Commercial Director Jobs in Derby, Derbyshire

About Us

VoiceAbility is a leading national charity working across the UK to support people, who face disadvantage or discrimination, to achieve their goals and rights and have their voice heard when it matters most.

We foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and inclusivity, where every team member is valued for their unique contributions. Guided by our mission to amplify underrepresented voices, we are committed to professional development, offering tailored opportunities for growth, learning, and leadership. Our values of empowerment, respect, and integrity underpin everything we do, ensuring a supportive environment where both individuals and the organisation thrive in driving meaningful societal change.

We are seeking an exceptional Commercial Director with a strong marketing and commercial sales background, coupled with proven experience in delivering strategic growth in competitive market environments. This pivotal role combines entrepreneurial vision, sales expertise, and operational excellence to drive sustainable revenue growth while strengthening our position as a trusted advocate for underrepresented voices.

Role Purpose

The Commercial Director will be a driving force behind VoiceAbility’s mission, leading the charge in shaping and executing bold growth strategies that secure new revenue streams and enhance the organisation’s reach. Combining proactive entrepreneurial leadership with sharp market intelligence and stakeholder influence, you will deliver measurable results in revenue generation, service expansion, and operational excellence, ensuring VoiceAbility thrives as a not-for-profit leader in a competitive landscape.

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership and Growth Execution

1. • Implement and oversee the organisation’s long-term growth strategy.
   • Translate organisational objectives into actionable marketing and business plans.
   • Oversee contract retention and tendering processes to secure new business and revenue.
   • Represent VoiceAbility as a credible advocate to policymakers and key stakeholders.

2. Market Expansion and Revenue Growth

1. • Identify and exploit new geographic markets, customer segments, and funding streams.
   • Strengthen relationships with commissioners, stakeholders, and customers to drive growth.
   • Leverage market research and business intelligence to maintain competitiveness.
   • Proactively build opportunities to enhance VoiceAbility’s market position.

3. Brand, Marketing, and Public Engagement

1. • Strengthen VoiceAbility’s brand positioning as a trusted and influential voice.
   • Create strategic partnerships to lead and support multi-channel campaigns to drive public awareness and engagement.
   • Use storytelling and data-driven insights to enhance visibility and credibility.
   • Ensure the organisation remains visible and respected in its field.

4. Operational Efficiency and Innovation

1. • Leverage technological advancements, including AI, to improve operational efficiency and customer engagement.
   • Monitor trends and opportunities to ensure strategic readiness and innovation.

5. Team Leadership and Strategic Influence

1. • Build and lead a high-performing commercial team, equipping them with the intelligence and tools to drive growth, by utilising their individual strengths
   • Foster a collaborative, innovative team culture aligned with organisational objectives.
   • Influence policymakers, industry leaders, and stakeholders to achieve VoiceAbility’s strategic mission and vision.

Skills and Competencies

To excel in this role, the successful candidate will demonstrate:

• Strategic and Commercial Expertise: A proven track record of delivering growth, securing contracts, and driving financial performance.
• Sales and Marketing Acumen: Proven ability to develop targeted campaigns, secure new business, and retain client loyalty.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Evidenced expertise in building trusted relationships with commissioners, policymakers, and partners.
• Operational Innovation: Experience leveraging technology, including AI, to enhance service delivery and decision-making.
• Leadership and Team Development: A proven leader with the ability to inspire, develop, and manage high-performing teams.
• Commitment to Diversity: Strong understanding of embracing diverse perspectives in stakeholder engagement and service delivery.
• Professional Credentials: Membership of relevant professional bodies and/or a degree in business administration or marketing is an advantage.

How to Apply: Please click on the apply button to be redirected to the VoiceAbility website.

Closing Date: Friday 3rd January 2025 – 1700hrs

Please note, given the importance and value of this role to the organisation, we will interview suitable candidates who match our criteria on a rolling basis and may appoint before the closing date.

Job Description ​​and Person Specification

Job Title – Head of Network (Hubs) Commercial Development

Reporting to: Director of Network

Location: Remote/UK wide

Contract type: Permanent

Hours per week: 35 Hours

Salary:£68,974 per annum

Our Vision: A UK where “No good food goes to waste”. 

We are UK’s national network of charitable food redistributors, made up of 18 independent organisations. Together, we take good quality surplus food from right across the food industry and get it to approximately 8,500 frontline charities and community groups.  Every week we provide enough food to create almost a million meals for vulnerable people.

