Development Manager

Sheffield City Council HQ; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a local government authority in Sheffield as a Development Manager for Heritage, leading strategic initiatives to enhance the city's historical richness. You’ll drive investments, manage partnerships with heritage organizations, and ensure impactful delivery of cultural programs. This role offers an opportunity to directly influence the heritage landscape within an inclusive and supportive work environment, emphasizing diversity and community engagement. Ideal candidates will demonstrate experience in heritage programme management and stakeholder collaboration.

Benefits

Generous holiday entitlement

Flexible working arrangements

Commitment to diversity and inclusion

Qualifications

• Proven experience in leading heritage programmes, ideally within a local authority.
• Strong track record in delivering city-scale heritage strategies.
• Excellent partnership development skills across public, private, and community sectors.

Responsibilities

• Drive Sheffield's strategic heritage investment plans.
• Lead on planning and delivery of heritage interventions.
• Develop partnerships with heritage organisations and funders.

Skills

Leading heritage programmes

Stakeholder management

Partnership development

Fundraising

Data analysis

Job description

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Development Manager: Heritage

We are excited to offer an excellent opportunity to join the Culture Sheffield team at Sheffield City Council as our lead for Heritage. This pivotal role will support the delivery of our strategic ambitions for heritage across the city, championing Sheffield’s unique historic environment and ensuring it continues to inspire, engage, and enrich our communities for years to come.

The Role

You will lead on delivering city-wide strategies and programmes that celebrate and invest in Sheffield’s diverse heritage. You will play a key part in driving strategic heritage investment, developing significant partnerships, and ensuring alignment across stakeholders and delivery partners. Your work will support long-term sector growth, innovation, and sustainability.

Main Duties & Responsibilities

• Drive forward Sheffield’s strategic heritage investment plans to facilitate growth and capacity building across the sector.
• Lead on the planning, development, and delivery of strategic heritage interventions including funding programmes, city-wide initiatives, and heritage/cultural infrastructure frameworks.
• Develop, manage, and nurture partnerships with heritage organisations, higher education institutions, community groups, funders (including National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England), and internal council departments.
• Champion evidence-based heritage policy and practice by embedding robust evaluation, insight, and impact measurement into all activities.
• Advise and support heritage institutions, event organisers, and practitioners on areas such as organisational development, fundraising and capital planning.
• Provide strategic leadership and day-to-day management of heritage programmes, including programme evaluation and performance monitoring.
• Coordinate sector stakeholders alongside the Sheffield Heritage Partnership Board to deliver the Joined Up Heritage Strategy, ensuring momentum, collaboration, and accountability across the city.
• Oversee effective risk management and ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope, and to a high standard.
• Manage and develop team members as appropriate, supporting professional development and high-quality delivery.

About You

We are seeking a dynamic, strategic, and collaborative manager with a passion for the positive impact heritage can have on civic life and local communities.

Essential Experience & Skills

• Proven experience in leading heritage programmes, policy or sector development, ideally within a local authority or similar context.
• Strong track record in delivering city-scale heritage strategies and programmes from inception through to completion.
• Excellent partnership development and stakeholder management skills across public, private, and community sectors.
• Experience in supporting organisational development, fundraising and capital planning in the heritage or cultural sector.
• Experience in commissioning heritage organisations, practitioners, and community groups, to deliver heritage projects.

Desirable

• Understanding of evaluation frameworks, data analysis, and good practice in governance and accountability.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, including the ability to prepare reports and present to senior leadership and committees.

This is an excellent opportunity for a creative and ambitious heritage professional to make a significant contribution to Sheffield’s heritage landscape. If you are committed to delivering lasting impact through heritage, we want to hear from you.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community. We value diversity and inclusion and are committed to providing flexible working arrangements wherever possible. We are a Disability Confident Employer and we guarantee to interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria for the role.

For questions about the role please email [e-mail]

Please note that interviews will ideally be held on Friday 30th January, we hope to invite shortlisted candidates to interview by Friday 23rd January. However if you are not contacted by then, please do wait to hear from the recruitment panel, as the process may have been delayed.

We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.

It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.

Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.

Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.

If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.

Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our New job evaluation process to be introduced at Sheffield City Council | Sheffield City Council