Head of community and events in Cambridge

Location: Contracted to our Peterborough office with the flexibility for hybrid working.

Salary: £50,000 - £55,000 depending on experience.

Contract Type: Permanent Full time: 37.5 hours per week.

Benefits: We want all our employees to feel valued and engaged and are committed to offering a positive working culture along with a good work-life balance. As well as ensuring we pay our employees fairly, we offer the following benefits:

• Flexible working
• Generous annual leave
• Private Medical Insurance, including dental and optical
• Pension Scheme
• Sick Pay
• Death in Service
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Bike Loan Scheme
• Cycle2Work Scheme
• Eyecare
• Discount Portal

Closing date: Sunday 1 March 2026.

Telephone interviews will be held on 5 March 2026 and face-to-face interviews in our Peterborough office will be held on 12 March 2026.

No agencies please.

Be a part of an energetic and vibrant team who are driven by the desire to improve the lives of people living with kidney disease. Our vision is the day when everyone lives free from kidney disease.

We are recruiting a head of community and events to lead our talented team who rally the nation, identifying, supporting and stewarding networks and individuals to raise income, awareness and participation across our fundraising activity. Building relationships is key to everything we do - understanding motivations allows us to develop and grow our communities locally and nationally to create lifetime supporters engaged in all areas of our work.

2025/26 has been an exciting year of growth with a focus on developing flagship events, increasing participation in third-party challenges, delivering new virtual events and enhancing stewardship experiences. The budget is circa £1.8m across all income streams.

The head of community and events will lead the delivery of our portfolio of challenge events, mass participation products and community fundraising activities. The post holder will play a key role in the development of the strategy, working with colleagues to grow income, drive innovation and deliver integrated and personalised stewardship experiences.

You will have extensive experience of developing community and events fundraising programmes and business plans to recruit, engage, inspire, and retain supporters. With a proven track record of success in leading and managing a team of fundraisers to deliver high quality results to deadlines, you will be committed to motivating and developing your team.

We operate a hybrid, flexible working style. The role is contracted to our Peterborough office and flexibility is required to attend events and meetings. The team come together in the office on a regular basis for in-person team meetings.

If you are interested in the position, please complete the online application form and submit together with your CV. We are committed to providing equal opportunities for everyone and encourage applications from all sections of the community.

About Kidney Research UK: Kidney Research UK is the leading charity in the UK focused on funding research into the prevention, treatment and management of kidney disease. Our vision is the day when everyone lives free from kidney disease and for more than 60 years the research we fund has been making an impact. But kidney disease is increasing as are the factors contributing to it, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity, making our work more essential than ever.

At Kidney Research UK we work with clinicians and scientists across the UK, funding and facilitating research into all areas of kidney disease. We collaborate with partners across the public, private and third sectors to prevent kidney disease and drive innovation to transform treatments. Over the last ten years we have invested more than £71 million into research.

We lobby governments and decision makers to change policy and practice to ensure that the estimated 7.2 million people living with all stages of kidney disease in the UK have access to the most effective care and treatment, and to make kidney disease a priority. Most importantly, we also work closely with patients, ensuring their voice is heard and is at the centre of everything we do, from deciding which research to invest in to how we plan our priorities and our work across the charity.

Those patient contributions are vital, always helping us and our partners to understand what life is like with kidney disease, always ensuring we see the patient behind the treatment and always reminding us that behind every statistic and every number is a person - the patients and the carers who inspire our mission and push us forward to make a difference and change the future of kidney disease.

You may also have experience in the following: Head of Community Fundraising, Head of Events Fundraising, Community and Events Lead, Head of Public Engagement, Community Engagement Manager, Mass Participation Events Manager, Senior Fundraising Manager, Supporter Engagement Lead, Community Partnerships Manager, Charity, Charities, Third Sector, Not for Profit, NFP, etc.