There has never been a more exciting time to join an organisation at the heart of public consciousness.  For more information visit our website.

FareShare is an equal opportunity employer, and we welcome applications from all backgrounds and abilities and as a Disability Confident Employer, we provide reasonable adjustments.

We aim to recruit from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our commitment to redistributing surplus food, come and join us!

The role

Main areas of responsibility

Focussed on the Coronation Food Project (CFP) Hubs across the Head of Commercial Development will lead the strategic direction and operational execution of commercial initiatives and activites.

This key leadership role includes identifying growth opportunities, developing partnerships, optimising revenue streams, and ensuring alignment with overall business and charitible objectives.

The ideal candidate will combine visionary thinking with pragmatic execution to drive sustainable long term growth, focussed on income diversification and generation alongside raising awareness of the programme with key stakeholders.

The key focus of the role will be:

• Identifying, planning and implementing commercial based strategies and a framework to diversify income steams to support the development of a sustainable of Hub network.
• Successfully deliver an ambitious growth strategy across new partnerships.
• Working collaboratively with the Hub Development teams, delivering a seamless strategy, focussing on partnership management, strategic business planning and maximising income value.
• Developing a robust pipeline of prospective support and implement a first-rate approach to new partnership management, with the capacity to delivery multi-year strategic partnerships.
• Using data, insight and innovation techniques to implement and diversify income streams from prospective partners.
• Be an active member of the CFP Programme Team.
• Gather and share insights, innovations and framewors with the wider FareShare Network to embed best in class approaches and practices.

Responsibilities

• Generate a portfolio of strategic commercial partners and new income streams to support the growth of the project.
• Maintain oversight of existing partnerships to ensure a cohesive and collaborative transition of new partners into long term supporters.
• Collaborate with the Fundraising Team to identify new corporate funding opportunities.
• Oversee the development of a pipeline that has the capacity to meet the strategic needs of the programme both locally and nationally.
• Lead on securing and negotiating significantly high value partnerships resulting in exceptional partners for the CFH programme.
• Develop, monitor and maintain systems and processes including Salesforce database, account management plans, partnership plans, contracts and due diligence .

In addition, you will be expected to: 

• Work within legal and charity guidelines
• Manage and work within FareShare’s IT systems and data guidelines
• Undertake training and skills development and keep up to date with the changing requirements of the role
• Undertake other duties as required

Person Specification

As an employer committed to Equal Opportunities, we will assess applications in line with these criteria that we consider either as being essential or desirable in this role.

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrable experience of delivering significant partnerships at scale in either a charity or commercial environment
• Experience of providing excellent relationship management and stewardship resulting in increased levels of financial support from partners
• Experience of managing multi-faceted strategic partnerships that deliver both financial and non-financial impact to an organisation
• Experience of using data and insight to inform business planning and decision making
• Ability to develop strategy and translate into an operational and commercial delivery plan
• Experience of people management and influencing
• Target driven, proactive and creative in meeting the needs of complex multi-faceted partners
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability influence and negotiate at all levels internally and externally
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to convey complex and compelling funding proposals
• Exceptional project management skills, capable of leading the delivery of multiple complex projects on time and to budget
• Proven experience of financial forecasting and managing financial risks and opportunities

Competencies and behaviours

• A commitment to Equal Opportunities
• An understanding of, and sympathy with FareShare’s mission
• Flexibility of approach and ability to work in a team and across other internal teams.

Benefits

• Hybrid / Flexible working, with regular UK travel
• 28 days’ annual leave + 8 bank holidays
• Employers pension contribution
• Employee Assistance Program
• Interest free bicycle purchase loan scheme
• Season ticket loan

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer and as a key member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), this critical role will lead the development of a large, expert and high-performing directorate. You will be accountable for the strategic development and successful delivery of MyBnk’s programmes across the United Kingdom, ensuring high impact and consistent quality in every aspect of our programmatic output.

We are holding an information webinar about this role on 18th December. Please register for it via the job pack. All registrants will receive a copy of the recording.

You’ll create and deliver an ambitious new Programmes and Delivery strategy inspired by our new 2024-2027 strategy ‘Money: A Language for Life’ which outlines four strategic pillars: 

• Building habits; driving healthy financial habits 

• Expanding reach; enabling young people and adults to get financial education when they need it 

• Increased accessibility; supporting young people and adults most in need 

• Tackling inequality; fighting for financial literacy. 

