Job Description
The Youth Endowment Fund
Programme Manager
Reports to: Programme and Impact Lead
Salary: £44,200
Contract: 12-month fixed term (Full-Time), dependent on co-funding being secured.
Location: Central London or Hybrid (see below)
Closing date for applications: 12pm Friday 13th March 2026
Interview dates: Week commencing 23rd March 2026
About the Youth Endowment Fund
We re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.
Every child should grow up safe from harm. Yet far too many are drawn into violence or live with the fear of it. This robs them of opportunity and damages whole communities. Even when violence doesn t strike directly, we know that the fear of violence has a terrible effect on children s lives.
The Youth Endowment Fund exists to try and permanently change things. To succeed, we must build an exceptional body of knowledge about violence affecting young people and how we reduce it. This knowledge has to be both rigorous and highly relevant to those making decisions about how to support vulnerable young people. We need to find out what works and what doesn t through evidence synthesis, data analysis and qualitative research into children s lives. We need to convert this into highly accessible content on what works, how delivery organisations need to change their practice and how the systems they operate in need to be reformed. We then need to work with the right people that can make change happen, across systems, policies and practice, to have a real impact on reducing violence affecting children s lives.
Key Responsibilities
Deciding which projects, we should fund and evaluate is key, as is making sure we deliver our funding and evaluations to the highest standards. Our Programme Managers are responsible for identifying, assessing, funding and supporting programmes designed to prevent youth violence.
Programme Managers at YEF come from all walks of life. We look for individuals who may have experience in the youth sector, children s social care, policing, criminal justice, education or how to involve local residents in making decisions about their own neighbourhoods.
As a Programme Manager at YEF, you will work very closely with our evaluation team to make sure we learn from what s being implemented and that the organisations we fund are prepared and excited to work with us to find what works.
To achieve this, you will:
You are this sort of person:
We re also keen to hear from applicants with a strong understanding of evaluation methodologies particularly Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) and experience either directly supporting or overseeing programme delivery within an evaluation context.
It s important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.
All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well.
This position will require a DBS check to be performed, but a record is not a block to performing this role.
Funding and Start Date
This role is subject to funding. We are currently in the process of securing the necessary funding for this work, which is expected to commence in April 2026. The successful candidate will need to be available to start within four weeks of receiving an offer.
Hybrid Working Details
The office is based in Central London, but you don t have to be. Those living in London and within the 32 London Boroughs are expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you ll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month . click apply for full job details
Programme Manager
Reports to: Programme and Impact Lead
Salary: £44,200
Contract: 12-month fixed term (Full-Time), dependent on co-funding being secured.
Location: Central London or Hybrid (see below)
Closing date for applications: 12pm Friday 13th March 2026
Interview dates: Week commencing 23rd March 2026
About the Youth Endowment Fund
We re here to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. We do this by finding out what works and building a movement to put this knowledge into practice.
Every child should grow up safe from harm. Yet far too many are drawn into violence or live with the fear of it. This robs them of opportunity and damages whole communities. Even when violence doesn t strike directly, we know that the fear of violence has a terrible effect on children s lives.
The Youth Endowment Fund exists to try and permanently change things. To succeed, we must build an exceptional body of knowledge about violence affecting young people and how we reduce it. This knowledge has to be both rigorous and highly relevant to those making decisions about how to support vulnerable young people. We need to find out what works and what doesn t through evidence synthesis, data analysis and qualitative research into children s lives. We need to convert this into highly accessible content on what works, how delivery organisations need to change their practice and how the systems they operate in need to be reformed. We then need to work with the right people that can make change happen, across systems, policies and practice, to have a real impact on reducing violence affecting children s lives.
Key Responsibilities
Deciding which projects, we should fund and evaluate is key, as is making sure we deliver our funding and evaluations to the highest standards. Our Programme Managers are responsible for identifying, assessing, funding and supporting programmes designed to prevent youth violence.
Programme Managers at YEF come from all walks of life. We look for individuals who may have experience in the youth sector, children s social care, policing, criminal justice, education or how to involve local residents in making decisions about their own neighbourhoods.
As a Programme Manager at YEF, you will work very closely with our evaluation team to make sure we learn from what s being implemented and that the organisations we fund are prepared and excited to work with us to find what works.
