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Salary: £62,000 - £67,000 per annum, depending on experience
Hours: Full-time, permanent contract
Location: Hybrid working, with a minimum of three days per week based at Migrateful’s Farringdon office and cookery school.
Reports to: CEO
Application Deadline: Midday 29th October
Start date: ASAP
 

About Migrateful

Migrateful is a multi-award-winning charity supporting asylum seekers, refugees and migrants (our chefs) on their journey to employment and integration, while building a more welcoming, better-informed public understanding of migration.

Our chefs are referred to us because they face significant barriers to employment and integration in the UK, having fled circumstances including modern-day slavery, gender-based violence, persecution and conflict. Through a training and support programme, we equip them to become cookery class teachers, building confidence, professional skills and pathways into employment. Once trained, our chefs lead cookery classes for public and corporate audiences from our dedicated schools in London and Bristol, as well as pop-up venues.

Migrateful has grown significantly since its founding in 2017. We now have an annual turnover of approximately £1.4 million and a team of 17 staff, alongside around 50 chefs and a wider network of freelance facilitators and volunteers. Since 2017, we have run over 6,100 cookery classes with 72,200 participants. 

About the Role

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is responsible for ensuring Migrateful runs effectively, efficiently and sustainably, with the people, systems and processes in place to deliver high-quality cookery classes and training programmes and support the organisation’s continued growth.

Working closely with the CEO, the COO serves as second-in-command within the charity and provides senior leadership across operations, finance, people and culture, systems and governance. The COO will take the lead on the effective day-to-day running of Migrateful’s operation, enabling the CEO to focus on organisational strategy, fundraising, external partnerships and growth.

This is a broad and influential leadership role at an exciting stage in Migrateful’s development. After more than nine years of growth, many areas of our operations are well established and led by a highly capable and experienced team. At the same time, there are areas of our operations, systems and ways of working that we want to develop further. We are looking for an experienced operational leader who can bring their expertise to these areas, build on our strong foundations, and help take Migrateful into its next stage of development.

With a team of 17 staff across the organisation and plans to deliver around 1,100 cookery classes in the coming year, the COO will work through and alongside capable colleagues and managers to lead and embed these improvements. It is also a varied, hands-on role, and from time to time this might mean stepping in to help with a cookery class or supporting the team with an immediate operational challenge. And of course, there will be plenty of opportunities to enjoy delicious food prepared by our chefs, who represent 48 nationalities!

Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership

Working alongside the CEO and Senior Leadership Team to deliver Migrateful’s organisational strategy.

Responsibilities include:

• Translate organisational strategy into annual operational plans and lead implementation across operational teams. 

• Develop and monitor organisational KPIs, using operational and financial data to drive improvement and report performance to the CEO and Board. 

• Foster collaboration across Operations, Finance, Fundraising, Marketing, and Impact to ensure teams work towards shared organisational goals.

2. Operational Leadership

Provide strategic leadership for the delivery and continual improvement of Migrateful’s operational programmes.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead and develop a high-performing Operations team.

• Oversee the planning, delivery, and continuous improvement of all operational programmes, including public, corporate, and private cookery classes, chef recruitment, chef training, and ongoing chef support.

• Ensure consistently high standards for participant and chef experiences, and monitor programme quality, efficiency, and consistency across the organisation.

• Ensure safeguarding and wellbeing are embedded throughout programme delivery.

• Support managers in achieving departmental objectives, troubleshoot operational issues, and ensure effective cross-team coordination. 

• Develop and manage operational budgets, delivery plans and resource allocation. 

• Oversee facilities and tenancy management, including venue leases, utilities, insurance, maintenance and landlord relationships. 

3. Systems, Digital Development & Continuous Improvement

Lead the development of systems and processes that enable Migrateful to operate efficiently and scale sustainably.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead the development of digital systems, processes and automation to reduce administration, improve efficiency and enable organisational growth.

• Manage relationships with Salesforce consultants and other system providers, prioritising improvements to organisational systems and workflows.

• Lead continuous improvement and organisational change projects, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, effectiveness and ways of working across the organisation.

• Act as Migrateful’s named Data Manager, overseeing data protection practices and ensuring organisational data is accurate, secure and managed in line with the Data Protection Policy and UK GDPR.

• Oversee key organisational platforms including Salesforce, Monday (project management), Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack and Xero.

4. People & Organisational Culture

Lead people management across the organisation, combining day-to-day HR oversight with longer-term workforce planning and culture development. 

Responsibilities include:

• Overall responsibility for HR across employees, facilitators, volunteers and chefs.

• Work alongside the CEO on organisational structure and workforce planning.

• Oversee recruitment, onboarding and exit processes.

• Liaise with external HR providers.

• Ensure contracts, right-to-work checks and HR records are accurately maintained by the team.

