Trust and Finance Officer

UK Antarctic Heritage Trust; High Cross; Hybrid; GBP 29,000; Part time

Job summary

A charitable heritage organisation in Cambridge seeks a Trust and Finance Officer to provide comprehensive administrative support, focusing on finance and charity administration. The role involves managing financial tasks, coordinating meetings for trustees, and supporting HR and retail operations. The ideal candidate is organised, efficient, and a team player, and will need to attend the office weekly.

Benefits

25 days paid holiday

Flexible working hours

Travel expense reimbursement

Qualifications

• Ability to manage multiple priorities effectively.
• Strong administrative skills are essential.
• Experience in a financial or administrative role is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide administrative support for the charity operations.
• Manage financial tasks including invoices and payments.
• Coordinate meetings for the Board and Chief Executive.

Skills

Organisational skills

Numeracy skills

Communication skills

Teamwork

Tools

Xero

Microsoft Office

Job description

Job role

The UK Antarctic Heritage Trust is seeking a Trust and Finance Officer to provide proactive and comprehensive administrative support across the charity. You will work with our team to support the smooth running of our charity with a particular focus on finance and charity administration.

Reporting to the Head of Finance, you will play a key role in ensuring the smooth operation of our charity and trading company by managing effective administrative systems and processes. You’ll be the first point of contact for a range of external enquiries and responsible for overseeing day-to-day financial tasks.

You’ll also support the Board of Trustees and Chief Executive by coordinating meetings—scheduling dates, booking venues, preparing documents and presentations, taking minutes, and ensuring follow-up on actions. This role supports our small team across retail, recruitment, and HR, offering a varied and engaging workload. We’re looking for someone highly organised, efficient, and able to manage multiple priorities across departments. Strong administrative and numeracy skills, excellent communication, and a flexible, hands-on approach are essential. Most importantly, we need a team player with a positive, enthusiastic attitude. Weekly attendance at our Cambridge office is required, so you must be able to commit to that.

Key Responsibilities

You will help support our financial management by:

• Raising purchase orders, processing purchase invoices and expenses and making payments.
• Ensuring appropriate back up is saved within Xero to support accounting transactions.
• Liaising with wholesale customers, raising sales invoices and reviewing ageing debtors following up on payments.
• Routine communication regarding financial information with regulators and banks.

You will support the Board of Trustees and Chief Executive by:

• Arranging Board and committee meetings – securing dates, venue bookings, preparing and collating papers and presentations, taking minutes and facilitating actions.
• Coordinate Trust policy reviews and ensure these are completed in a timely manner
• Organising team meetings, team awaydays and collating and sharing information and notes arising from those sessions

You will support recruitment and HR administration by:

• Preparing documentation and placing adverts.
• Organising interviews both in person and online.
• Processing documentation – new starter details, contracts and updating the HR system.
• Organising and booking staff training as required.
• Arranging DBSs for staff and trustees as required.

You will support our retail activity by:

• Monitoring online stock levels, placing orders for merchandise, and liaising with our fulfilment centre.
• Ensuring our retail management system contains up to date data, by reviewing stock takes, accurately processing orders and updating the database as appropriate.
• Producing quarterly stock take reports.
• Supporting the sales team at Port Lockroy by reviewing the cashbook, liaising with vessels regarding onboard shops and bulk purchases, and monitoring weekly sales for wider circulation to the head office team.

Generally, you will support the work of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust by:

• Monitoring the generic email inbox, office telephone and postbag and either dealing with enquiries or redirecting to the relevant colleague in a timely manner.
• Working flexibly with colleagues in the broader support of the aims of the Trust. Providing ad hoc administrative support as required.
• To ensure at all times the reputation of the Trust is maintained and enhanced through our work and to undertake all of these with UKAHT values at heart and a high regard for both Health and Safety and Equal Opportunities.

Person Specification

Terms

UKAHT is committed to providing excellent terms and conditions of employment for all employees.

Location

This position is based in our Cambridge office, where we operate a hybrid working model - a flexible blend of homeworking with essential office-based work at the office at High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET. You will be required to attend the office at least once per week.

Salary

£29,000 per year, pro rata

Working Hours

30 hours per week, Monday to Friday. Flexible working hours available; to be agreed upon appointment.

You will also be required from time to time to work occasional evenings and weekends for which you will be granted time off in lieu.

Holidays

25 days per year pro rata of paid leave plus the usual public holidays.

Expenses

All reasonable travel costs incurred as part of the role will be reimbursed as per UKAHT policy. Please note we do not pay office commuting expenses.

Probation period

The appointment will be subject to a 6 month probationary period

Notice period

Upon completion of the probationary period, the period of notice will be eight weeks by either party.

How to apply

Our recruitment and selection process aims to select the applicant whose skills, knowledge and experience best match those set out in the person specification and whose attitude and character fit our culture based on our organisational values.

To apply for this post, please follow the links below to upload your CV and either a cover letter or a video (up to 3 minutes duration) which highlights your interest and suitability for this role.

We will not accept applications outside of this process.

Deadline for applications is 00.01am 31st October 2025

Interviews will be held w/c 10th November (online)

Any informal queries about the role may be directed to Claudine Maya, [e-mail]

We look forward to hearing from you.

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WORK FOR UKAHT

We’re a small, collaborative team of full- and part-time staff, freelancers, and agency partners, working remotely across the UK. Our team brings deep expertise in heritage, operations, logistics, fundraising, retail, communications, finance, storytelling, policy and, of course, Antarctica.

Our office is based at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, where we benefit from close collaboration with scientists, operational staff, archivists, and environmental managers, as well as access to meeting rooms, a library, archives, and cafeteria. We’ve refined a hybrid working culture that values the efficiency of online collaboration while prioritising in-person connection. We meet quarterly in Cambridge, and local team members work from the office at least once a week. Your role will require weekly office attendance.

Each year, we recruit and deploy a team to Antarctica to work at Port Lockroy and other sites. Port Lockroy - home to a museum, penguin colony, and post office - is a key visitor destination and a vital part of our heritage and income. Our conservation teams maintain, monitor, and digitally capture our historic sites and artefacts.

We live our values: collaboration, aspiration, innovation, responsibility, and openness. We’re known for our professionalism, approachability, and ambition. What unites us is a shared passion for Antarctica and the responsibility of preserving and sharing its heritage.

We look forward to welcoming you to the team.

Our aim is to bring people closer to the wonder of Antarctica and its stories of human endeavour—promoting deeper understanding of this extraordinary place and the role we all play in protecting it.

We conserve Antarctic heritage by caring for six historic sites on the Antarctic Peninsula, delivering vibrant public programmes, and working with policymakers on heritage conservation. We focus on the layers of human history in Antarctica—especially lesser-known stories—to help current and future generations explore why it matters and protect this unique wilderness. Over the next decade, our ambition is to safeguard British heritage in Antarctica, engage a broader and more diverse audience, and use our expertise to support a sustainable future for this remarkable part of our planet.

UKAHT is committed to equal opportunities and to learning how to increase the diversity of our team. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals, especially those currently underrepresented in the polar regions—including people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, disabled people, and people who identify as LGBTQI+. We also support flexible working arrangements.