To achieve this, you will:
- Make sure we choose the best organisations to work with by assessing funding applications, critically appraising delivery plans and budgets and getting to know potential grantees. These assessments will help you form recommendations to our senior leadership team about which opportunities to pursue.
- Work closely with grantees, external evaluators and our own evaluation team to ensure that the activity we are funding will be evaluable to the highest standards. This requires you to support and advise grantees on how to work in the context of an evaluation usually, a randomised controlled trial (you don t have to have experience working on a randomised controlled trial in the past, but it helps!).
- Build strong relationships with our grantees and provide them with ongoing management and support through the life of their funding. You will also be responsible for monitoring the performance of grantees and ensuring targets are met and any project risks are effectively mitigated.
- Think carefully about how we find the best projects to fund and evaluate, ensuring we can best find what works to keep children safe. To do this you might need to work with colleagues to spot where there has previously been a lack of evidence about what works (we will help you with this!). You would project manage these projects so they are excellently delivered on time, within budget, and to a high standard. You will help to determine what our commissioning and management processes aim to achieve and design grant application and management processes to achieve it.
- You ll manage our engagement with potential grantees to make sure we are attracting a diverse and promising portfolio of organisations to apply.
- Report to our team and external stakeholders regularly on how well the projects we are funding are going, spotting where grantees need support and coming up with how we can best provide that support.
- Represent the Youth Endowment Fund at external events, including reporting and presenting to our Grants and Evaluation Committee, who approve all our funding decisions.
You are this sort of person:
- You don't want your days to pass without making a difference. You want to play a significant part in a charity that is making a difference.
- You want to work in a job that makes young people safer. This issue matters to you. You don t need extensive experience in grant making, you just have to be committed to learning it. You should be keen to learn about the sectors we work with, the challenges facing young people and what organisations face when implementing programmes.
- You have experience in one or more of the following areas: policing, education, criminal justice, social care or the youth sector.
- You have a strong understanding of challenges that organisations face in delivering projects. You must also be a really good project manager, great at managing and developing people and external stakeholders, energised by tackling complex problems and really care about the YEF s mission to build evidence of what works.
- You have incredible judgement. You are able to reach sound and considered judgements about the viability and suitability of applicants based upon our given criteria, often using detailed written and financial information, and are able to deliver constructive feedback to organisations. You can also identify when things aren t going to plan and be proactive with sharing observations and recommendations.
- You are an optimiser. You look for solutions and think creatively to overcome challenges. You are curious, hungry to learn and always looking for ways to improve processes and increase efficiency and impact.
- You love well-designed systems. You are committed to designing and maintaining the best systems to make sure we manage our commissioning processes well. You know this is critical to effectively managing multiple, large-scale funding programmes and competing priorities.
- You are an excellent communicator. You have the ability to convey information clearly and effectively both in writing and verbally. You understand the importance of strong communication in fast-paced decision-making and thrive in a busy, collaborative team environment.
- You win people over. People tend to warm to you and respect you. You have built good relationships with people at every level inside and outside the organisation and have managed large networks of stakeholders with different interests and priorities. You are excellent at customer service and can professionally handle issues that come up within your grant portfolio.
- You work very well in a team. You are not motivated by being the individual winner. You want the team as a whole to succeed. You don t care who gets the credit as long as things get done.
- You are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. You believe and act in a way that celebrates and encourages a range of experiences, backgrounds and values.
We re also keen to hear from applicants with a strong understanding of evaluation methodologies particularly Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) and experience either directly supporting or overseeing programme delivery within an evaluation context.
It s important to us that the people we hire do not discriminate. We believe in being inclusive and giving everyone an equal chance to succeed. Applications are welcome from all regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, race, sexual orientation, transgender status or social economic background.
All appointments will be made on merit, following a fair and transparent process. In line with the Equality Act 2010, however, the organisation may employ positive action where candidates from underrepresented groups can demonstrate their ability to perform the role equally well.
This position will require a DBS check to be performed, but a record is not a block to performing this role.
Funding and Start Date
This role is subject to funding. We are currently in the process of securing the necessary funding for this work, which is expected to commence in April 2026. The successful candidate will need to be available to start within four weeks of receiving an offer.
Hybrid Working Details
The office is based in Central London, but you don t have to be. Those living in London and within the 32 London Boroughs are expected to be in the office a minimum of 2 days per week. If you live outside of London and work remotely, you ll be expected to work from the London office 2 days per month . click apply for full job details
About Youth Endowment Fund