Strategic Programme Lead - Reach

Macmillan Cancer Support; London Borough of Lambeth; Hybrid; GBP 77,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days holiday

Pension matched 7.5%

Learning and development

Flexible working patterns

Life insurance

Retail discounts

Job summary

Macmillan Cancer Support is seeking an exceptional Strategic Programme Lead to steer the Reach programme, delivering a connected and patient-centred portfolio. This fixed-term role focuses on impact, governance and learning across multiple partners.

You'll lead complex workstreams with senior stakeholders, champion equity-by-design, and translate strategy into a clear roadmap while navigating dependencies and risks to improve outcomes for people affected by cancer.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering large-scale, complex programmes in healthcare or patient-centred environments.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity with strategic clarity and practical delivery.
• Strong influencing and relationship-building skills in matrix organisations.
• Experience embedding equity and inclusive practices into programme design.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership across the Reach Programme to meet outcomes.
• Translate strategy into a clear programme roadmap, manage dependencies and risks.
• Lead integration across workstreams and ensure alignment.
• Oversee governance, assurance, risk management, and reporting.
• Support workstream leads to maintain momentum and strategic focus.
• Build relationships with senior leaders, partners and lived experience.
• Champion equity-by-design throughout delivery.
• Use evidence and learning to influence decisions and improve outcomes.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Programme management

Stakeholder management

Equity by design

Influencing skills

Job description

Strategic Programme Lead - Reach
Contract type: Fixed term contract for 12 months
Full time: 34.5 hours - we are open to a conversation about how you work these hours
Location: Hybrid between home and one of our UK offices - London, Shipley or Glasgow
Salary range: £77,000 - £85,000

About us

At Macmillan you'll find talented people working together to do whatever it takes to support people living with cancer. We're going all out to find even better ways to help even more people who need our support. Our values are at the heart of who we are and everything we do, inspiring our thinking and guiding our actions.

Our organisational strategy sets out how we’ll fight even harder to make every pound raised count for even more. With your help, we’ll transform cancer care for good.

About the role

At Macmillan Cancer Support, we're committed to ensuring everyone living with cancer gets the support they need, especially those who face some of the greatest barriers due to who they are or where they live.

We're looking for an exceptional Strategic Programme Lead to provide leadership for our ambitious Reach Programme. This is a high-profile role responsible for driving a complex portfolio of work designed to make our services better connected, easier to navigate, and more effective for people affected by cancer.

Working closely with the Accountable Director, Executive Sponsor, Heads of Service and a range of internal and external partners, you'll hold the strategic overview of the programme, ensuring workstreams are aligned, delivery remains focused on impact, and learning is continuously translated into better outcomes for people living with cancer.

What you'll be doing

As Strategic Programme Lead, you will:

• Provide strategic leadership across the Reach Programme, ensuring delivery against agreed outcomes and success measures.
• Translate strategic ambition into a clear programme roadmap, managing dependencies, risks and trade-offs.
• Lead programme integration across multiple workstreams, ensuring activities are connected and mutually reinforcing.
• Oversee programme governance, assurance, risk management and reporting.
• Support and challenge workstream leads to maintain strategic focus and delivery momentum.
• Build strong relationships with senior leaders, partners and people with lived experience.
• Champion equity-by-design principles and inclusive approaches throughout programme delivery.
• Use evidence, insight and learning to influence strategic decisions and improve outcomes.

Who we’re looking for

You’ll be a strategic leader with a track record of delivering large-scale, complex programmes in customer, public service, healthcare or patient-centred environments.

You’ll bring:

• Significant experience leading complex programmes or portfolios with multiple stakeholders.
• The ability to lead through ambiguity while balancing strategic clarity with practical delivery.
• Strong influencing and relationship-building skills, particularly in matrix organisations where success relies on collaboration rather than direct authority.
• Experience embedding equity, participation and inclusive practice into programme design and delivery.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills and credibility with senior leaders and external partners.
• A strong evidence-based approach, using insight and learning to shape decisions and demonstrate impact.

In return, we offer a range of benefits including:

• 25 days holiday plus flexible bank holiday options, increasing by 1 day every year of service up to 30 days
• Pension matched up to 7.5%
• 120+ learning and development offers, with access to external professional qualifications
• Flexible working patterns, such as compressed hours, flexibility to work earlier or later around our core working hours of 10am-4pm
• Holiday buying and selling scheme, life insurance, free wills, retail discounts and much more

Recruitment Process

Application deadline: 23:59 on Wednesday 4th November
Interview dates: First stage interviews will take place online on the week commencing 21st November (exact dates to be confirmed)

To ensure fairness and consistency to select the best candidate for this role, all our applications are anonymised up until an interview has been confirmed.