Senior Programme Manager (Legacy Giving/ Pledge)

Stratford, England, United Kingdom

7/22/2025

£230m legacy income. Help fund a third of our research. Improve countless lives.

Senior Programme Manager (Legacy Giving/ Pledge)

£55,000- £59,000 + benefits

Reports to: Head of Proposition (Pledge)

Grade: P3

Directorate: Marketing, Fundraising & Engagement

Contract: Fixed-term contract ending 30 April 2026

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London . Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

Closing date: 05 August 2025, 23:55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: One competency-based interview

Interview date: From the week commencing 11 August 2025

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 fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

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’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

Gifts in Wills (or legacies) account for around a third of our income. In 2023/24, we received £230m from legacies to fund our life-saving research. Therefore, our Pledge team’s credibility and professionalism in overseeing stewardship journeys, ensuring legators’ wishes are met, and maximising the value of gifts donated by public generosity is essential to the smooth running of our organisation and funding our research.

As a Senior Programme Manager, you will play a crucial role in our mission by project managing and coordinating a programme with various workstreams and activities spanning the end-to-end operational delivery of our Legacy products, propositions, and supporter journeys, delivering maximum value to the charity. This will involve overseeing, empowering, and collaborating with cross-functional delivery teams to meet shared objectives and inform decision-making aligned with our supporter needs and strategic goals.

By the end of this contract, your legacy will be to have embedded a culture of empowerment, collaboration, and accountability across Cancer Research UK’s delivery teams. You’ll have improved standards across our legacy programme and laid the foundations for sustained growth in supporter engagement and legacy income, which will fund future cancer research breakthroughs.

If you're an experienced Programme, Project, or Product Manager who has successfully led cross-functional delivery teams and managed multiple stakeholders to deliver impactful outcomes, we’d love for you to join our mission.

What will I be doing?

• Overseeing the end-to-end operational delivery of Cancer Research UK’s Legacy products to deliver agreed outcomes.
• Project managing and coordinating cross-functional delivery teams, ensuring a shared, insight-driven, and audience-led vision.
• Stakeholders include, but are not limited to: teams across the Marketing, Fundraising & Events directorate (MFE), Legal, Philanthropy, Relationship Management, Technology, and senior leadership teams.
• Fostering an empowered culture of shared ownership across end-to-end delivery, while overseeing processes that contribute to outcomes across MFE-wide operations.
• Driving continued audience and supporter growth by leading the cross-functional delivery of legacy propositions and relationship journeys aligned with budget and strategic goals.
• Enabling Agile teams to meet shared objectives across audience and legacy value, volume, and contributions by managing delivery activities while fostering empowered decision-making.
• Driving a culture of end-to-end delivery by cultivating trusted, collaborative relationships and aligning teams around shared objectives and their role in achieving success.
• Ensuring and maintaining high standards across Legacy proposition workstreams by ensuring regular cross-functional communication, alignment with the Programme Community of Practice and best practices.
• Ensuring effective resource planning in conjunction with the Audience Strategy & Innovation function, and leading development of proposition briefs and business cases with senior leadership teams.
• Partnering with the Proposition Head, Senior Proposition Manager, and Technology teams to align on shared priorities and audience objectives, to develop technology product roadmaps that optimise end-to-end proposition delivery.
• Facilitating group activities (e.g., proposition workstream groups), driving cross-functional decision-making, resolving dependencies, risks and issues, and evaluating performance in collaboration with key stakeholders.
• Coordinate changes to the implementation plan using tools like service blueprints, ensuring amendments support desired outcomes in collaboration with the Proposition SLT and stakeholders.
• Establishing governance frameworks that ensure effective activity management, timely decision-making, and appropriate escalation handling.
• Championing the Legacy Propositions role within MFE’s portfolio and its impact on supporter relationships, with a strong understanding of governance, delegated authority, briefing protocols, and stage gate requirements.
  
  

What are you looking for?

• Experienced Programme, Project, or Product Manager with a background in managing complex delivery programmes and projects with multiple stakeholders and delivery teams.
• A successful track record of planning and executing delivery plans that drive measurable impact.
• Has built credible and collaborative cross-functional stakeholder relationships (including senior leadership and technical and non-technical teams).
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and a proven ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences and influence and secure buy-in at all levels.
• Strong facilitation skills with experience in effectively managing and empowering delivery teams (this can be in a matrix or direct line management setting).
• Demonstrates strong prioritisation, organisation, and project management skills, with a track record of managing competing priorities, allocating resources, and delivering projects on time and within budget.
• A solutions-focused professional skilled in problem-solving, driving continuous improvements, implementing governance frameworks, fostering collaboration, and championing best practices.
• Experience in the charity sector and knowledge of legacy giving are desirable but not essential—we welcome applicants without this experience.
• Available to start on one month’s notice or less.
  
  
  

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.

Additional Information

For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

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.