Head of Community Engagement | Leeds University Union

Peridot Partners; Leeds; On-site; GBP 43,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous holiday

Union closed days

Learning & development

Holiday buy-back

NUS TOTUM card

Venue discounts

Discounted travel

Gym membership

Job summary

Leeds University Union is seeking a Head of Community Engagement to lead a brand-new department, uniting three teams into a single connected service. You will drive the strategy across 370+ student groups, community events and student voice initiatives to create real impact across the student body.

The role requires building high-level partnerships with the University, accommodation providers and community partners, while ensuring activities are inclusive, safe and well-budgeted.

Qualifications

• Experience leading teams and change in complex organisations.
• Ability to develop strategic partnerships and deliver through others.
• Experience managing budgets and safeguarding responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership across 370+ student groups, community events and programmes.
• Build influential partnerships across University of Leeds, accommodation providers, city partners and sector bodies.
• Ensure activity is inclusive, affordable, safe and evidence-led with oversight of budgets and risk.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Partnership development

Budget oversight

Risk management

Stakeholder engagement

Job description

Home / Roles / Head of Community Engagement | Leeds University Union

Head of Community Engagement Leeds University Union

Lead a new department that helps 38,000 students find their people, their place and their purpose at LUU.

Leeds University Union is looking for an inspiring Head of Community Engagement to lead a new department at the heart of its 2026-2030 strategy.

Bringing together student groups, community events and programmes, and student voice and organising, you will unite three teams around a clear vision and help students connect, lead and make change happen.

This is an opportunity for a transformational leader who can turn strategy into delivery, build trusted partnerships and create impact for more than 38,000 students.

You do not need to come from a students’ union, but you will need to understand the power of community and member-led organisations.

Who we are

Leeds University Union is a charity that helps more than 38,000 students love their time at Leeds.

Located at the heart of campus, LUU is a place where students meet people, make friends, access support, explore interests, lead communities and create change.

Our culture is built around three values: inclusive, empowering and fun. These values shape how we work, how we make decisions and how we want students and colleagues to experience the Union.

We are entering an exciting period as we deliver our 2026-2030 strategy, focused on making university life affordable, helping students be their best selves, shaping their future and building community.

About the role

This is a brand new department and a brand new role. We are looking for a leader who can set the vision, outcomes and priorities for LUU’s new Community Engagement department, bringing three teams together as one connected and high-performing service.

Key duties will include:

• Providing strategic leadership across 370+ student groups, community events and programmes, student voice and organising, student leadership, sport and physical activity.
• Building influential partnerships across the University of Leeds, accommodation providers, city partners, sector bodies and the wider community.
• Ensuring activity is inclusive, affordable, safe and evidence-led, providing confident oversight of budgets, safeguarding, health and safety, freedom of expression and a varied risk portfolio.

This is a full-time, permanent role based at Leeds University Union. The successful candidate will be expected to work on campus for a minimum of three days each week, with up to two days working from home.

Visible leadership is important. The portfolio includes student-led events, trips, sport and other activities that can require flexibility outside normal office hours, as well as participation in LUU’s on-call safety arrangements.

Salary: £47,258 per annum. Benefits include generous holiday and Union closed days, learning and development, holiday buy-back, an NUS TOTUM card, venue discounts, and discounted travel and gym membership.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for an inclusive and transformational leader who can bring people together, give a new department a shared identity and translate an ambitious strategy into visible impact for students.

You may be working in higher education, a membership or community organisation, youth or volunteer development, sport, participation or another complex not-for-profit environment.

You will bring experience of leading teams and change, developing strategic partnerships and delivering through others.

You will understand how to support volunteers or member-led communities, use insight to improve services and manage significant budgets and resources.

You do not need to be the technical expert in every area. What matters is your judgement, your ability to ask the right questions and your confidence in giving assurance on risk, safeguarding and complex activity.

You will be collaborative, calm under pressure, unafraid to innovate and able to build relationships with students, elected leaders, colleagues and senior partners.

Welcome from the Director of Student Engagement

Dear Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in the role of Head of Community Engagement at Leeds University Union. I am delighted you are considering applying.

LUU is much more than a building. We are a charity led by, and accountable to, our 38,000 student members, and each year we are amazed by their enthusiasm, ideas and achievements.

You would be joining us at an exciting moment. We are embarking on our new 2026–2030 strategy, built around four ambitions for our members: to help students make their time at Leeds more affordable, to be their best self, to find their community, and to shape their future. To deliver it, we are creating a new Community Engagement department, bringing together our student groups, our community events and programmes, and our student voice and organising work into one connected offer, because engagement at LUU happens through community.

This is a brand new department, and a brand new role. Whoever leads it will have a rare opportunity to build something from the ground up, uniting three teams into one coherent offer and shaping how it works for years to come. At the heart of it is a simple idea: that students engage through the communities they create, the experiences they share and the change they make together, and that when we back those communities well, every student can find their people, their place and their purpose at Leeds.

As Head of Community Engagement, you would lead that department. You would set the strategy across our 370+ student groups, our community events and programmes, and our student voice and organising work, line managing three managers and holding overall responsibility for the department’s people, budgets and impact. You would lead our most significant partnerships, including our Leeds Sport Partnership with the University, steward our democratic engagement and student leadership offer, and act as senior risk owner across a broad and varied portfolio. As a senior leader at LUU, you would help deliver our whole strategy and all four of its impact areas.

We are looking for someone who combines strategic thinking with a genuine focus on delivery, comfortable in a complex, fast-paced environment of competing priorities and able to focus where it creates the most impact. Someone at home building partnerships at the most senior levels, and equally visible and present with their team and with our students. Someone who understands what drives engagement and how community is built, and who creates a culture of high performance, high standards and real ambition.

If that sounds like you, please do read the information attached and apply. We are really excited to hear from you.

Best of luck,

Doug Muzawazi
Director of Student Engagement

About the Leeds University Union

Leeds University Union exists to help students love their time at Leeds. We are an independent charity and a democratic, member-led organisation working with more than 38,000 students at the University of Leeds.

From our building at the heart of campus, students can access advice and support, join communities, take part in activities, use welcoming social spaces and shape the issues that affect their lives.

Community is central to the Leeds student experience. Our students lead more than 370 clubs, societies, sports clubs and media groups. They create events, volunteer, develop skills, represent their peers and organise for change.

LUU helps those communities thrive by providing practical support, funding, development, safe systems and platforms through which students can be heard.

Our 2026-2030 strategy is organised around four areas of impact: making university life affordable, helping students be their best selves, shaping their future and building community. Every department has a part to play, guided by our long-standing vision and our values of being inclusive, empowering and fun. The new Community Engagement department is a major step in delivering that strategy. It brings student groups, community events and programmes, and student voice and organising into one connected offer. We want it to be ambitious, welcoming and responsive to a diverse student body, including international, disabled, postgraduate, mature, commuter and sober students.

Leeds University Union is committed to creating an inclusive workplace and a recruitment process in which candidates can participate fully and be assessed fairly.

We know that people have different access needs and that a standard process does not work equally well for everyone. Peridot and LUU will work with candidates confidentially to agree reasonable adjustments.

Support can include:

• Application information and materials in an alternative format
• Accessible interview spaces and step-free arrangements where required
• Adjustments for hearing, visual, communication or sensory needs
• Interview topics or information about the assessment process shared in advance
• Additional time, rest breaks or changes to the format of an assessment
• Other adjustments discussed with you on an individual basis

Interviews will take place in LUU building on 1st or 2nd floor. We have staircases and lifts for users of wheelchairs to anyone requiring a lift.

Applicants are welcome to contact Peridot in confidence at any stage to discuss an adjustment or any support that would help them participate fully.

LUU wants to broaden representation at senior leadership level and welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly those whose perspectives and lived experiences are currently underrepresented.

LUU’s culture is grounded in being inclusive, empowering and fun. The organisation welcomes difference in identity, background, experience and thought.

Our recruitment policies

We’ve developed some policies to help inform our recruitment – read them here:

Recruitment selection processes are based on evidence of competence stated in the person specification and in relation to our values.

Timetable

Closing date: 9 a.m. Monday 9th November 2026
Candidates informed of outcome: Wednesday 11th November 2026
First stage interviews, online: Monday 16th November 2026
Final stage interviews, in person at LUU: Tuesday 24thNovember 2026

Peridot and Leeds University Union are committed to promoting equality and diversity. To help us raise awareness and support a culture that is diverse and recognises and develops the potential of all, we need to appreciate the profile of candidates who apply for positions.We will send you an equality monitoring survey at the point of receiving your application and at the time of placement. This ensures that our processes remain inclusive and equitable throughout, and provides us with important data to help us showcase our impact.

The information will be treated confidentially and anonymously and will help us to support our commitment to fair recruitment practice. All information provided will be held in the strictest confidence and will not be shared with anyone, in line with the Data Protection Act 2018.

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