King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About Us

Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement (P&A) provides a fundraising and alumni engagement function in support of King’s College London. We are proud to work with colleagues across the university and its health partners to help them serve society through world-leading education, research and healthcare.  Our work also includes a partnership with the Maudsley Charity in support of children’s mental health initiatives between the university’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust.

We are a committed team that brings together fundraisers working across different channels, alongside colleagues who promote King’s College London’s engagement with its worldwide alumni community. Our work is underpinned and enhanced by a range of dedicated professionals in supporting areas covering proposition development, supporter engagement, supporter operations and business operations.

We have an impressive, well-established track record of success in securing support that allows the university and partners to deliver on their missions. This includes our global, award-winning World Questions: King’s Answers campaign, which set the standard in the sector and enabled us to raise substantial funds to help tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges. Ambitious and innovative, the team has won awards such as a CASE Platinum Award for Fundraising and a CASE Gold Award for Donor Relations and Stewardship. We are strongly values-driven with a focus on sustaining an excellent and supportive culture, which we see as key to creating a successful team that can support the university and its partners in making a real and positive difference to the world we live in.

More on King’s College London

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place.  Through its commitment to exceptional education, impactful research and genuine service to society, King’s College London is creating positive change in its communities, both in London and on the world stage. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

• Educating the next generation of change-makers;
• Challenging ideas and driving change through research;
• Giving back to society through meaningful service;
• Working with our local communities in London;
• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective.

Find out more here -  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/about

About The Role

The Head of Alumni Relations provides strategic leadership in the planning, development and execution of King’s alumni relations programme. With responsibility for cultivating and sustaining an engaged global alumni community, the postholder plays a pivotal role in advancing the university’s long-term engagement strategy and institutional goals. Working in close partnership with the Associate Director, Alumni Engagement, they shape and deliver a compelling, future-focused alumni engagement strategy aligned with King’s mission and vision.

The Head of Alumni Relations leads a high performing team, setting clear direction and fostering a culture of innovation, inclusivity, and excellence. They oversee the delivery of an audience led programme of events, volunteer activities, benefits, and services for alumni with a focus on:

• Enriching alumni lives through connection with King’s
• Improving the student experience through connection with alumni
• Increasing King’s profile and positive brand recognition
• Engaging alumni with philanthropy

The postholder will be a skilled people manager, ensuring that the Alumni Relations team are well equipped to deliver an ambitious plan of alumni engagement activity as we prepare for our next Campaign launch.  The Head of Alumni Relations will work closely with colleagues across Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement and will build strong relationships with senior stakeholders across the university.

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31 December 2026. P&A has a hybrid working approach, with a minimum of 40% of time in the office. Typically, this equates to two days per week, but we’re very happy for colleagues to be in more frequently if they so wish.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience: 

Essential criteria

1. Highly skilled in planning, delivering and evaluating event and volunteer engagement programmes. 
2. Experience of strategy design and development, including setting objectives and measuring performance against longer term goals. 
3. Excellent negotiation skills, and the ability to bring together stakeholders to achieve results. 
4. A strong understanding of the principles of advancement in higher education. 
5. Experience of financial management including budget control and monitoring return on investment. 
6. Highly attuned interpersonal skills with the ability to effectively manage and motivate a team to achieve excellent results. 
7. Highly creative and ideas driven with experience adapting programmes to align with strategic priorities. 
8. Flexible approach with sound judgement and confident decision-making ability. 

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge of Dynamics CRM and digital engagement platforms. 
2. Substantial experience of working within Higher Education and/or membership organization. 

Downloading a copy of our Job Description 

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process. 

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community. In P&A we want to build a diverse team, which represents the communities served by the organisations we support. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented. 

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We are open to discussing flexible working arrangements, including part-time, compressed hours and/or job shares, as appropriate and in the context of the business needs associated with the role.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement no longer than 2 pages, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages. 

This role will have a standard skills-based interview, due to be held on Monday 15 December.