In this role, you’ll ensure that MyBnk have robust and appropriate systems, practices and processes that enable us to deliver best-in-class operational programmes to our learners. This will be rooted in more effective use of data and insights to drive the development of our programme suite. Critical to our new strategy, is driving an ambitious and forward-thinking approach to programme innovation; ensuring our programmes are learner centred, purpose driven and leverage the best techniques for building financial fluency. 

You’ll be held strategically accountable for delivering our work across all four UK nations. As we introduce a new leadership framework, you will be responsible for implementing this across your Directorate. Our ambition is to be the leading financial education provider in the UK, and your contribution in this role will be Essential to achieving our goals.

MyBnk Directors are expected to identify and secure strategic partnerships that benefit the organisation. Equally, Directors will exemplify and model the MyBnk values of: 

• Young at heart, serious in intent 

• Stories are the best means of education 

• We live in the real world 

This role is a great opportunity to bring your professional toolkit to an exciting, growing and purpose driven charity doing vital work for our society. You will have the resources, support, and visibility you need from the CEO, Senior Leadership Team and Trustees. For the right person it will be a career-shaping role. 

• Hybrid Position
• Ideal for someone from an Audit and/or Social Impact Organisation

About Our Client

Arts Council England are the national development agency for creativity and culture in England. They champion creativity and culture across the country, develop talent in every corner of the nation, and support artists, practitioners and cultural organisations to work in partnership and to be world leading.

Arts Council believe creativity and culture not only inspire us, but they bring us together and teach us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, they make life better. From 2023 to 2026 Arts Council will invest over £467 million of public money from Government and an estimated £250 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver their strategic vision.

Job Description

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) created the Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to help cultural organisations and heritage sites during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Fund included a £254 million loans programme for arts, culture and heritage organisations. Arts Council acts as loan agent for the borrowers in the programme portfolio.

You will be responsible for all aspects of Arts Council's management of the CRF loans portfolio. You will be the principal contact with DCMS and will be required to meet with them regularly to report on a range of CRF loans portfolio issues and activities including formal portfolio reviews, loan re-profile recommendations, commissioning of external legal and financial advice, loans management process and systems.

The CRF Loans Director will have direct line management responsibility for the CRF loans team and your duties will include:

• Overseeing effective loans monitoring processes to identify where borrowers' business performance indicates a risk to loan repayment
• Reporting to DCMS on the performance of the loans' portfolio on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.
• Making recommendations on appropriate action to take on defaulting or at-risk loans.
• Ensuring performance management, risk and internal controls are in place and used effectively.

The Successful Applicant

The successful CRF Loans Director will hold an ACA/CCAB/CIMA qualification (or equivalent) with experience of working at a senior level and exposure to working with loan lenders and borrowers.

You will have excellent financial analysis skills and be able to present complex financial information in simple understandable form to decision makers and others.

Ideally you will have a background within an audit and/or social impact organisation and have an understanding of shaping a loans fund.

Application Stage

As part of the application process, you will be required to provide:

A personal statement of no more than 1000 words attached to your CV that explains how your skills & experience meet the essential experience criteria as listed in the candidate pack.

A supporting CV outlining your job history & qualifications, (including how you meet the essential technical criteria for the role)

It will not be possible to provide feedback to applicants who are unsuccessful at the application stage. Feedback will be provided to those whose applications progress beyond the first shortlisting stage.

 

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE CANDIDATE AND JOB PACK
 

Interview stage

Full details of the interview process will be made available to shortlisted candidates in the invite to interview.

Closing date is 11:55pm on 6th January 2025

Pre-screening interviews with Michael Page will take place w/c 13th and 20st January 2025

We expect first stage interviews to take place week commencing Monday 27th January 2025. All dates are indicative & subject to change. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

What's on Offer

A salary £70,000 - £80,000 dependent on relevant experience alongside an excellent benefits package including a final salary pension scheme.

Hybrid working is also available for this role which can be based in any Arts Council location nationally (outside of London).

Contact
Bradley Glen
Quote job ref
JN-122024-6616410Z

Where specific UK qualifications are required we will take into account overseas equivalents. All third party applications will be forwarded to Michael Page.