evening and weekend work may be required, for which time off in lieu will be given.
Further details on this post can be found here
Application Procedure
If you consider that you meet the selection criteria (detailed previously), please send your application consisting of a covering letter explaining your suitability for the post and a full CV with your complete education and employment history by email, to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk.
Your application should arrive no later Monday 19th January 2026.
Nursery Chef
This is an exciting opportunity for someone to work as a member of the nursery team, assuming full responsibility for the running of the kitchen in order to provide nutritional, good-quality food suitable for nursery children. The nursery kitchen is proud to have 5* scores on the doors status and is looking to maintain its excellent food safety record.
The successful candidate should have experience in a role which involves cooking in domestic or commercial property as well having food safety level 2 or above and be able to demonstrate a sound knowledge of managing different dietary requirements and food allergies.
The salary is £27,000 to £29,101.91 per annum depending on experience and qualification, and full details of the benefits, other terms and conditions, and how to apply can be found in the further particulars here.
To apply, please email a CV and covering letter, with details of qualifications and experience to vacancies@sjc.ox.ac.uk.
Closing date for applications is noon on Friday 9th January 2026.