The Head of Performance and Improvement is a new role that will lead our work to drive excellence in our grant making in England. They will play a critical role in ensuring our grant making is not only delivered, but understood, improved, and aligned with our purpose. This team helps us answer key questions about our grant making:
Are we doing what we said we would? How well are we doing it? What have we learned? And what should we do next?
The Head of Performance and Improvement ensures our grant making is evidence-informed, insight-driven, and continuously evolving.
Partnering with the Head of England Operations and working closely with senior leaders, you will ensure performance insight informs improvements to our grant making as well as feeding into decision-making, and strategic direction. It’s a role that connects information and delivery, helping us fund with confidence and learn with purpose.
Key responsibilities may include:
- Funding Development and Delivery
- Directorate coordination of improvements to our grant making
- Performance Management & Management Information
- Learning & Continuous Improvement
- Grant making Risks & Issue Spotting
- Audit, Oversight & Compliance
- Leadership Collaboration & Strategic Alignment
Interview details:
- Date: Week Commencing 20 July 2026
- Format: Online
- Location: UK-Wide
We have a hybrid approach to working. Work pattern and location will be agreed with the successful candidate. The role can be based at any of our UK offices: Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle, and Newtown.
We will be hosting a briefing session on Monday 6th July, 12pm. To register for the session or for any questions about the recruitment process, please email: [email protected]
How to apply:
Upload your CV in word format and write a supporting statement (1000 words) with the following criteria, we will use this to score your application.
Essential Criteria:
- Experience of leading a multi-disciplinary team.
- Experience of embedding and establishing performance management frameworks.
- Strong knowledge of the funding cycle and implementing grant making best practice.
- Extensive experience of engaging effectively with a range of stakeholders.
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills, with an ability to communicate complex information to all levels of the business.
- Ability to build strong relationships, influence a range of stakeholders and build buy in to bring about changes for users and customers.
- Strong planning, priority setting and organisational skills within a complex environment.
- Forward-thinking and solutions-focused, able to balance immediate operational needs with long-term strategic goals.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Communities in the UK come in all shapes and sizes. National Lottery funding is for everyone – therefore, we are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and we work hard to ensure our funding reaches where it is needed.
We also believe our people should represent the communities, organisations and individuals we work with. That’s why The National Lottery Community Fund is committed to being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. We recognise and celebrate the fact that our people come from diverse backgrounds. We positively welcome applications from people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities or longstanding health conditions, people who are LGBTQ+, and people from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds, as well as people of all ages.
As a Disability Confident Employer, we take a proactive approach in making reasonable adjustments, if needed, throughout the recruitment process and during employment. (This can be related to a physical and mental health condition.)