Chief Operating Officer

We have two offices, one based in London and one in Birmingham. We are open to candidates across both of those locations. Our CEO is based in London. Day to day it's a mixture of being in our office, working from home and visiting our prisons. We can also look to make the role 4 days for the right candidate. 

Who We Are:

Beating Time have been going since 2014. Originally running music groups in prison and since 2021 an employment through the gate service called Inside Job. Both programmes now run across, London, Birmingham and the Northeast. Our aim is simple, helping prisoners survive their sentence and thrive on release.

The Role:

As the COO you’ll be the right-hand person to our CEO Liv Wicks. She’s a right laugh (she may or may not have written this herself).

What You'll Be Doing:

✨Supporting our two part time fundraisers with applications.
✨ Occasional frontline support within our prisons.
✨ Helping to streamline our tech and processes.
✨ Working with the CEO to shape and develop the overall Beating Time strategy.
✨ Joint oversight of our charity finances and forming part of our finance committee alongside the trustees.

✨Supporting governance and regulatory compliance for the charity.
✨ Signing off our monthly reports for our funded prison contracts.
✨ Line management responsibility of the wider team.

Who You Are:

We’re not big on box-ticking, but here’s the sort of person who we think thrives in this role:

✨Willing to be comfortable working in Prisons and Young Offender Institutions (you’ll need to pass vetting, of course!)
✨ Empathetic, non-judgemental, and a brilliant listener
✨ Aware of the barriers facing people with convictions, and ready to help smash them
✨ Resilience to work within a sector with many hurdles
✨ A natural relationship-builder who can talk to anyone — from CEOs to candidates
✨ Organised, IT-savvy (MS Office etc.), and able to keep good records
✨Strong writer –  bid writing experience is a big help

Bonus points if you’ve got fundraising or financial experience. 

Even bigger bonus points if you’ve got lived experience of the criminal justice system — we value it highly.

Why Join Us?

This isn’t just another job. It’s an opportunity to be part of something genuinely groundbreaking. I know I know, It’s a cliché but we mean it.

Our team is proudly diverse. Many of us — including our amazing Community Consultants — have lived through the criminal justice system. Your background and story matter to us.

You’ll get:
✔️ Real impact: you’ll change lives every day
✔️ Supportive, inspiring colleagues who care about what they do
✔️ Flexibility: the role has hybrid and part time potential
✔️ A warm, welcoming team coffee catch-up to cap off the process