Senior Programme Officer
Posted 3 hours 9 minutes ago by Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara)
Permanent
Not Specified
Temporary Jobs
Not Specified, United Kingdom
Job Description
Job Title: Senior Programme Officer, Active Fellows
Line Manager: Team Leader, Active Fellows (Deputy Fellowship Programme Manager in Team Leader s absence)
Salary: £36,062
Start date: 1 November 2025
Contract type: Permanent
Application deadline: 16 October 2025. Please note we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis
Benefits:
• Challenging and rewarding work, always life-changing, sometimes lifesaving
• Competitive salary
• Team and individual training opportunities
• Commitment to performance and personal development
• Hybrid working, home and office (minimum 2 days each week in the office)
• Eight hours each day Monday Friday, with flexible working by arrangement around core hours of 10am 4pm
• 25 days plus Bank Holidays annual leave entitlement
• 8% employer pension contribution
• Convenient office location at Elephant and Castle, close to Tube (Bakerloo and Northern lines) and bus routes
Role Purpose Statement
The Senior Officer, Active Fellows plays a key role in delivering high-quality support to Cara Fellows. This includes leading casework, coordinating Cara s mentoring scheme to support Fellows placements, and contributing to strategic improvements across the Fellowship Programme. The role combines direct support to Fellows, operational oversight and delivery of casework, and collaborative leadership to support Cara to uphold its mission.
Organisational Background
The Council for At-Risk Academics is a UK-registered charity founded in 1933 under the leadership of William Beveridge, to rescue academics suffering persecution under the rise of Nazism and facilitate their continued work in safety. Sixteen Cara Fellows from the 1930s and 1940s became Nobel Laureates, and many more innovators in their fields, including, Nikolaus Pevsner, Lise Meitner and Karl Popper. A number of Cara s founders and Council members also personally provided places and/or funds to help individual academics; and Cara, known in the 1930s as the AAC, later the SPSL, was closely involved in the successful effort in 1933 to bring to London the Warburg Institute art library, which had been prohibited by the Nazis, and six of its staff. The Fellowship Programme is the continuation of the rescue mission operation started in 1933.
Cara has been a lifeline to academics at risk for over 90 years, as and when world events have placed them in the line of fire: Hungarian Uprising, Cold War, Apartheid South Africa, Iran, Latin American Juntas, Vietnam, Kosovo, DRC, Rwanda, Sudan, Zimbabwe etc. and, more recently Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Cara support is typically framed as temporary sanctuary offered at times of heightened risk.
Cara Objectives To assist academics who have been, or are, or are at risk of being, subject to discrimination, persecution, suffering or violence on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, to relieve needs among them and their dependants and ensure that their specialist knowledge and abilities can continue to be used for the benefit of the public.
To advance education by supporting academics and their educational institutions in countries where their continuing work is at risk or compromised, to ensure that such academics and institutions can continue to fulfil their critical role as educators for the public benefit.
This is a critical time to join our dedicated and friendly Fellowship Programme team as we expand our capacity to support at-risk academics from the Middle East, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Russia and many other countries.
Key Responsibilities
Fellowships
Casework
Manage a caseload of up to 50 Cara Fellows, providing tailored support.
Maintain accurate and GDPR-compliant records of casework activity.
Liaise with Fellows to coordinate support and escalate complex cases to the Team Leader as required.
Monitor, research and update visa guidance to reflect changes in complex immigration regulation.
Keep up to date with relevant information regarding immigration laws, e.g. visas, legal procedures, etc.
Liaise with independent legal advisors where necessary.
Finance
Work with colleagues in finance to ensure accurate and timely payments to Cara Fellows and non-Fellowship related payments.
Promptly issue relevant invoices.
Understand financial processes on Salesforce and Pleo and update systems appropriately.
Contribute to robust financial processes.
Support Mechanisms
Mentoring Scheme
Project Lead for the Cara Mentoring Scheme.
Coordinate rounds, delegate tasks to the team as required, and oversee delivery.
Recruit mentors and mentees, and decide on a cap on number of participants if required.
Lead on partnerships with organisations working in the mentoring world.
Monitor the relevant budget and flag issues to the Team Leader.
Lead on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for the Scheme, suggesting improvements to this, and ensuring accurate data collection and reporting.
Webinars and Workshops
Lead on developing ideas for webinar topics relevant to the needs of Cara Fellows.
Organise these webinars, contacting speakers and attendees, all with the close support of the Programme Assistant.
Monitor and evaluate the success of these events, through clear feedback mechanisms.
Aim to deliver approximately three webinars per year, subject to team capacity.
Lead on the delivery of workshops for Cara Fellows with external partners, managing Fellow participation.
Contribute to the development of accessible resources to share openly within the Cara network.
Strategic Development
Alumni Engagement and Impact Reporting
Play a key supporting role to the Team Leader in improving Cara s alumni engagement.
Contribute to developing Cara s alumni network, with involvement in strategic discussions on interacting with alumni.
Keep track of Cara Fellows media preferences and support the Team Leader in inviting relevant Fellows to participate in public events and media engagements.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Support M&E activities across the Fellowship Programme, suggesting improvements to data quality and reporting.
Ensure accurate data entry on Salesforce and flag inconsistencies to relevant team members.
Assist with compilation of required information, statistics and reporting to Cara s Council & F&GPC meetings.
Management Responsibilities
Deputise for Team Leader
Cover for the Team Leader when required lead team meetings, make decisions on cases for the team, provide general guidance and leadership.
Assist the Team Leader with line management within the team, mentoring junior staff and contributing to continued team development.
Approve the Active Fellows team s working hours.
Provide input on policy and process improvements.
Show adaptability and willingness to take on additional work when needed.
Training/Inductions
Play a leading role on inducting new staff to the Active Fellows and wider Cara team.
Train new staff on key processes and offer continued guidance on difficult/complex cases and tasks.
Partnerships
Support key strategic partnerships in Cara s Universities and Research Network.
Support the Team Leader in organising webinars and events for Cara s network representatives at host institutions across the UK.
Ad Hoc Responsibilities
Show adaptability and willingness to take on additional work when necessary.
Support Fellowship Programme with ad hoc responsibilities.
Responsibilities also include related activities that might arise in relation to the Fellowship Programme as required by the Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive & Fellowship Programme Manager, Deputy Fellowship Programme Manager, or Team Leader, Active Fellows.
Person Specification Senior Programme Officer, Active Fellows:
Qualifications
Essential:
Essential:
Essential:
Line Manager: Team Leader, Active Fellows (Deputy Fellowship Programme Manager in Team Leader s absence)
Salary: £36,062
Start date: 1 November 2025
Contract type: Permanent
Application deadline: 16 October 2025. Please note we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis
Benefits:
• Challenging and rewarding work, always life-changing, sometimes lifesaving
• Competitive salary
• Team and individual training opportunities
• Commitment to performance and personal development
• Hybrid working, home and office (minimum 2 days each week in the office)
• Eight hours each day Monday Friday, with flexible working by arrangement around core hours of 10am 4pm
• 25 days plus Bank Holidays annual leave entitlement
• 8% employer pension contribution
• Convenient office location at Elephant and Castle, close to Tube (Bakerloo and Northern lines) and bus routes
Role Purpose Statement
The Senior Officer, Active Fellows plays a key role in delivering high-quality support to Cara Fellows. This includes leading casework, coordinating Cara s mentoring scheme to support Fellows placements, and contributing to strategic improvements across the Fellowship Programme. The role combines direct support to Fellows, operational oversight and delivery of casework, and collaborative leadership to support Cara to uphold its mission.
Organisational Background
The Council for At-Risk Academics is a UK-registered charity founded in 1933 under the leadership of William Beveridge, to rescue academics suffering persecution under the rise of Nazism and facilitate their continued work in safety. Sixteen Cara Fellows from the 1930s and 1940s became Nobel Laureates, and many more innovators in their fields, including, Nikolaus Pevsner, Lise Meitner and Karl Popper. A number of Cara s founders and Council members also personally provided places and/or funds to help individual academics; and Cara, known in the 1930s as the AAC, later the SPSL, was closely involved in the successful effort in 1933 to bring to London the Warburg Institute art library, which had been prohibited by the Nazis, and six of its staff. The Fellowship Programme is the continuation of the rescue mission operation started in 1933.
Cara has been a lifeline to academics at risk for over 90 years, as and when world events have placed them in the line of fire: Hungarian Uprising, Cold War, Apartheid South Africa, Iran, Latin American Juntas, Vietnam, Kosovo, DRC, Rwanda, Sudan, Zimbabwe etc. and, more recently Iraq, Turkey, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Cara support is typically framed as temporary sanctuary offered at times of heightened risk.
Cara Objectives To assist academics who have been, or are, or are at risk of being, subject to discrimination, persecution, suffering or violence on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, to relieve needs among them and their dependants and ensure that their specialist knowledge and abilities can continue to be used for the benefit of the public.
