Director of Enterprise & Partnership

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The University of Nottingham Students Union
Location:  University Park
Closing Date:  Thursday 08 February 2024
Reference:  SU315

The University of Nottingham Students’ Union seeks an; 

Director of Enterprise & Partnership  

Full Time, 35 hours per week

Permanent Contract

Who are we and what do we do?

Here at the University of Nottingham Students’ Union, we are a connected student community. A brilliant, diverse, ambitious community, 38,000 strong. We’re a diverse community from first-year undergraduates to research students, elected student Officers and staff, to volunteers, pioneers, and we are right at the heart of student life. Together, we are getting involved, making change and supporting each other, making student life at the University of Nottingham the very best it can be.

We are one of the largest Students’ Union in the country, connecting 38,000 student members to share, support and inspire each other while at University. As a registered charity we act as the recognised representative body of all students at the University, and every student is automatically a member. We provide a range of activities, events, campaigning, social enterprise and professional services that benefit and support students to get involved, find support and make change. 

We support students to share and voice their views on academic life and the wider University experience and have strong student leadership in fifteen full and part time elected student representatives. We provide an Advice Service to help students with academic, housing and financial issues and welfare support. There is a diverse range of social, cultural, sporting and recreational activities and many opportunities for personal development.  We work with and support events and activities through the student committees of over 300 societies, 70 sports clubs, media groups, student halls and residents associations and other student communities.

Through our trading company, UNU Services Limited, we run two retail units, a bar, coffee shop, clothing shop, zero-waste shop, print shop and numerous commercial events. Our annual financial turnover, for the charity and trading company combined is in excess of £11m annually.  Our social enterprises are profitable, gifting profits back to deliver UoNSU’s wider charitable objectives and we seek commercial partnerships where mutual benefit can be realised, both in terms of profit and service to students.

If you like working in a vibrant and fast changing environment, you will enjoy working with us at the University of Nottingham Students' Union.

The Role

To be the senior staff lead responsible for the development, leadership and management of UoNSU’s portfolio of social enterprises.  This role needs a creative and innovative thinker who also has a head for business; enabling our social enterprises offer to be cutting edge and profitable to support the rest of the amazing work that UoNSU undertakes for our members. 

Our Social Enterprises are grounded in the values we hold as an organisation and are the cornerstone that enable us to offer great employment opportunities to our members. We also care about what our members want and need, working hard to ensure that the decisions we make are led by our members and informed by our values and principles. We want our members involved in developing policy that helps us steer our approach to the way we deliver our services, and we are looking for a commercial leader who is passionate about delivering results for our members and our organisation.

Our current social enterprise units are established and profitable. This gives us a great foundation to now seek now opportunities and think outside the box. We’re looking to diversify our Social Enterprises and need a leader who isn’t afraid of being bold and stepping into new ventures.  

The successful candidate should have:

• Experience of Senior Commercial management or leadership experience.
• Experience identifying emerging trends and applying commercially.
• Skills in commercial planning and business development, growing revenue and profit contribution as directed by Trading Board.

Our People Offer

When you come to work @UoNSU you bring your skills, experience, talent, commitment and a desire to do a great job.  Our Students’ Union prides itself on being inclusive, working collaboratively and empowering individuals to be the best they can.  In return we want to be an employer where every member of the staff team feels valued, trusted, inspired, and able to grow and to have fun. We welcome people from different cultures, ethnicities and beliefs – this very diversity is vital to our success, it is fundamental to our values and enriches life on campus. We value diversity, promote equity and challenge discrimination. We are on a journey to increase the diversity of our staff team and we would like to encourage applications from disabled, LGBT+ and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds to better reflect the diverse community we serve.

Salary: £51,084 p.a.

We offer a range of employee benefits which support employee wellbeing such as flexi-time, flexible working, hybrid working, generous holiday allowance, generous staff pension, paid Union closure days, wellbeing activities, learning and development opportunities and much more.

For a full role profile, role dimensions and person specification and to apply please go to the Students’ Union website 

https://su.nottingham.ac.uk/about/work-for-us

Closing date: Thurs 8th February 2024

Interviews: Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th March 2024

Please note, applications from agencies will not be accepted at this stage