Alumni Engagement Lead

Maternity Cover – Mid July 2024 to September 2025

Are you passionate about fostering excellence in design and production within the furniture and furnishing industry? Do you thrive in cultivating relationships and driving growth? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to make a meaningful impact as our Corporate Membership and Events Manager.

The Furniture Makers’ Company is the City of London livery company and charity for the furnishing industry.  With more than 300 individual members and around 45 corporate members, The Furniture Makers’ Company is the only membership association in the UK furniture and furnishing industry that brings together people and companies from all sectors of the wider trade, including beds, fabrics, kitchens, carpets and floor coverings, for networking, fellowship and supporting our livery and charitable activities.

Our role is to sustain a thriving British furnishing industry with a talented workforce delivering high quality products, which supports those in need from within its ranks and those who have served it in the past. We achieve this through three pillars of activity – education, excellence and welfare.

As our Corporate Membership and Events Manager., you will have responsibility in overseeing our programme of excellence activity as well as supporting the successful growth of corporate membership.

Excellence

As the furniture and furnishing industry’s preeminent organisation, we recognise excellence and the highest standards in British design and production through our coveted Guild Marks - the Bespoke Guild Mark, Design Guild Mark and Manufacturing Guild Mark. Each Mark raises the profile of British design, innovation and manufacturing, helping to build a thriving industry for the future, as well as bringing prestige and publicity for award holders.

With the support and direction of committees of volunteers, you will be responsible for managing each of these very different award schemes - strong marketing, events management and administration skills are essential.

Corporate membership

Our corporate members and corporate supporters represent some of the most significant companies from across all sectors within the UK furnishing industry. It is through their generosity that we can ensure we have a robust and thriving industry, where we always look after our own, where developing young talent and embedding skills are paramount and excellence is the norm. You will be joining us as a very exciting time as we look to increase our corporate members by 50%. You will be working closely with the corporate membership committee and CEO to facilitate the recruitment of new members and manage the relationship with existing members.

Key Responsibilities:

Corporate Membership

• To manage relationships with existing corporate members and enable smooth running of the process.
• Keep a track on leads, chase leads and organise meetings
• Budget management – invoicing and tracking all incoming and outgoing payments
• Organise overall programme of events and activities

MGM

• To manage relationships with existing holders and recruit new holders
• To manage invoice cycles for all existing holders
• To manage re-inspections/re-issue of certificates
• Budget management – invoicing and tracking all incoming and outgoing payments.
• Organise key events
• Overall Project management.

DGM

• To manage the awards cycle – call to entries, judging days, award ceremony
• To maintain and build the database
• Budget management – invoicing and tracking all outgoing payments and income.
• Be the subject matter expert for the DGM
• Overall project management 

BGM

• Conduct all the administration for the ongoing BGM entry and judging process.
• To manage relationships with existing holders and recruit new holders
• To ensure all application and re-inspection fees are paid
• To manage re-inspections/re-issue of certificates
• Budget management – invoicing and tracking all incoming and outgoing payments
• Overall project management.

Personal Attributes and Skills

• Must have three years’ experience of Marketing and Events 
• Excellent time management skills and ability to work on multiple projects at once.
• Understanding of how to communicate to different audiences. 
• Must be able to work in a small team, enthusiasm and willingness to learn are essential.  
• Dependable and reliable: able to produce consistently high quality and quantity of written work under pressure.
• Good personal organisation and presentation; first class communication skills.
• Good prioritisation to reach decisions quickly and effectively with an excellent eye for detail.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the furnishing or furniture industry  
• Sales process experience

Interested candidates should submit their CV and a cover letter outlining their qualifications and why they're a good fit for this role. We look forward to reviewing your application and discussing how you can contribute to our team's success.

Please note that we are not a UK visa sponsoring organisation. Therefore, you will need to be able to demonstrate that you have the right to work in the UK if you wish to apply for this role.

We are committed to ensuring transparent and non-discriminatory recruitment and employment. We champion equal opportunities and welcome applications from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristic.