Development Manager: Culture Programmes
We are excited to offer an excellent opportunity to join the Culture Sheffield team at Sheffield City Council as our developmentlead for Culture Programmes. This pivotal role will support the delivery of our strategic ambitions for culture across the city, championing Sheffield’s Culture Strategy and ensuring it continues to deliver, inspire, engage, and enrich our communities for years to come.
The Role
You will lead on delivering city-wide strategies and programmes that grow and deliver Sheffield’s Culture Strategy. You will play a key part in driving strategic culture investment, developing significant partnerships, and ensuring alignment across stakeholders and delivery partners. Your work will support long-term sector growth, innovation, and sustainability.
Main Duties & Responsibilities
1. Drive forward Sheffield’s strategic culture investment plans to facilitate growth and capacity building across the sector.
2. Lead on the planning, development, and delivery of strategic culture interventions including funding programmes, city-wide initiatives, and cultural infrastructure frameworks.
3. Develop, manage, and nurture partnerships with culture organisations, higher education institutions, community groups, funders (including Arts Council England), and internal council departments.
4. Champion evidence-based cultural policy and practice by embedding robust evaluation, insight, and impact measurement into all activities.
5. Advise and support cultural institutions, event organisers, and practitioners on areas such as organisational development, fundraising and capital planning.
6. Provide strategic leadership and day-to-day management of culture programmes, including programme evaluation and performance monitoring.
7. Coordinate sector stakeholders alongside the Culture Strategy Action Group and other cultural networks to deliver the Culture Strategy, ensuring momentum, collaboration, and accountability across the city.
8. Oversee effective risk management and ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and to a high standard.
9. Manage and develop team members as appropriate, supporting professional development and high-quality delivery.
About You
We are seeking a dynamic, strategic, and collaborative manager with a passion for the positive impact culture can have on civic life and local communities.
Essential Experience & Skills
10. Proven experience in leading culture programmes, policy or sector development, ideally within a local authority or similar context.
11. Strong track record in delivering city-scale culture strategies and programmes from inception through to completion.
12. Excellent partnership development and stakeholder management skills across public, private, and community sectors.
13. Experience in supporting organisational development, fundraising and capital planning in the cultural sector.
14. Experience in commissioning culture organisations, practitioners, and community groups, to deliver arts projects.
Desirable
15. Understanding of evaluation frameworks, data analysis, and good practice in governance and accountability.
16. Excellent communication and influencing skills, including the ability to prepare reports and present to senior leadership and committees.
This is an excellent opportunity for a creative and ambitious culture professional to make a significant contribution to Sheffield’s cultural landscape. If you are committed to delivering lasting impact through culture, we want to hear from you.
For questions about the role please email:
Please note that interviews will ideally be held on Wednesday 25March 2026, we hope to invite shortlisted candidates to interview by Wednesday 18th March.
However if you are not contacted by then, please do wait to hear from the recruitment panel, as the process may have been delayed.
We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.
It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.
Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.
Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.
If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.
Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our