Work for Think Ahead

We believe everyone living with mental health needs should be empowered to live the life they want and deserve. To achieve this we need a thriving mental health workforce.

We’re proud to have a talented and passionate Head Office team, working towards our vision of a thriving mental health workforce.

Whether your skills lie in project management, communications or finance, the work you do with us will have a direct impact on helping people with mental health needs to live the life they want and deserve.

Any vacancies for our Head Office team will be posted here.

Business Development Manager

  • Location: Central London (Chancery Lane/Farringdon area) with hybrid working from home.
  • Salary: £34,400 per annum plus excellent benefits (£43,000 FTE)
  • Contract: 6 month fixed-term contract, with potential to extend to 12 months. Immediate start is essential.
  • Working pattern: Part-time 30 hours or 4 days per week
  • Closing date:  5pm, Tuesday 16 September

If you have a passion for driving new business growth and supporting new projects, this is an exciting opportunity to join our mental health charity as our new Business Development Manager.

Think Ahead aims to develop a strong and thriving mental health workforce, and you will play a key part in helping us to strengthen the mental health workforce and make a positive impact on people’s lives. We are experts in recruitment, professional training and leadership development for mental health practitioners, ensuring the right people can deliver the right support at the right time.

Through our flagship programme, since 2015, we have recruited and trained 1,000 mental health social workers. We are now extending our reach to ensure that we can support NHS and other employers to recruit and retain key people right across the mental health workforce.

As the Business Development Manager, you will:

  • Secure new work and partners
  • Lead the tendering process
  • Coordinate the writing and submission of new bids
  • Work in partnership with the Head of Partnerships and Development, the Programme Director and wider team to capitalise on new opportunities
  • Provide project management support
  • Develop processes to improve efficiency

Who we are looking for

We are looking for someone with excellent communication, organisational and relationship-building skills who has experience of stakeholder management and project management as well as leading tender submissions and bid writing.  You will have the ability to make decisions with confidence, direct teams whilst working remotely, strong analytical and problem-solving skills and the ability to manage and prioritise a broad workload. You will demonstrate a flexible approach with the ability to work under pressure, together with experience of working with Salesforce or similar database systems. Our ideal candidate will also have a willingness to learn and grow as well as a strong commitment to equality, equity, diversity and inclusion. We offer a supportive working environment which include hybrid working practices.

Where you will be working

Hybrid/homeworking – You’ll be expected to attend the office or London venue at least 2 days a month, with flexibility. You’ll be required to cover your own travel expenses to office/London venue.

What we can offer you

We offer excellent employee benefits, including generous annual leave entitlement (28 days) plus additional office closure over Christmas, enhanced family friendly leave, flexible working around our core hours of 10am to 4pm, a matched pension scheme with up 7% employer contributions, an employee assistance programme and more.

We are currently funded by DHSC until August 2027.

How to apply

Download the full job pack, including job description, here

Please provide a CV and a supporting statement (max 2 pages) outlining your fit for the role based on the person specification. Please send these to hr@thinkahead.org.

Key dates

    • Closing date:  5pm, Tuesday 16 September
    • Interview date: Monday 22 September and Tuesday (afternoon) 23 September via Teams

Immediate start essential.

Our benefits

We know that choosing a job goes beyond pay. When working at Think Ahead, you’ll be surrounded by a great team of people driven by the same motivation for mental health.

Our benefits are a way of recognising and rewarding employees for the important work they do. Our benefits offer is regularly reviewed to ensure that we have the best offer we can.

Office & commuting

  • Bright, modern office a short walk from Chancery Lane and Farringdon, on-site cafe and regular building-wide socials with other tenants.

Pay & pension

  • Transparent pay structure.
  • Auto-enrolment in our Aviva pension scheme.
  • Up to 7% employer contributions dependent on matched contribution from employee.

Family life & work

  • Enhanced occupational maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave policies and time off for IVF/fertility appointments.
  • Flexible working options.

Holidays & time off

  • 28 days annual leave per annum plus UK bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time employees).
  • Entitlement rising to 29 days (pro-rata for part-time staff) after three years’ service.
  • Office closure between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.
  • Opportunity to carry over up to five days (pro rata for part-time employees) into the following annual leave year.
  • Support for external volunteering including two paid volunteering days.

Community & wellbeing

  • Access to mental health first aiders.
  • Staff away days.
  • Access to an employee assistance programme through Health Assured and We Care.

Flexible working

  • Hybrid working environment, with expectation staff will be in the office roughly one to two days per week.
  • Core hours of 10.00am to 4.00pm to enable flexibility within the workday to accommodate individual preferences.
  • Provision of equipment needed to work comfortably at home and on the move.
  • Flexible working options to support those with caring responsibilities.

Health

  • Free eye test every two years and contribution towards cost of any glasses required due to work.
  • Generous paid sick leave based on service.
  • Life assurance – flat £100k benefit.

Diversity and inclusion

We strive to promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion throughout our work and our culture. We know the value of diversity and are actively seeking to be as inclusive as possible and bring more people from different backgrounds into our organisation.

We are committed to creating a safe and empowering work environment that is inclusive to all our colleagues and partners.

We are transparent about what needs to change; we’ve worked hard to make improvements to our processes and have plans to keep building on our progress so far. Some of this work includes:

Recruitment processes

We are committed to continuously improving our recruitment processes to make them as inclusive as possible.

We always do our best to accommodate reasonable adjustments where they are needed to participate fully in the recruitment process and will work with you to find out how we can best support you.

EDI Action Group

Our cross-organisational equality, diversity and inclusion action group leads on recommending improvements in this area.

Any staff member is welcome to join the group.

Employer accreditations

We have made a number of other commitments including being a living wage employer and a commitment to being a disability confident employer.

We are also a member of the Employer’s Network for Equality and Inclusion.

Our values

Everyone who is part of Think Ahead is guided by our values. They were developed in collaboration with the people we work most closely with – including mental health and social work professionals, people with lived experience of mental ill-health, and supporters of our work.

In pursuing our goals, we each aim to be:

  • Inclusive
  • Genuine
  • Determined
  • Inspirational
  • Effective

We embrace working with anyone who shares our goals and our values, and we aim to promote equality and diversity across all areas of our work – from the way we recruit mental health social work trainees and head office staff, to what we teach on our flagship programme and how we design and deliver it.

We believe that working with a diverse range of people and honouring different perspectives is not only the right thing to do, but it also adds tremendous value – and is fundamental in working towards a society where everyone living with mental health needs can live the life they want and deserve.

Find out more

For further information please contact:
hr@thinkahead.org