Events Manager (Paternity Cover)
Up to £60,000 plus great benefits (Work Level 5)
12-month FTC
Manchester city centre, in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and the office, with UK travel also required (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy).

We’re looking for an innovative Events Manager to join us on a 12-month fixed-term contract to develop our events strategy and build more value for our member-owners. In this role, you’ll support our Head of Partnerships & Events to deliver a diverse calendar of internal, B2B, and B2C events across the year. You’ll lead our in-house events team and coordinate with external agencies to deliver a fantastic events programme, while also providing strategic and practical support to the team.

We’ll also look to you to work closely with our partnerships team, offering assistance and guidance to help them effectively manage our portfolio of partners. Our events programme includes a variety of activities, such as flagship charity galas, supplier conferences, awards ceremonies, trade and corporate events, product showcases, and brand activations. This is a great opportunity to play a big part in helping us to use events to attract, engage, and inform our members; ultimately driving our Co-op’s growth.

What you’ll do

• Support our Head of Partnerships & Events to develop and deliver a cohesive events strategy that aligns with our Co-op’s vision and goals
• Organise events that clearly convey the Co-op brand and key business objectives
• Create engaging experiences for colleagues, members, and suppliers, and present ideas to various partners across the wider business
• Take an active role in delivering key events, overseeing everything from briefings and planning to delivery on the day
• Evaluate our current events and explore opportunities to continuously improve them and/or introduce new initiatives
• Manage the budget for each event effectively
• Oversee the entire customer journey for events, collaborating with internal and external partners
• Provide expert advice and guidance to a teams across the wider Co-op to support their events and exhibitions
• Assess and report on event outcomes, and measure their contribution to strategic objectives

This role would suit people who have

• Experience in strategic event management, with hands-on experience of working on and delivering complex and high-profile events (either in house or for an agency)
• A strong understanding of brand communication and audience engagement
• Experience mentoring, leading or supervising cross-functional, internal and external teams
• The ability to apply business and customer strategy to all kinds of events
• Budget management experience, with the ability to drive cost efficiencies and maximise value
• An innovative and collaborative approach, with the ability to re-shape and optimise events
• Excellent project management and communication skills, with the ability to influence and challenge people, at all levels of seniority, inclusively

Why Co-op?

If you’ve got the skills and experience we’re looking for, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services). You’ll also get:

• Private healthcare
• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Wagestream – a money management app that gives you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
• Grocery Aid – 24/7 access to a range of emotional, financial, and practical support services for you and your family

Building an inclusive work environment

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities.

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process.

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-wellbeing.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.

Please be aware this role may close early due to high volumes of applications