Assistant Programme Manager

We are recruiting for an Assistant Programme Manager - A Fairer Start About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at

In our A Fairer Start mission, we want every child to have the fairest possible start in life, so they can thrive and realise their potential.

Children born into disadvantage are far more likely to experience poor health, lower earnings, shorter life expectancy and lower levels of happiness than their peers. Closing the gap through targeted support at crucial moments of development is not just good policy, it is good economics: such interventions and system shifts are easily paid for by the long-term benefits of higher economic productivity and lower social costs.

The AFS mission works to develop innovative, scalable solutions to the factors that prevent children from disadvantaged backgrounds from thriving. We work on a range of projects, from applied innovation through to policy design, across the domains of parenting support, early childhood education and care, family income, integrated family support and funding.

This role supports the work of Nesta’s A Fairer Start mission. You will work closely with the Programme Manager, as well as the Mission Director, Deputy Directors and Project Leads to support the day to day running of the Mission and its projects, and to help the team function effectively.

Alongside your core duties, you will have the opportunity to support the mission more

broadly, either through supporting overall delivery of projects, and/or through working as a mission representative for critical organisational priorities such as Nesta’s commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

This role is also a part of Nesta’s community of Programme and Project Managers who work together to design and manage Nesta's processes and ways of working around how we plan, deliver and manage our programmes and projects.

• Working with the Programme Manager to oversee and track project delivery and key milestones, both narrative and financial, to ensure we are accurately delivering against project schedules
• Supporting the Mission Leadership Team to balance and sequence the Mission’s projects and team’s resources, taking advantage of dependencies where possible, to optimise delivery
• Supporting project leads to accurately plan and implement their projects, for example by helping to create budgets and project plans
• Supporting the Programme Manager to deliver continuous improvement projects within the Programme Management Office and/or Mission team.
• Designing and implementing resources and tools to support project leads and teams to improve the way they work
• Overseeing the team calendar, arranging logistics for meetings events and away days, and coordinating the taking of minutes where required
• Acting as first point of contact for the team for Nesta staff and external stakeholders, responding to inquiries or directing them to the right people
• Collaborating with the operations, financial, legal and communications teams when required and helping to translate their requirements to the other members of the A Fairer Start team.
• Supporting administrative processes within the team where needed and encourage and foster self sufficiency across the team around managing their own individual administrative tasks
• Being an active member of Nesta’s community of programme and project managers, contributing to or owning the…