Corporate Development Manager

Department/Team: Development

Responsible to: Head of Corporate Development

Contract: Permanent

Location: The Old Vic, 103 The Cut, London, SE1 8NB & Working from home (hybrid until further notice)

Hours: Full-Time – 40 hours per week, Monday-Friday. The Old Vic offers the ability to work these flexibly under the guidelines in our Hybrid Working policy. Additional hours may be necessary in order to fulfil the requirements of the post.

Salary: £35,000

Role Summary

The purpose of the post is to play a significant role in meeting corporate revenue income targets for The Old Vic by contributing to the corporate strategy, identifying innovative partnership opportunities and prospects; securing new business across cash sponsorships, in‑kind sponsorships, memberships, and corporate training programmes (ranging from four to six figures); ensuring such partnerships are all stewarded to a high level of excellence and benefits delivered in line with the level of their contribution. Additionally, you will be required to effectively line manage the Corporate Development Officer and oversee their personal professional development.

Your Team

The Corporate Development Manager is part of the Development Team, which fundraises for The Old Vic Theatre Company and The Old Vic Theatre Trust, which is a registered charity. Its aim is to raise voluntary funds for the theatre from individuals, companies, charitable trusts and foundations, and fundraising event activity. The Old Vic is one of the only theatres in London with such scale, scope and international reputation to operate as a registered charity, receiving no regular public subsidy. The Development Team currently raises approximately £3.9 million a year in revenue fundraising.

Areas of responsibility

• Account Management: Supported by the Head of Corporate Development, leading account management for a portfolio of partnerships and sponsorships, including the Old Vic’s Principle Partnership. Deliver agreed benefits, draft agreements, and drive renewals and upgrades. Building relationships with partners. Liaising with the Old Vic’s marketing team to deliver across The Old Vic to ensure high quality, seamless partnership delivery.
• New Business: Identifying new partnership opportunities (sponsorships, memberships, hospitality, training, in‑kind). Researching prospects, developing proposals and delivering pitches. Collaborating with Old Vic colleagues to produce effective proposals and renewal reports. Building a network of advocates and industry contacts.
• Corporate Membership: Supporting the strategy and recruitment of corporate members. Supporting the Corporate Development Officer to lead account management for the corporate members.
• Internal & External Events: Corporate Development events with the Developments Events team. Representing The Old Vic at a range of industry and supporter events, networking effectively. To support the Corporate Development Officer to create biographical notes of relevant guests/prospects attending with GDPR compliance.
• Corporate Training: Collaborating with the Director of Corporate training and Head of Corporate Development to support development and delivery of tailored corporate training programmes, including proposals and budgets.
• Administration: Working with the Corporate Development Officer to ensure Financial data and CRM (Tessitura) records for all corporate activity. Ongoing improvement of systems and processes to enhance team efficiency. Undertaking any other duties as reasonably requested by the Head of Corporate Development. Complying with The Old Vic’s Equal Opportunities, Health & Safety and Sustainability policies at all times.
• Strategic Planning: Supporting the Head of Corporate Development, to design and deliver the team strategy. Assisting with Budgets, forecasts and business planning. Supporting fundraising targets through renewals, prospecting and new approaches. Contributing to best practices, policies, and sector knowledge sharing. Line managing, and developing the Corporate Development Officer.

This is not an exhaustive list of duties and the Theatre's management may, at any time, allocate other tasks which are of a similar nature or level.

Person Specification

Essential:

• Solid experience in developing managing relationships.
• Proven experience of partner prospecting and recruitment.
• Proficiency in using online research, marketing databases, and Development databases like Tessitura.
• Strong history of delivering partner benefits and organising events.
• Excellent administration, organisation and prioritisation skills.
• Ability to adapt to new situations, and work independently and within a small team.
• Self‑motivated, proactive, and possesses an entrepreneurial spirit.
• Proficient in IT and database management.
• Exceptional attention to detail and proofreading skills.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to maintain professionalism and diplomacy when interacting with stakeholders, including sponsors, and senior staff at The Old Vic.

Equal Opportunities: We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We are particularly keen to receive applications from people of the global majority, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse and disabled candidates. We may take positive action, in cases where candidates are equally qualified, to increase the employment of under‑represented groups at The Old Vic. In the event that we ask you to attend the theatre for a conversation and you are struggling financially, we may be able to reimburse you for any reasonable travel costs. We partner with a range of inclusive organisations, to find out more please read our FAQs.