AREA EVENTS MANAGER
Salary: £26,000 - £30,000 per annum
Reports to: Divisional Events Manager (Division 3)
Department: Marketing, Fundraising and Engagement
Location: Home-based covering Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, West Midlands (successful candidate should ideally be based within this area)
Employment type: Permanent
Working hours: 35 hours per week
Closing date: Sunday 31 August 2025, 23:55
Please note: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.
At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.
We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we we’re looking for someone talented, someone who shares our vision, someone like you.
Do you want to create moments of joy and hope, raise vital funds, celebrate and educate by producing top class events for the UK’s largest charity?
We have an exciting opportunity for you to join us as an Event Manager and become part of an ambitious, bold and fun team working together to bring forward the day that cancer is cured.
You will organise and deliver a variety of Cancer Research UK events, including our flagship outdoor mass participation events Race for Life 5km, 10km and Pretty Muddy. You may also deliver Shine Night Walk, indoor staff and supporter conference and engagement events, as well as virtual online events.
We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who shares our vision, someone like you.
What will I be doing?
You will plan and deliver Cancer Research UK events. Your main delivery will be outdoor mass participation events alongside some staff and supporter conferences and engagement events, as well as virtual online events.
Example of some events you might deliver:
- Cancer Research UK’s flagship Race for Life 3k, 5k, 10k, Pretty Muddy and Shine Night Walk
- Flame of Hope – annual volunteer award ceremony for up to 100 people
- Inspire – intimate supporter engagement event for up to 40 people
- Annual CRUK departmental conferences.
One week you might be delivering Race for Life for 1,000 participants in a public park, followed the next week by drafting plans for an intimate hotel-based event to thank our loyal volunteers for all they do for CRUK.
What does planning and delivering our events involve?
- Following processes, guidelines and deadlines – you are given a guide or process to follow when producing Cancer Research UK Events
- Venue Research – find and assess suitability of new venues for mass participation outdoor events and indoor events
- Venue – build strong relationships, negotiate event approval and costs
- Suppliers – research, negotiate, book, plan, brief and ensure high standards are met. Suppliers include PA, first aid, caterers, florists, traffic management and stewards.
- Event Documentation – following event guidelines, design and review event courses and sites (Race for Life and Shine Night Walk events), carry out health and safety checks and complete documentation such as risk assessments, running orders, course map, site map, volunteer plans and briefing documents
- Project Plan – produce and oversee project plans, working closely and effectively with all event stakeholders
- Budget – plan event budgets, negotiate best costs and be responsible for your event spend
- Volunteers – build relationships with longstanding volunteers and recruit new volunteers. Manage volunteer welfare and experience on event day
- Event Staff – brief staff on their role and manage them throughout the event offering feedback and coaching
- Supporter experience – ensure that events are fun and enjoyable by booking entertainment and overseeing the supporter experience
- Event day – lead and manage your event team (staff, volunteers, suppliers) to set up the event site and course, oversee welfare of supporters and team and deal with issues that may arise to ensure smooth operation of the event
- After the event – gather feedback and complete post-event administrative tasks
- Other departments – develop relationships and work with several departments across Cancer Research UK. Work with colleagues from other teams to deliver the events they require.
What skills are you looking for?
- Passion for events
- Drive to help beat cancer sooner
- People person – excellent at building relationships with different people
- Organised – manage workload effectively, meeting deadlines, can juggle more than one task
- Can do attitude – proactive, you can make things happen
- Resilient- calm under pressure, able to adapt to change
- A great problem solver – can think on feet
- You get stuck in – happy to work hard to achieve a positive outcome
- Willing to learn
- Able to work on own – motivated
- Able to lead and enthuse a group of people
- Can take charge – able to make decisions
- Happy to work approximately 10 weekends outside in all weathers
- Able to do a physical role – walking courses, moving some event equipment
- Ability to work at a desk on a computer using Microsoft.
What will I gain?
Each and every one of our employees contributes to our progress and is supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that’s impressive.
In return, we make sure you are supported by a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools, policies and processes to enable you to do your job well.
Our benefits package includes a substantial retirement plan, a generous and flexible leave allowance, discounts on anything from travel to technology, gym membership, and much more.
We review pay annually and aim to recognise individual performance and achievements.
We don’t forget people have lives outside of work too and so we actively encourage a flexible working culture.
Our work – from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy – will change the world. It’s exciting to be part of our team.
How do I apply?
We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview.
Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly and objectively.
Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.
We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact
[email protected] or
020 3469 8400 as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.
