The Pickering Cancer Drop-In Centre
Executive Director
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Location: Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Salary: £50k - £70k FTE (pro-rata to 0.6 FTE, 3 days/week - can be worked flexibly: £30,000 - £42,000 actual)
Hours: Part-time, 3 days per week or flexibly (22.5 hours)
Contract: Permanent
Closing date: Sunday 6 September 2026
About Us
For over 21 years, The Pickering Cancer Drop-In Centre has offered free, holistic support to anyone in our community affected by cancer through complementary therapies, talking therapies, art, and our supportive community.
In 2025 alone, we had 1,911 individual visits and 1,021 therapy sessions - entirely through the dedication of our volunteer team. We are currently renovating our new centre, and we want to use it to reach further into our community than ever before. This is the first paid role in our history.
About the Role
As our first Executive Director, you will be the single point of accountability between our Board of Trustees and the day-to-day operations of the Centre, working alongside our (voluntary) Centre Manager and (voluntary) Volunteer Manager to support their roles, not duplicate them. You'll lead our strategy delivery, guide the charity's move into its new home, and oversee a service redesign informed by a fresh programme of visitor, volunteer and community research.
About You
You already know how to do this job - you've held a senior, accountable position in a charity or comparable organisation and can bring that experience from day one. You're confident reporting to a board of trustees, comfortable getting things done, and able to win the trust of a highly experienced, long-standing volunteer team through competence and credibility, not authority alone.
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Key Activity Areas
- Financial management – budgeting, financial controls, and reporting to the Board and Treasurer
- Governance & best practice – supporting trustees to discharge their statutory duties; maintaining the policy suite and risk register
- HR & people leadership – supporting our entire volunteer and therapist team; communication is key to our volunteers
- Fundraising – write and lead on a fundraising strategy, implement new funding streams and be the ‘face of Pickering’ – local networking will be essential
- Change management – leading the transition to our new centre and evolving service model with care and consultation
- Compliance – safeguarding, health and safety, GDPR, and other regulatory requirements
Qualifications - Desirable
All the below are not necessary qualifications but would assist with this role:
- CIPD qualification, or equivalent hands-on HR experience
- A recognised governance qualification (e.g. Chartered Governance Institute) or completion of a charity leadership programme or similar
- Financial management experience – a qualification would be useful but not essential
- Safeguarding lead training
Experience and Competencies — Essential
- Senior leadership experience with genuine authority and accountability in a charity or comparable mission-led organisation
- A track record of reporting to and working with a board of trustees or non-executive directors
- A track record of leading organisational change, with evidence it was genuinely adopted
- Sound financial literacy - budgets, management accounts, financial controls, dealing with auditors
- Working knowledge of safeguarding, risk management and regulatory compliance
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including board-level reporting as well as the ability to speak in public
- Experience making a leadership role pay for itself, through income generation, cost savings, or both
- A genuine, demonstrable commitment to Pickering's mission
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Experience and Competencies — Desirable
- Fundraising experience across grants, trusts, community fundraising and corporate partnerships
- Experience within the cancer support, wider healthcare, or hospice sector
- Lived experience of cancer, personally or through supporting someone close to you
- Experience leading a refresh of a brand or a rebrand, service redesign, or physical relocation of services
- Familiarity with Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding local community
Safeguarding
This role involves working with adults who may be vulnerable by virtue of serious illness. The successful candidate will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS check and satisfactory reference checks before appointment, and will act as, or oversee, the charity's designated safeguarding lead.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Pickering is committed to equal opportunity for all and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. A copy of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy is available on request.
How to Apply
Please apply by Sunday 6 September 2026. Interviews are expected to take place w/c 14 September 2026.
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