Head of Scotland

Full time: 34.5 hours, we are open to a conversation about how you work these hours.

Location: Home based with regular travel within your nation and occasionally to London. We welcome applications from candidates based within Scotland.

Are you a senior, strategic leader with strong credibility across government, health systems or the voluntary sector? Do you excel at building influential relationships, shaping strategy and leading across complex, devolved environments? We’re looking for exceptional, strategic and outward-facing leaders to represent Macmillan at the most senior level within Scotland, strengthening our impact for people living with cancer.

About us: At Macmillan you’ll find talented people working together to do whatever it takes to support people living with cancer. We’re going all out to find even better ways to help even more people who need our support. Our values are at the heart of who we are and everything we do, inspiring our thinking and guiding our actions. Our new organisational strategy sets out how we’ll fight even harder to make every pound raised count for even more. With your help, we’ll transform cancer care for good.

About the role: As Head of Scotland, you will provide senior strategic leadership for Macmillan within your nation, shaping how the organisation delivers impact within a devolved policy and health system context. You will align Macmillan’s partnerships, influence, resources and expertise to national priorities and opportunities, ensuring our work is relevant, coordinated and impactful. As Macmillan’s most senior representative in your nation, you will build and steward influential relationships with governments, health and public service leaders, voluntary sector partners and other key stakeholders. You will position Macmillan as a trusted partner and an influential voice in improving outcomes for people living with cancer. Internally, you will lead across the organisation to ensure a coherent and strategic approach to our work within your nation, providing leadership to matrix teams and bringing together activity across policy, services, fundraising and engagement. This is a pivotal senior leadership role requiring someone who can operate confidently in complex systems, influence at the highest levels, and translate strategy into tangible impact.

Key responsibilities:

• Provide strategic leadership for Macmillan’s work within your nation, aligned to organisational priorities.
• Lead the development and delivery of Macmillan’s strategic approach within your nation, aligned to organisational priorities.
• Translate UK-wide strategy into a clear national vision and plan, aligning activity, partnerships and influence.
• Hold senior relationships with ministers, officials, health system leaders and key partners.
• Position Macmillan as a trusted and influential voice in shaping cancer policy, services and system change.
• Act as a senior external spokesperson, representing Macmillan in national forums, media and high-profile settings.
• Lead cross-organisational collaboration, aligning activity across functions to deliver national priorities.
• Provide leadership to matrix teams, driving coordinated delivery across directorates.
• Identify and secure strategic opportunities for partnership, influence and growth.
• Provide insight and advice on the national political, policy and system landscape to inform organisational strategy.
• Contribute to Macmillan’s wider organisational leadership, providing strategic insight and advice to the Executive Team and wider organisation.
• Strengthen Macmillan’s understanding of devolved contexts and ensure effective UK-wide working.

About you:

You’ll succeed in this role if you are a highly credible, strategic and outward-facing leader who can operate with autonomy, influence at senior levels and drive meaningful change across complex systems. You will bring:

• Significant senior leadership experience within the public, health, voluntary or related sectors within your nation.
• A strong track record of influencing government, health system leaders and senior stakeholders.
• Deep understanding of the political, policy and health system landscape within your nation.
• Proven experience of setting strategic direction and translating strategy into delivery in complex environments.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and deliver outcomes across matrix organisations.
• A strong personal profile and ability to build, maintain and leverage influential networks.
• Experience of representing an organisation at senior external forums and in high-profile settings.
• Excellent judgement, political awareness and the ability to navigate complexity and ambiguity.
• A commitment to equity, inclusion and improving outcomes for people living with cancer.

Benefits:

• 25 days holiday plus flexible bank holiday options, increasing by 1 day every year of service up to 30 days.
• Pension matched up to 7.5%.
• 120+ learning and development offers, with access to external professional qualifications.
• Flexible working patterns, such as compressed hours, flexibility to work earlier or later around our core working hours of 10am–4pm.
• Holiday buying and selling scheme, life insurance, free wills, retail discounts and much more.

Diversity and Inclusion:

We welcome applications from everyone who meet the criteria and strongly encourage individuals to apply who have a disability, impairment or health condition or individuals who identify as Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, as these groups are currently under-represented at Macmillan. Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy here along with our internal employee representation body, ‘Our Voice’ and 8 Employee Network groups help us promote fairness and belonging, becoming an engaged and inclusive organisation for all our people.