Head of Development | Queen Mary University of London

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Head of Development Queen Mary University of London

Help Queen Mary open the doors of opportunity by building philanthropic relationships that support students, research and positive change.

• Location: Whitechapel, with work across London campuses and flexible working considered

About the role

Location: The role is based in Whitechapel, with work across Queen Mary’s London campuses. The current pattern is three days in the office (external meetings can be included in this).

Our Department of Development and Alumni Engagement has built stronger foundations across development, alumni engagement, and operations and campaigns. We are now ready to widen our philanthropic community and develop relationships with more individuals, trusts, foundations and companies who connect with Queen Mary’s work and values.

As Head of Development, you will lead our major gift programme while remaining personally close to fundraising. You will manage a portfolio of significant prospective donors, develop relationships from an early stage and secure support for priorities across the University. You will work with academics and senior colleagues to shape compelling opportunities for donors. You will also lead an experienced team working across health, science and engineering, humanities and social sciences, and trusts and foundations.

The role will help Queen Mary build a stronger external pipeline, develop a consistent approach to prospect management and make thoughtful decisions about where our time and relationships can have the greatest impact.

Who we are looking for

You will bring evidence of developing significant donor relationships and securing major gifts. You will understand the care, judgement and persistence required to build lasting support, including relationships that begin from a relatively cold base. Your experience may come from higher education, medical research, health, culture, international development or another organisation with a strong social mission. We are interested in your fundraising capability and readiness to work within a complex university.

You will be comfortable working with academics, senior leaders and experienced fundraisers. Your leadership will give colleagues direction and support while allowing them the space to use their expertise.

If Queen Mary’s commitment to opportunity, inclusion and research speaks to you, we warmly encourage you to find out more.

A message from Celeste Bright, Director of Development and Alumni Engagement

Dear candidate,

Thank you for your interest in becoming our next Head of Development at Queen Mary University of London.

Queen Mary was founded to create hope and opportunity for the communities around us. That commitment continues today. We welcome students with talent and potential from backgrounds that remain under-represented at research-intensive universities and we produce research that improves lives in East London and across the world. Our ambition is to be the most inclusive university of our kind, anywhere.

Philanthropy has an important part to play in that ambition. It can remove financial barriers for students, support researchers at critical stages in their careers and help important ideas develop into work that benefits society.

Our relationships with alumni and supporters also connect Queen Mary with people who share our belief in education, social justice and the public value of research.

I have been at Queen Mary for four years, during which we have strengthened the Department of Development and Alumni Engagement. We now have connected teams covering development, alumni engagement, and operations and campaigns. We have recruited colleagues with expertise across health, science and engineering, humanities and social sciences, and trusts and foundations.

We are ready to build on those foundations. We have learned that our future pipeline cannot depend solely on finding potential donors within our alumni community. We want to develop relationships with a wider group of philanthropists, trusts, foundations and companies whose interests connect with Queen Mary’s work and values. I also plan to spend more of my own time fundraising, working alongside the Head of Development and colleagues across the University.

The Head of Development will lead this next stage. You will manage a personal portfolio of significant prospective donors, helping relationships grow from an initial connection into meaningful, lasting support. You will work with academics and senior colleagues to shape strong cases for support and help an experienced team focus its activity where it can make the greatest difference.

The role has a substantial personal fundraising emphasis. You will remain close to donors and prospective supporters while giving colleagues the direction and support they need to succeed. You will also help us strengthen our prospect management, make thoughtful use of evidence and build a more consistent approach across the University.

We hope to hear from fundraisers who have secured significant gifts and understand the care, judgement and persistence that strong donor relationships require. You may bring experience from higher education, medical research, health, culture, international development or another organisation with a strong social mission. Your ability to work through complexity, build confidence with senior stakeholders and support experienced colleagues will matter more than following one particular career path.

Queen Mary is a distinctive place, shaped by its history, its diverse community and a belief that excellence should be open to people from every background. If that speaks to you, and you are excited by the opportunity to help others invest in its work, I warmly encourage you to apply.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes,

Celeste Bright
Director of Development and Alumni Engagement
Queen Mary University of London

About us

Diverse thinking creates brilliant breakthroughs.

Queen Mary University of London is a Russell Group university with a difference.

Throughout our history, we have put social justice and improving lives at the centre of our mission. Our founding institutions, the London Hospital Medical College, St Bartholomew’s Medical College, Westfield College and Queen Mary College, were established to provide hope and opportunity for people who were less privileged or under-represented.

We embrace being part of one of the world’s great cultural and economic centres, but we will never forget our East End roots. In the 2023 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, we were ranked 16th in the UK and 124th globally. We offer world-class education without limits. That’s Queen Mary.

We are an institution dedicated to excellence, collaborating with scholars around the world. We believe that when diverse experiences, perspectives and disciplines interact, truly original thought happens. Our vision is to be recognised across the world as the most inclusive research-intensive university.

We were proud to be recognised as the most inclusive Russell Group university in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021, whose authors noted:

“Queen Mary continues to prove that social inclusion and academic success are not mutually exclusive.”

