Community Business Officer (Trading)

Plunkett UK is looking for a Community Business Officer (Trading) to support a network of community-owned businesses across the UK.

About Us

Plunkett UK, the operational name for Plunkett Foundation, is a national charity supporting people in rural areas to set up and run successful businesses in community ownership. We do this to achieve our UK-wide vision for resilient, thriving and inclusive rural communities.

About the Role

In this proactive, people-focused role, you’ll work closely with established community businesses to strengthen their operations, improve sustainability, and maximise social impact. You’ll provide direct support, coordinate access to specialist advice, and build strong relationships to understand each group’s needs and challenges. You’ll also support membership engagement, contribute to events and communications, and maintain accurate data to ensure high-quality support across our network. Working as part of a collaborative team, you’ll help deliver a responsive and effective service to community businesses.

This role is ideal for someone organised, empathetic and confident communicating with a wide range of people, with a strong interest in community business and rural communities.

The successful candidate should have the following knowledge, experience, skills and attributes:

• Relationship‑focused: you enjoy working with people and are confident building positive, professional relationships.
• Customer‑centred: you have experience working with the public and take pride in providing a helpful, friendly service.
• Empathetic and patient: you take time to understand the situations and needs of the people you work with, responding with care and without rushing.
• Proactive and confident: you take initiative, approach tasks positively, and are comfortable acting independently within your role. You're confident engaging with others, raising issues when needed, and following things through to completion.
• Communicative: you're a confident and clear communicator, comfortable managing multiple interactions by phone, email, video call and in person. You adapt your tone and approach to suit different people and situations.
• Community‑minded: you bring an interest in community business and an understanding of community business models and the challenges facing rural communities.
• Tech comfortable: you have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office and are confident using everyday digital tools to stay organised. Experience of using CRM systems — particularly Salesforce — is an advantage, and you're comfortable keeping accurate records and information up to date.
• Problem‑solving: you're practical and solution‑focused, able to think issues through, handle queries calmly, and find effective responses when challenges arise.
• Organised and adaptable: you are able to prioritise your workload effectively, managing competing demands on your time without losing focus or quality.

Join Plunkett UK and be part of a national charity supporting resilient, thriving and inclusive rural communities.

Closing date for applications: 5pm on Friday 3 July 2026

Interview date: During week commencing 13 July 2026

Interested? If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.

We are committed to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and our approach goes beyond ‘protected characteristics’ to thinking more broadly about inclusion. Every individual will think and feel differently and we believe that these differences should be embraced, and individual needs taken into account. Additionally, the makeup of the rural communities we work with leads to their own particular diversity and exclusion challenges and opportunities compared to urban areas. Our commitment to EDI, both internally and externally, has been tailored to Plunkett and the communities we serve.

No agencies please.