To advance education by supporting academics and their educational institutions in countries where their continuing work is at risk or compromised, to ensure that such academics and institutions can continue to fulfil their critical role as educators for the public benefit.
This is a critical time to join our dedicated and friendly Fellowship Programme team as we expand our capacity to support at-risk academics from the Middle East, Sudan, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Russia and many other countries.
Key Responsibilities
Fellowships
Casework
Manage a caseload of up to 50 Cara Fellows, providing tailored support.
Maintain accurate and GDPR-compliant records of casework activity.
Liaise with Fellows to coordinate support and escalate complex cases to the Team Leader as required.
Monitor, research and update visa guidance to reflect changes in complex immigration regulation.
Keep up to date with relevant information regarding immigration laws, e.g. visas, legal procedures, etc.
Liaise with independent legal advisors where necessary.
Finance
Work with colleagues in finance to ensure accurate and timely payments to Cara Fellows and non-Fellowship related payments.
Promptly issue relevant invoices.
Understand financial processes on Salesforce and Pleo and update systems appropriately.
Contribute to robust financial processes.
Support Mechanisms
Mentoring Scheme
Project Lead for the Cara Mentoring Scheme.
Coordinate rounds, delegate tasks to the team as required, and oversee delivery.
Recruit mentors and mentees, and decide on a cap on number of participants if required.
Lead on partnerships with organisations working in the mentoring world.
Monitor the relevant budget and flag issues to the Team Leader.
Lead on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for the Scheme, suggesting improvements to this, and ensuring accurate data collection and reporting.
Webinars and Workshops
Lead on developing ideas for webinar topics relevant to the needs of Cara Fellows.
Organise these webinars, contacting speakers and attendees, all with the close support of the Programme Assistant.
Monitor and evaluate the success of these events, through clear feedback mechanisms.
Aim to deliver approximately three webinars per year, subject to team capacity.
Lead on the delivery of workshops for Cara Fellows with external partners, managing Fellow participation.
Contribute to the development of accessible resources to share openly within the Cara network.
Strategic Development
Alumni Engagement and Impact Reporting
Play a key supporting role to the Team Leader in improving Cara s alumni engagement.
Contribute to developing Cara s alumni network, with involvement in strategic discussions on interacting with alumni.
Keep track of Cara Fellows media preferences and support the Team Leader in inviting relevant Fellows to participate in public events and media engagements.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Support M&E activities across the Fellowship Programme, suggesting improvements to data quality and reporting.
Ensure accurate data entry on Salesforce and flag inconsistencies to relevant team members.
Assist with compilation of required information, statistics and reporting to Cara s Council & F&GPC meetings.
Management Responsibilities
Deputise for Team Leader
Cover for the Team Leader when required lead team meetings, make decisions on cases for the team, provide general guidance and leadership.
Assist the Team Leader with line management within the team, mentoring junior staff and contributing to continued team development.
Approve the Active Fellows team s working hours.
Provide input on policy and process improvements.
Show adaptability and willingness to take on additional work when needed.
Training/Inductions
Play a leading role on inducting new staff to the Active Fellows and wider Cara team.
Train new staff on key processes and offer continued guidance on difficult/complex cases and tasks.
Partnerships
Support key strategic partnerships in Cara s Universities and Research Network.
Support the Team Leader in organising webinars and events for Cara s network representatives at host institutions across the UK.
Ad Hoc Responsibilities
Show adaptability and willingness to take on additional work when necessary.
Support Fellowship Programme with ad hoc responsibilities.
Responsibilities also include related activities that might arise in relation to the Fellowship Programme as required by the Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive & Fellowship Programme Manager, Deputy Fellowship Programme Manager, or Team Leader, Active Fellows.
Person Specification Senior Programme Officer, Active Fellows:
Qualifications
Essential:
- Bachelor s degree or equivalent
- Strong analytical and numeracy skills
- Master s degree or equivalent
Essential:
- Understanding of UK immigration options for displaced academics
- Experience managing sensitive casework and maintaining accurate records
- Experience coordinating projects, events, or support schemes
- Familiarity with basic financial processes (e.g. payments, budget tracking)
- Confident use of Microsoft Office and Salesforce or other CRM systems
- Awareness of global issues affecting at-risk academics
- Experience coordinating mentoring programmes or similar initiatives
Essential:
- Cultural sensitivity and commitment to Cara s mission
- Ability to supervise and mentor junior staff
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Strong attention to detail and time management
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively
- Adaptability, integrity, and problem-solving ability