Transformation Manager - The Chester House Estate

What will you be doing?

You will lead the next chapter of The Chester House Estate. You’ll build on everything achieved in its first five years and turn it into a long-term future, while protecting the estate’s heritage and public value. Your work will cover five main areas.

Leading the next phase

• Lead delivery of the estate’s development programme, maintaining a clear plan, milestones and risk management, and reporting progress to the project board and Head of Service.
• Drive the phased hybrid / parallel governance model through its defined decision gateways, making sure each decision is well evidenced and properly prepared.
• Progress the establishment of the charitable Trust and linked social enterprise, coordinating specialist legal and governance advice and the staffing and asset-ownership workstreams. Staff will remain employed by the Council.
• Provide Council-side project management of the commissioned consultancy work supporting the transition.

Business planning and finance

• Develop and maintain the estate’s business plan and five-year financial model with Council finance colleagues.
• Test options and scenarios to inform decisions, including the financial implications of the new governance model.
• Build on the estate’s strong income growth to secure its long-term financial sustainability.

Shaping the estate’s future

• Lead the commissioning and delivery of the 5-Year Master Plan. It will set out the strategic vision, capital investment priorities and phasing, income ambitions, heritage and community programming, audience development and key milestones.
• Make sure the Master Plan is co-produced with partners and stakeholders and builds on the visioning work already completed.

Income, audiences and partnerships

• Develop and deliver an income-generation strategy covering fundraising, grants, sponsorship, membership and commercial partnerships, setting and achieving income targets.
• Grow audiences and build strategic partnerships across the heritage, education, commercial and community sectors.
• Build on existing partnerships, including the University of Leicester and Creating Tomorrow College, and develop new relationships with funders, sponsors and investors.

People, programme and reporting

• Manage The National Lottery Heritage Fund-supported programme and other grant-funded activity, including budgets, reporting, acknowledgement, evaluation and financial monitoring.
• Provide leadership and coordination across the estate’s teams and with consultants, keeping strategic priorities on track alongside day-to-day operations.
• Prepare high-quality papers, options and recommendations for the project board, senior officers and elected members.
• Act as an ambassador for The Chester House Estate and North Northamptonshire’s heritage at local, regional and national level.
• Work within all Council policies, including procurement, subsidy control, financial and governance requirements, health and safety, safeguarding and GDPR.

About you

You will be a creative, commercially minded leader who can turn a good plan into real delivery. You’ll be at home with a financial model and a funder report, and just as comfortable walking the site with the team or making the case to councillors. Most of all, you’ll be excited by the chance to shape the long-term future of a much-loved heritage site.

We’d love to hear from you if you have:

• proven experience of leading organisational change or development, ideally in heritage, culture, tourism, charity or the public sector
• strong business-planning and financial skills, including building and interrogating financial models and budgets
• a track record of generating income through fundraising, grants, sponsorship and/or commercial development
• an understanding of charitable structures, trading subsidiaries / CICs and governance
• experience of building partnerships and engaging stakeholders, including senior leaders and funders
• the ability to work independently and manage a complex, multi-strand programme to time and budget
• excellent communication, influencing and report-writing skills, and the confidence to bring teams, senior officers and stakeholders with you
• strategic thinking combined with practical, hands-on delivery
• a relevant graduate qualification or equivalent experience, and a commitment to continuing professional development

It would be great if you also have:

• knowledge of the heritage and cultural sector and its funding landscape, including The National Lottery Heritage Fund
• familiarity with local authority settings, procurement and subsidy control
• experience of setting up or developing a charitable trust or social enterprise
• experience of developing master plans or strategic plans for heritage, cultural or visitor attraction sites
• a project or programme management qualification, such as PRINCE2, APM or MSP

You don’t need to tick every box. If you meet most of the essential criteria and are excited by the role, we’d encourage you to apply.

Our benefits

Here at North Northamptonshire Council, we’re transforming for the better, using all our creativity and imagination to create the best life for our local people.

You’ll find that we have a wide range of careers that may be more surprising than you think!

Why choose us?

We offer a vibrant working environment with:

• a competitive salary
• a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
• lots of opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
• generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
• hybrid and flexible working arrangements, where practicable for service needs to help you with a healthy work-life balance.

We provide a range of great benefits such as an Employee Assistance Programme, an Employee Benefits Scheme, wellbeing support, travel rates at HMRC rates, as well as supporting a range of active Employee Network Groups.

About us

Our Values and Behaviours

Our values define who we are and how we operate, by forming the foundation for how we interact with our customers, colleagues and provide our services. They are also at the forefront of our decision making and delivery and are:

Customer-focused
Respectful
Efficient
Supportive
Trustworthy

Our key commitments help ensure that the priorities we make, now and in the future, maintain the necessary breadth of focus in those areas that we believe matter most.

Disability Confident Employer

We are proud to be a recognised Disability Confident Employer and is committed to providing an inclusive recruitment process and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.  

Our Employment and Disability Service provides bespoke support to individuals facing barriers to employment, helping them work towards their goals to start, stay and succeed in employment. For further information please click here The Employment and Disability Service (EADS) | North Northamptonshire Council

Armed Forces Community 

The council obtained the Gold status award for the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS).

Further information can be found at Jobs and careers | North Northamptonshire Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)