Programme Coordinator - Challenge Works

Nesta; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 29,000 - 43,000; Full time

Job summary

Nesta is seeking a Programme Coordinator to support programme delivery, milestones, procurement, and stakeholder engagement from its London base. The role requires strong organisational and communication skills and experience with project management tools.

The successful candidate will work in a hybrid setup with 2 days per week in the London Blackfriars office, contributing to event delivery, meetings, and cross‑department collaboration within Nesta.

Qualifications

• Solid organisation, prioritisation and time management to coordinate multiple projects.
• Initiative and drive, proactively identifying tasks to enable delivery of the programme.
• Experience using project management software such as Asana or willingness to learn.
• Experience delivering outputs to tight deadlines across multiple projects.
• Good attention to detail and high standards of accuracy.
• Experience organising and running events.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with Programme Managers and Assistant Programme Managers to enable smooth day-to-day programme execution.
• Monitoring milestones, evaluation and finance to manage budgets and deadlines; flag action points to the Programme Manager.
• Develop, maintain and revise administrative systems underpinning prize delivery.
• Carry out end-to-end procurement activities, including contracts and Salesforce updates.
• Develop key documents relating to prize delivery.
• Support internal and external meetings, including coordinating meeting times and spaces, and writing minutes.
• Work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective delivery of the prizes.
• Innovator liaison management and supporting external stakeholder relationships including clients.
• Stakeholder landscape mapping and upkeep of stakeholder databases.
• Manage the prize inbox and liaise with finalist teams.
• Support communications activities: newsletters, social media, website updates.
• Help create events, workshops, and deliver them to a high standard.
• Work with diverse Nesta departments (financial, legal, communications).
• Take on ad-hoc projects and tasks to support the team.
• Occasional international travel and out-of-hours work.

Skills

Project coordination

Asana

Salesforce

Excellent communication

Event management

Tools

Asana

Salesforce

Excel

PowerPoint

Word

Job description

The Role

Programme Coordination

• Work closely with Programme Managers and Assistant Programme Managers to enable smooth day-to-day programme execution.
• Monitoring of milestones, evaluation and finance to keep check of project budgets and deadlines. Flagging action points to the Programme Manager when necessary.
• Develop, maintain and revise (as necessary) administrative systems that will underpin the delivery of the prizes.
• Carry out procurement activities end-to-end, including development of contracts, legal documents and updates to the Salesforce system
• Development of key documents relating to the delivery of the prizes.
• Support internal and external meetings, including coordinating meeting times and spaces, and writing minutes.

Stakeholder Management

• Work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective delivery of the prizes.
• Innovator liaison management and supporting other external stakeholder relationships including clients.
• Stakeholder landscape mapping and upkeep of stakeholder databases
• Manage the prize inbox and liaise with finalist teams

Communications & Event support

• Support communications activities of various challenge prizes, for example, managing monthly newsletters, social media and updating websites.
• Help create opportunities for public engagement activities.
• Help to create events, workshops, and deliver them to a high standard.

General

• Work with diverse Nesta departments, including financial, legal, and communications.
• Take on ad-hoc projects and tasks to support the team as necessary.
• Occasional international travel and out-of-hours work.

The Person

Strong programme and client coordination

• Solid organisation, prioritisation and time management skills with the ability to coordinate multiple projects simultaneously.
• Initiative and drive, proactively identifying tasks that need to be actioned to enable effective delivery of the programme.
• Ability to coordinate and control aspects of large projects, along with general office support/administrative capacity.
• Experience of using project management software such as Asana, or a willingness to learn.
• Experience of working to tight deadlines, delivering high-quality outputs across multiple projects and tasks.
• Good attention to detail and high standards of accuracy.
• Experience of organising and running events.

Strong communication skills

• Strong written skills - e.g. professional written communication with external stakeholders, drafting marketing materials.
• Strong verbal skills - e.g. able to ask questions and seek clarification when required, confident in speaking to a range of stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with a wide range of high-profile partners, clients, team members and stakeholders.

Excellent computer skills

• Ability to use project management platforms, databases and programmes (Asana, Salesforce, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint & Excel and/or Google Docs, Slides and Sheets) to support the successful delivery of a prize
• Ability to spot gaps where there might be potential tech solutions to drive efficiencies.

What we offer

Hours

37.5 hours per week

Salary

£29,300 - £42,500 (offers are expected to be made towards the bottom of the band)

Location

Hybrid with 2 days per week in our London Blackfriars office

Term

Permanent