Graduate Commercial Project Officer in Huddersfield

Salary: National Minimum Wage – aligned to age-appropriate statutory rate

Hours: 37.5 hours – part time options may be considered

Reporting Line: CEO

Location: Huddersfield

Benefits:

• Entry into People’s Pension
• Death in service benefit (3 × salary)
• Out of pocket expenses
• Free on‑site parking
• Free access to confidential and extensive wellbeing support
• Generous holiday entitlement (26 days plus bank holidays; rising to 31 days after 5 years for a full‑time employee, pro rata for part‑time)
• Day off for your birthday
• Free tea / coffee, sight tests and flu jabs
• Excellent learning and development opportunities

Overview: We’re looking for a proactive, organised graduate to join our team and help us test and launch new ideas that bring in extra income for the charity. If you enjoy making things happen, solving problems, and trying out new projects, this could be a great first step in your career. You will get involved in setting up small commercial projects, helping with the practical side of getting them off the ground. You will gather feedback, track how things are going, and help us understand what’s working (and what’s not). Day to day, you’ll help keep projects running smoothly by coordinating tasks, timelines, and communication between teams. You’ll also create simple reports, summaries, and handover packs so projects can transition into our business as usual. An interest in business, problem‑solving or project work is a bonus, but what matters most is that you’re organised, curious, and confident working with different people. This is a brilliant opportunity to grow your commercial and project management skills while making a real difference to the local children and families we support.

Role Summary: The Graduate Commercial Project Officer provides hands‑on operational capacity to rapidly develop and deliver short‑term commercial projects that support Forget Me Not’s commercial income diversification programme. This role is essential in enabling the charity to test and launch new income streams quickly, contributing to long‑term financial sustainability.

Main Duties and Key Responsibilities:

• Operational Delivery: Mobilise commercial projects such as pilots, roll‑outs, expansions and other low‑risk income initiatives. Assist with setting up systems, processes, logistics and operational workflows.
• Data, Insight & Evaluation: Run pilots, collect data and customer feedback, and provide robust performance reporting. Support early‑stage financial modelling and business planning. Track project KPIs.
• Project Coordination: Plan and track multiple projects simultaneously. Organise tasks, timelines and documentation. Stakeholder coordination and communication. Prepare project papers, summaries and dashboards for governance and decision‑making.
• Documentation & Handover: Produce clear documentation, process maps and handover packs for BAU transition. Capture lessons learned and feed into future project cycles.
• Collaboration & Communication: Work with retail, fundraising, finance, operations and other internal teams to ensure project readiness. Communicate progress, risks and issues clearly and in a timely manner.

Essential Skills and Experience:

• Degree in any discipline (or equivalent experience).
• Strong organisational skills with ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks.
• Confident communicator and team collaborator.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office and comfortable analysing basic data.

Desirable:

• Interest in commercial development, business analysis or project management.
• Experience supporting events, research or project‑based activities.
• Understanding of charity or commercial income generation sectors.

Graduate Skills Framework Selection:

• Essential Skills: Organised Planner – the role requires managing multiple tasks, adapting quickly to change, and supporting delivery against tight timelines.
• Desirable Skills: Collaborative Communicator – working effectively with a broad range of stakeholders. Critical Thinker – analysing pilot data, identifying insights and supporting evidence‑based decisions.

Why This Role Matters: Provides the operational capacity needed to launch rapid‑delivery commercial initiatives. Strengthens organisational agility and contributes directly to long‑term financial sustainability. Helps embed a more commercial, innovative culture within the charity.

Eligibility: This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975, and as such, it will be necessary for a submission for disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Equality and Diversity: We are committed to equality and diversity and make the following pledge in relation to our recruitment practices. We will actively encourage and support under‑represented groups to join us as employees. We will always interview you if you are an applicant with a disability who meets the essential requirements of the job and will provide adjustments to the recruitment process if required. We are committed to supporting part‑time and flexible working; we will consider part‑time working requests for all our roles.