British Footwear Association
Membership Relationship Manager
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Job Description: Members and Partners Relationship Manager
Company: British Footwear Association
Job Type: Part-time, Flexible hours spread across Monday–Friday
Location: UK-based (Hybrid). Must have the legal right to work in the UK.
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
About Us
The British Footwear Association (BFA) is being rebuilt around a clear mission: We exist to equip our members with the knowledge, insight and connections to grow in a fast-changing world. Strengthening our members, championing our industry, and shaping its future.
The BFA has been in existence for over 125 years and is a non-profit trade association that represents members across the entire UK footwear sector that spans historic Northamptonshire heritage & luxury manufacturers, global footwear brands, high-street retail brands, independent artisan shoemakers, designers, distributors, suppliers and specialist service providers. This £16 billion Industry is a vital part of the UK economy and employs several hundred thousand staff. The British Footwear Association (BFA) is the representative voice and business community for the UK footwear sector.
About the role
The Relationship Manager serves as the primary point of contact between the association and our diverse network of Members and Partners.
The core focus of this role is to help grow, retain and engage the Member and Partner community that supports the British footwear industry. Exceed service expectations, drive retention, and connect members with critical industry resources, trade support, and networking opportunities.
You will be the BFA’s primary day-to-day contact, ensuring each of those members feels heard, receives relevant value and has a clear route to engage. This is a hands-on manager role combining membership acquisition, retention, account management, partner liaison and CRM insight.
Key responsibilities
- Member Engagement & Retention: Build and maintain proactive relationships with existing members across the footwear sector. Conduct regular site visits and virtual check-ins to understand their business pressures and evolving needs and where the BFA can help.
- Value Delivery & Support: Connect members with essential association benefits, including guidance on international trade, grants, global tariff compliance, and sustainability regulations. Turn partner expertise into valuable content, introductions, webinars and event participation for our members.
- Event Promotion: Actively promote and drive member participation in the BFA’s industry events and regional/International trade exhibitions.
- CRM & Data Management: Maintain accurate, up-to-date member profiles, interaction logs, and engagement metrics within the association's CRM system. Identify a prioritised pipeline of prospective, lapsed and at-risk members.
- Commercial Support: Identify areas for upsell, new revenue streams that will benefit members, new relevant partnerships or sponsorship.
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Requirements
- Experience: Proven track record in account management, membership management, or business development—ideally within a trade association, professional body or chamber of commerce.
- Industry Knowledge: Understanding of the UK footwear or fashion retail landscape, manufacturing supply chains, or international trade processes is highly desirable. Experience in footwear or fashion businesses would also be advantageous.
- Practical CRM experience, including segmentation, pipeline management, forecasting and reporting.
- Confidence: producing proposals, following up persuasively and facilitating discussions.
- Communication: Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to engage diplomatically with both Members and Partners at all levels.
- Organisation: Strong organisational and time-management skills, comfortable managing a portfolio of accounts, the ability to work independently in a small, distributed team.
- Travel: Willingness for UK travel to meet members, partners and to attend BFA events.
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Personal skills
- A natural relationship builder who enjoys meeting people, listens carefully and builds trust with stakeholders at every level.
- Warm, approachable and confident, able to make members and partners feel understood and valued.
- Commercially curious, able to uncover what an organisation genuinely needs and turn that understanding into relevant support, engagement or partnership opportunities.
- Persistent and dependable, comfortable following through, maintaining momentum and doing what they have promised—even when managing several competing priorities.
Why you’ll love this role
- The UK footwear industry combines globally recognised heritage and craftsmanship with entrepreneurial brands, advanced manufacturing, retail innovation and rapidly changing technology.
- You will work directly with people across this diverse community, building relationships that create genuine commercial value.
- It is a varied and important role in which your ideas will be heard, your contribution will be visible, and you will help shape both the BFA’s future and the support it provides to members to help them navigate and grow this fast-changing industry.
To apply
Please submit your CV via the 'Easy Apply'
Equal Opportunities
We believe in fair treatment of all our employees and commit to promoting diversity in our employment practices. We do not discriminate in employment based on race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, disability, age, marital status, medical history, parental status or genetic information. We base all our employment decisions on merit, job requirements and business needs.
Because of the volume of applications we receive, we may not be able to respond to every applicant individually but will contact you within 5 working days if your application has been successfully shortlisted for interview.
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