A multi-faculty institution, we teach undergraduates and postgraduates across all the major disciplines. We offer more than 280 undergraduate courses across three faculties: Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Engineering, and Medicine and Dentistry.

Our world-leading research has a global impact, whether it is leading investigations into a cure for haemophilia, formulating a new political theory or pioneering developments in artificial intelligence. We pay close attention to developing and nurturing our researchers’ careers, supporting their ambitions and goals. This collegiate and inclusive approach has brought us great success.

We were ranked joint seventh in the UK in the last Research Excellence Framework (REF) for the quality of our research outputs. We are proud of the transformative impact made by our research teams, both in our local community and around the world. We continually challenge ourselves to create an environment where everyone feels included and can flourish.

Working with our communities.

Our deep roots in the local community saw us become the first UK university to be awarded a Platinum Engage Watermark for public engagement by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement.

We are home to the Blizard Institute, including the Centre of the Cell, the world’s first science education centre within working biomedical research laboratories, and the Neuron Pod. Both play a central role in our public engagement work and in inspiring education and careers in science.

Queen Mary’s Legal Advice Centre provides free legal advice to our community, bringing together the expertise of our faculty, students, alumni and professional networks. It aims to promote access to social justice and saw a record number of client enquiries and appointments in the last academic year.

A proud history of social justice.

Social justice and equality have been central to our mission throughout our history. From our origins in four historic institutions, including Westfield College, which promoted women’s education, and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, which gave medical treatment to London’s poor, social justice is in our DNA.

It continues to this day. Our research helped underpin the national campaign for a real Living Wage. In 2006, we became the first UK university to become a Living Wage employer. Queen Mary became a founding partner of the Living Wage Foundation in 2011, which continues to campaign for a Living Wage and recognises employers who pay staff a wage that meets the cost of living rather than the Government minimum. By 2014, the Living Wage initiative had lifted more than 120,000 employees and their families out of working poverty, and it continues to do so.

In 2019, Queen Mary University of London launched a bold new strategy with the vision to open the doors of opportunity through excellence. By 2030, we will be the most inclusive university of our kind, anywhere.

We are building on our existing cultural diversity to create a truly inclusive environment where students and staff flourish, reach their full potential and are proud to be part of the University. Continuing our long tradition of commitment to the public good, we will generate new knowledge, challenge existing knowledge and engage locally, nationally and internationally to create a better world.

Our values.

Our five core values will help us reach this goal. We are:

• Inclusive, supporting talented students and staff regardless of their background, and engaging with our local and global communities.
• Proud of the difference we can all make when we work collectively.
• Ambitious, fostering innovation and creativity, challenging conventional thought and responding with imagination to new opportunities.
• Collegial, promoting a strong community through openness, listening, understanding, co-operation and co-creation.
• Ethical, acting with the highest standards and integrity in all that we do.

Equality, diversity and inclusion in our community.

Our community of more than 33,000 students and 4,400 members of staff represents us across multiple campuses in London and sites across Europe and Asia. Our alumni community of more than 250,000 people in over 170 countries has gone on to represent us across academia, politics and law, medicine, media and computer science.

Inclusivity is key to who we are and to achieving our ambitions. Unlike many other Russell Group universities, we attract a very diverse student population.

Of our more than 33,000 students, over 41% are from overseas. Among our home students, 91% are from state schools, 77% are Black, Asian or from another minority ethnic background, 46% are the first in their families to go into higher education, and over 34% are from households with an annual income of less than £35,000.

We understand that different members of the community have different access needs and have made some modifications to the way we do business to accommodate people from diverse communities and abilities.

We offer the following amenities:

• Step free access to the building, all key meeting rooms and bathrooms, and an accessible workstation
• Accessibility dogs are welcome
• Interviews can be held in meeting rooms that support hearing loops
• Papers and materials can be presented in different formats
• Working patterns and locations can be adjusted

Applicants with disabilities are welcome to contact us in confidence at any stage of the recruitment process to discuss any reasonable adjustments or support that may be required to ensure fair and equal participation.

Recruitment selection processes are based on evidence of competence stated in the person specification and in relation to our values.

Timetable

Closing date: 9 a.m. Monday 23rd November 2026
Candidates informed of outcome: By COB Friday 27th November 2026
First stage interviews (virtual): Tuesday 1st December 2026
Second stage interviews (in person): Monday 7th December 2026

Peridot and Queen Mary University of London are committed to promoting equality and diversity. To help us raise awareness and support a culture that is diverse and recognises and develops the potential of all, we need to appreciate the profile of candidates who apply for positions.We will send you an equality monitoring survey at the point of receiving your application and at the time of placement. This ensures that our processes remain inclusive and equitable throughout, and provides us with important data to help us showcase our impact.

The information will be treated confidentially and anonymously and will help us to support our commitment to fair recruitment practice. All information provided will be held in the strictest confidence and will not be shared with anyone, in line with the Data Protection Act 2018.

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