• Support line managers with disciplinary, grievance and performance management processes.

• Ensure that effective, high-quality appraisal, supervision, coaching, and staff development processes are in place and consistently completed across the organisation. 

• Develop a positive, inclusive, and high-performing organisational culture that promotes staff wellbeing, engagement, and retention, and ensures diversity, equity, and inclusion are embedded across recruitment, people management, and organisational practices. 

• Review and update HR policies and procedures, and, where appropriate, develop salary proposals alongside the CEO. 

• Act as Migrateful’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, overseeing safeguarding policies and training, and ensuring concerns are reported, recorded and responded to appropriately. 

5. Governance, Risk & Compliance

Ensure Migrateful maintains high standards of governance, compliance and organisational risk management.

Responsibilities include:

• Maintain and monitor the organisational risk register.

• Report significant organisational risks to the CEO and Board.

• Oversee safeguarding, health and safety, incident reporting and risk assessments.

• Ensure compliance with charity, employment, financial, safeguarding and health and safety legislation.

• Ensure organisational policies and procedures are reviewed and updated in line with the Board’s policy review calendar. 

• Support the CEO with trustee board meetings and governance tasks.

6. Finance & Financial Sustainability

Provide strategic oversight of Migrateful’s finance function and, in close collaboration with the CEO and Finance Manager, ensure the organisation is financially sustainable.

Responsibilities include:

• Overall strategic responsibility for the effective management of the finance function.

• Line manage and support the Finance Manager, ensuring clear priorities, accountability and effective delivery of the finance function.

• Work with the CEO and Finance Manager on organisational budgeting, forecasting and financial planning.

• Ensure managers understand and effectively manage departmental budgets.

• Identify opportunities to increase organisational capacity without a proportional increase in staffing costs.

Person Specification

Essential

• Significant senior leadership and management experience, ideally within a charity, social enterprise or purpose-led organisation.

• Strong experience of leading operational teams and translating organisational strategy into effective delivery.

• Experience of managing and developing managers, building high-performing teams and leading organisational change.

• Strong financial literacy. 

• Experience of overseeing people management and HR processes.

• Experience of managing organisational risk and ensuring compliance.

• Experience of improving systems, processes and ways of working to increase efficiency and organisational capacity.

• Excellent organisational, analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to balance strategic thinking with practical delivery.

• A collaborative and supportive leadership style, combined with the confidence to make decisions, establish accountability and address difficult issues.

• Strong alignment with Migrateful’s mission and values and a commitment to creating an inclusive organisational culture.

Desirable

• Experience within the charity or social enterprise sector.

• Experience within a trading organisation or another operationally complex environment.

• Experience of managing operations across multiple sites or locations.

• A good understanding of UK employment legislation and HR best practice.

• Experience of digital systems development, CRM systems such as Salesforce, or automation.

• Experience of working with a Board of Trustees.

• A strong understanding of the experiences and challenges faced by refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant communities, gained through professional and/or lived experience. 

What we offer

• Salary of £62,000–£67,000, depending on experience, for a senior leadership role reporting directly to our Founder & CEO.

• 36–37 days’ paid leave per year, comprising 25 days’ annual leave, 8 bank holidays and typically 3–4 additional paid days during Migrateful’s Christmas and New Year closure.

• Hybrid working, with three days per week at our Farringdon office and cookery school and the remaining days working from home.

• A friendly and sociable team who enjoy working together, with an annual budget for team socials.

• Flexible working hours, with core hours of 10 am–4 pm.

• Up to two weeks per year working remotely from anywhere in the UK or abroad.

• Enhanced sick pay, with up to four weeks on full pay and four weeks on half pay in any 12-month period, after six months’ service.

• Enhanced maternity pay, with 15 weeks at full pay after one year’s service.

• £500 annual professional development and coaching budget to support your growth as a senior leader.

• Workplace pension with a 3% employer contribution.

• Cycle to Work scheme.

• Free places on Migrateful cookery classes for you and a guest.

• A mission you can see every day. You’ll work alongside chefs from 48 nationalities, and there’s always something delicious coming out of the kitchen.
   

Interested in the Role?

We know that great candidates may not meet every criterion listed above. If you’re excited about the role and think you could make a strong contribution to Migrateful, we’d still love to hear from you.

How to Apply

Please submit the following via the CharityJob portal:

• Your CV, outlining your relevant experience.

• A cover letter of no more than two pages explaining why you are interested in the role and how your experience equips you to succeed as Migrateful’s COO. Please include examples of your experience in leading and developing teams, overseeing operations and organisational systems, and managing financial and organisational performance.

Application deadline: Midday Monday 26 October 2026
First-stage online interviews: Thursday 29 October 2026
Second-stage in-person interviews: Wednesday 4 November 2026, at our Farringdon office