Employment Type Full time 40 hours/wk (will consider part-time & flexible working)
Location Hybrid ·London, UK Regular London & adhoc other UK travel means the role would not suit fully remote working
Team Partnerships & Impact
Seniority Junior, Mid-level
* Closing:11:59pm, 11th Jan 2026 GMT
Job Description
This is an exciting chance to join us at a pivotal moment of growth. You will be a natural relationship-builder, engaging schools and multi-academy trusts across the country with programmes that spark real change in school kitchens and food education.
Who we are
Chefs in Schools is an ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. We focus our efforts in areas of high socio-economic deprivation, where more than a third of children are entitled to free school meals, and diet-related disease is driving further inequality.
We support and train school kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We develop learning and resources, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.
We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.
About you and the role
The purpose of this role is to generate engagement with schools and multi-academy trusts by coordinating outreach, dealing with enquiries, and helping to deliver our engagement activities. You will work closely with the Engagement Manager to implement engagement plans and ensure effective communication with schools and partners.
You will be supported by the Engagement Manager, Co-Director of Partnerships and Impact, and work closely with the Senior Programme Managers, Programme Managers and Communications team.
You will support the Engagement Manager to deliver our school engagement strategy, ensuring alignment with our organisational goals and funded programme commitments. You’ll be a key first point of contact for schools and Multi‑Academy Trusts, assessing their suitability and needs before referring them to the appropriate programme.
Working with the Engagement Manager, you’ll create marketing strategies to generate interest and participation in our programmes through direct mail, digital marketing campaigns, and in‑person at conferences and events and meetings with prospective school partners.
You’ll help build the engagement pipeline, manage onboarding to ensure a smooth handover for training participants and schools to our programme delivery teams.
This role will be primarily based in London, but will include building relationships with schools in locations across the UK as we scale and develop new hubs. You will be joining a dynamic and growing charity who are passionate about transforming food and food education in schools.
You will ideally have experience of the education sector and have strong people skills with the ability to build relationships and manage effective partnerships with external organisations.
The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement but think you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we urge you to apply anyway. We’re dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented communities, to apply.
We want to get to know you at the interview and believe we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and are passionate about creating a welcoming working environment for everyone. We’re continually updating our DEI policy and have a neurodiversity champion. If you need adjustments to the interview process please let us know.
As we work with children and young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.
Key responsibilities:
Work with the Engagement Manager in delivering school engagement plans and activities, ensuring they align with our organisational marketing strategy.
Help build and maintain positive relationships with schools, academy trusts and partner organisations, with direction from the Engagement Manager.
Maintain accurate data records and ensure our contacts database is up to date with relevant school, participant, partner and engagement information.
Maintain and update the engagement pipeline, track enquiries, support follow‑ups, and coordinate the handover to programme teams.
Work with the Engagement Manager to build upon our current onboarding and customer journey for schools and training participants, developing and improving this for future schools and cohorts.
Work closely with the Comms team to market our training programmes to schools and school chefs.
Work with the Engagement Manager to manage incoming enquiries, ensuring timely and effective responses.
Support the delivery of engagement campaigns - helping with content and materials, logistics, scheduling, and coordinating with the Communications team.
Represent Chefs in Schools at national and regional conferences, exhibitions, and networking events to promote our programmes and mission.
Coordinate event logistics such as registrations, attendance tracking, and follow‑up communications.
Provide administrative support within the wider Partnerships and Impact team.
Skills & experience:
You have interest and belief in our mission, to improve child health through improving food and food education in schools.
You’re an excellent writer and communicator with strong presentation and communication skills.
You have experience of maintaining and building relationships with a wide range of audiences.
You have experience of using CRM software.
You have experience with outreach or engagement activity, ideally within education, food, charity or related fields.
You have the ability to listen, understand and interpret customer requirements.
You demonstrate self‑motivation, flexibility and the ability to adapt to an ever‑changing, growing organisation.
Experience or good understanding of the UK educational system is desirable.
You would be joining a friendly, supportive team who work hard, but believe in a healthy work / life balance. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to, and draw on a variety of projects and strategic insights.
We offer 33 days of holiday per year including bank holidays, 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period as well as wellbeing days over the summer school holidays. We also have a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.
We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Smart Platform which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.
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