Programme Manager – Living Wage Places in London

Employment Type: Full time, 37.5 hours per week, 5 days per week (open to alternative working pattern).

Location: Hybrid · London, UK or remote with flexible working arrangements available.

Salary: Starting from £39,560 (GBP) + £3,472 London Weighting.

Team: Living Wage Foundation

Seniority: Mid-level

Closing: 11:55pm, 1st Jul 2026 BST

Perks and benefits:

• Work from home option
• Life Insurance
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Additional parental leave
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave
• Sabbatical Opportunities
• Mentoring/coaching
• Cycle to work scheme
• Free fruit

Job Description:

The Living Wage Places scheme is pioneering a collaborative, place-based approach to tackling in-work poverty. Local action groups made up of public and private sector Living Wage Employers work together with charities, unions and civil society on a three-year action plan to tackle local in-work poverty and grow the number of employers committed to the Living Wage, Living Hours and Living Pensions. Since the scheme launched in 2019, we have recognised 20 cities, boroughs and city-regions for Making Living Wage Places.

Living Wage Places taps into the power of place, recognising and developing local champions within our network and supporting them to engage and influence their community’s employers. It feeds into broader local economic plans such as community wealth building and local anchor institution work.

The Living Wage movement began in 2001, after Citizens UK brought together communities in East London to discuss poverty and low pay. The campaign grew in momentum and soon required a mechanism to recognise employers who wanted to join the movement, which saw the establishment of the Living Wage Foundation in 2011. Still part of Citizens UK today, the Living Wage Foundation continues to work with community organisations to make sure the voices of both workers and businesses are part of the Living Wage movement. We now work with over 16,000 employers, benefitting over 475,000 people and winning over £3bn of better wages for people who need it most.

Citizens UK works with a broad base of institutions across the political spectrum. At the Living Wage Foundation, we take the same deliberately broad-based approach and accredit all organisations who pay the real Living Wage to their directly and indirectly employed staff and are committed to tackling in-work poverty. As a team, we work across a range of industries and sectors to achieve this mission. We seek pragmatic coalitions in order to progress specific campaigns, and partnership around a particular issue such as Living Wage does not imply an endorsement of broader purpose and policies.

Main Responsibilities:

• The Project Manager for Living Wage Places plays a central role in delivering and growing a pioneering, place-based approach to tackling in-work poverty.
• The role is responsible for managing and developing the Living Wage Places programme, supporting local action groups to deliver ambitious action plans, and embedding wider standards including Living Hours and Living Pensions.
• They will be the first point of contact for regional leads seeking guidance in their work/regions.
• Working across a broad range of internal teams and external stakeholders, the Programme Manager will build strategic partnerships, strengthen regional networks, and ensure effective monitoring, evaluation and learning across the programme.
• The role combines strong project management with relationship building, strategic thinking and a commitment to increasing the scale and impact of the Living Wage movement.

Working as the Programme Manager, reporting to the Senior Programme Manager for Living Wage Places:

• Contribute to CUK and Project strategic objectives.
• Support and grow the Living Wage Places project and ensure it is embedded in CUK’s overall strategy.
• Collate and share good practice across teams to ensure strong collaboration and that civil society remains at the heart of Living Wage Places.
• Support strategy development around local and general elections, identifying opportunities to grow the scheme and influence stakeholders.
• Build and manage projects and achieve work targets effectively.
• Monitor, evaluate and draw out learning from across the Living Wage Places project.
• Lead the development of systems for monitoring and evaluating impact and progress.
• Support action groups to design and deliver Action Plans including Living Hours and Living Pensions.
• Facilitate roundtables, meetings, and milestone activities.
• Identify opportunities to expand Living Wage Buildings and Zones.
• Deliver project milestones and reporting.
• Deliver additional projects aligned to team business plan.

Learning & Expertise:

• Develop expertise in local economic policy including community wealth building and devolution.
• Support internal teams to understand Living Wage Places principles.
• Build knowledge of priority sectors and apply to strategy.
• Lead internal learning sessions.
• Provide guidance on Living Hours and Living Pensions.

Develop and manage external relationships:

• Build and manage relationships with regional stakeholders.
• Support development of new partnerships.
• Represent the organisation at meetings and events.
• Co-deliver the Living Wage Places network.
• Develop relationships that support long-term impact.

Communications:

• Support development and delivery of communications strategy.
• Gather and share case studies.
• Maintain communications channels.
• Support local action groups with communications.

Develop and manage internal relationships:

• Build capacity of organisers and programme staff.
• Lead delivery of learning strategy.
• Support collaboration across teams.

Generate income and manage resources:

• Support development of funding proposals.
• Collate evidence for funder reporting.
• Contribute to budget development.
• Support sustainable growth of programme.

Personal Specification:

Key skills and knowledge:

• Excellent project management skills with the ability to manage a wide range of competing demands.
• Outstanding communication skills, both verbally and written, combined with the ability to liaise with senior stakeholders.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships, lead, influence and motivate others.
• Ability to take in and interpret information and present in a succinct manner.
• Understanding of the policy and campaign landscape around inclusive local economic strategies and devolution deals.
• Ability to support monitoring and evaluation reports for external funders and internal impact monitoring.
• Strong IT skills to include MS Office and CRM software.
• Understanding of database and systems management.
• A proactive approach to all areas of work with a ‘can do’ attitude and a flexible approach to work demands.
• Able to work within a team, responding to needs and achieving results collaboratively.
• Commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and the mission of the Living Wage Foundation.