Commercial Project Manager

Description:

OVERVIEW OF ROLE

Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice has been delivering outstanding and pioneering care and support to families facing or living with the loss of their child across West Yorkshire for over 10 years.

Now we’re embarking on an ambitious programme that will see us transform how we care for families. To achieve this and to meet rising costs, we must double our income and strengthen our future financial sustainability over the next few years.

As Commercial Project Manager, you’ll play an integral role in helping us achieve this by identifying and implementing new commercial initiatives to deliver significant additional income. This might be through new businesses, new commercial opportunities or developing paid-for services and offers for other organisations.

A very hands-on and autonomous role, you’ll not only spot gaps in the market and areas of our work or expertise that we can commercialise, you’ll undertake the due diligence required to ensure any ideas are workable, sustainable and aligned with our values. And you’ll take the lead in getting these projects off the ground too.

With an entrepreneurial mindset that means you can spot a good business opportunity at fifty paces, you’ll have a track record of setting up one or more successful businesses or working at a high level in business development. And the project management, negotiation and influencing skills to see things through from creation to implementation.

Our promise is that for as long as we’re here, no family in West Yorkshire will have to face the loss of their child alone. But we can only keep this promise by diversifying our income streams to build a sustainable funding future. This challenging role is an amazing opportunity for someone with a wealth of commercial expertise to be in at the beginning of a brand new venture that could transform that future and make a lasting difference to local children and families. What could be more rewarding that that?

For an informal chat about the role, please contact Gareth Pierce on (phone number removed)

To find out more about working for Forget Me Not Children's Hospice please see our recruitment pack​

JOB DESCRIPTION

Role Summary

Our vision is to deliver pioneering care through pregnancy, childhood and loss, where families need us, whatever the future holds. This role supports our vision by being a critical driving force behind our strategy to diversify and increase income through our commercial and trading initiatives in order to increase the financial sustainability of the charity.

Reporting directly to the chief executive, and working closely with the head of retail operations and other key stakeholders, you’ll be responsible for scoping, developing and testing new commercial initiatives across the whole organisation as well as supporting the growth of our existing commercial business portfolio.

You’ll foster a culture of innovation across the charity by seeking out new opportunities to generate significant income and drawing on your commercial expertise to create compelling and robust strategic business proposals that align with our organisational values and vision to the board to gain support for investment and buy-in. You’ll challenge the status quo through championing a pioneering and creative approach to income generation.

You’ll lean on your extensive project management skills to take creative ideas from concept to rollout ensuring that healthy ROI’s are delivered to create the best and most efficient return for the charity while minimising risk.

You’ll also be instrumental in supporting the expansion of our existing retail estate as you work alongside the head of retail operations developing and implementing new or scaling existing commercial initiatives and delivering the estate strategy for FMNT Trading.

MAIN DUTIES AND KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic delivery

* Support Forget Me Not’s ‘protecting our future’ programme through the creation and delivery of an organisational commercial growth strategy; working with department leads to identify opportunities to commercialise activity, resources, and assets in line with our organisational values and morality framework.

* ​Undertake commercial development and project management of all commercial projects within the organisation from concept to delivery.

* ​Deliver the online retail growth strategy and other ongoing projects.

* ​Support the acquisition and project management element growing our retail estate, working closely with an external consultant and the head of retail operations.

* ​Foster a culture of innovation across the charity by gathering ideas from various sources and systematically evaluating and prioritising them based on strategic alignment and potential commercial impact.

* ​Develop and test new commercial income generating initiatives.

* ​Provide regular strategic and performance updates to the senior leadership team (SLT) and trading board.

* ​Conduct ongoing market analysis to spot trends and to seek out potential commercial opportunities both from within and beyond our sector.

* ​Be aware of external and local commercial influences and be prepared to adapt plans and actions accordingly.

​Leadership and people

* Support colleagues across the organisation with commercial growth and driving a commercial culture within the organisation.

* ​Plan organisational capacity in relation to commercial business planning.

* ​Attend senior management team meetings to present commercial updates.

* ​Liaise with the HR team to ensure that commercial training needs are identified and work with relevant providers to ensure these needs are met.

* ​Support other areas of the organisation by working cross-functionally where required to support events and initiatives.

* ​Work closely with the head of retail operations to ensure a streamlined approach to project management and to ensure the effective rollout of new commercial development opportunities, taking them from projects to business-as-usual.

* ​Identify sources of funding for commercial development through concepts such as social investment.

* ​Build and maintain strong relationships with potential and existing social investors.

* ​Adopt, support and champion the Forget Me Not way of project management.

* ​As part of the wider senior management team, influence, support and develop the organisation’s strategic direction.

* ​Work closely with the head of retail operations, providing cover and support where required.

Finance, facilities and compliance

* Be accountable for the creation and delivery of all financial budgets for commercial initiatives.

* ​Prepare and present comprehensive business plans, financial forecasts, and strategic proposals.

* ​Work alongside fundraising colleagues to develop an investment fundraising proposition.

* ​Analyse financial performance and evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives, providing robust ROI led reporting to a wide range of critical stakeholders.

* ​Assess potential risks associated with initiatives, market changes or strategic decisions. Create and implement risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans.

* ​Balance the need to drive commercial income while protecting the reputation of the charity.

* ​Ensure that all commercial activity adheres to relevant statutory and legal requirements, researching this as part of the development and business planning process.

We expect all staff to undertake any other duties within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job, the title of the post and its grading, as requested by your line manager or their higher level of authority on behalf of the charity.

For all of our roles we expect employees to abide by the expectations set out within the Together for Families Framework (click here). Complying with Together for Families means that we will all act with integrity to ensure we are trusted the people we care for, the people we work with and everyone who supports Forget Me Not.

​PERSON SPECIFICATION

Skills and experience

Essential:

- Significant commercial experience

- ​Experience of developing and delivering growth strategies

- ​Experience of influencing senior colleagues

- Experience of delivering innovative initiatives from concept to rollout

- ​Experience of implementing and managing change

- ​Strong prioritisation and organisational skills

- Experience of managing multiple, complex projects simultaneously

- ​Excellent communication skills

- ​IT literate, excellent skills using Microsoft packages

- ​Innovative approach to problem solving

- ​Strong analytical skills

- ​Experience of managing a project portfolio

- Clearly demonstrate our leadership traits.

Desirable:

- Experience of working in a charity environment

- ​Experience in commercial property acquisition and negotiation.

- ​Experience in online/multi or omni-channel project management

​Qualifications

Desirable:

- Business management qualification

- ​Project management qualification.

As this role involves working across multiple sites, you will need to have a full, clean driving licence and access to a car for work purposes.

This role will involve working weekends and occasionally unsociable hours and so flexibility is essential.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

Please note that we are committed to equality and diversity and make the following pledge in relation to our recruitment practices;

- We will actively encourage and support under-represented groups to join us as employees

- ​We will always interview you if you are an applicant with disability who meets the essential requirements of the job and will provide adjustments to the recruitment process if required.

- ​We are committed to supporting part time and flexible working; we will consider part time working requests for all our roles