Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

Hours: 30 hours a week (0.8 x Full Time Equivalent) - we are open to 37 hours a week (1 FTE)

Salary: £55,000 per annum pro-rata plus pension contribution 

Place of work: Home based with travel in the UK for monthly team meetings and external events as needed

Flexible working: Eating Better is a flexible working organisation with core hours and flexibility around this. A 4-day week proposal is under consideration by the Board of Trustees

Contract: 1 year - stand alone or secondment

Who we are 

Eating Better is a movement for change, bringing together 70 organisations from farming, environment, animal welfare, health and social justice to transform how we produce and consume food. The Eating Better mission is to catalyse the transition towards sustainable diets in order to address the interconnecting health, economic, food security, nature and climate change crises. We focus on increasing plant consumption and production with corresponding reduction in meat and dairy, ensuring better standards for remaining animal agriculture, as laid out in our Better by Half Roadmap. We are a collaborative alliance, working to make UK food and farming fairer and more sustainable. Our aim is to enable everyone to eat nourishing, affordable food, including more plants, and less and better meat and dairy, which is produced in ways that benefit people, animals and the planet.

We are a registered charity (no.1175669) and company (no. 9772128) governed by the Board of Trustees. 

We receive funding support from alliance members, trusts and foundations and individuals. For a list of our current funders and to read our funding statement, click here.

The role 

The interim Executive Director will lead the alliance and our team of 6 in the effective running of the organisations and the development and delivery of our strategy. You will: 

• Consolidate, oversee and deliver the 2025 and 2026 strategy for Eating Better
• Ensure a resilient, high performing and happy team
• Maximise the alliance’s impact with governments and industry to make the change needed for more plants and less and better meat
• Promote the alliance's profile and impact, and create bridges with other organisations and movements, including in the Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland 
• Diversify our supporter base and continue to develop our fundraising strategy securing sustainable funding commitments.

The person 

We are looking for someone with passion to help develop and deliver our collective influence and impact. 

You will have experience of building strong relationships across organisations (ideally civil society), designing and delivering an effective strategy, alongside a track record in developing relationships with funders. 

You will bring interest and experience in justice, anti-racism and equity, diversity and inclusion in organisation and leadership.

Having knowledge of sustainable food systems and civil society stakeholders in the UK would be an advantage.

Main responsibilities 

The purpose of this role is to lead Eating Better and the development of the alliance and its impact, specifically to: 

• Work with the Trustees, alliance members and staff to develop, deliver and monitor Eating Better’s 2025-2026 strategy, priorities and impact
• Lead our talented team, supporting their development journeys and delivery of work.
• Guide Eating Better’s journey on Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion within the organisation and across the alliance
• Deliver a movement building strategy to hold effective relationships across the alliance and to grow the network of supportive organisations and individuals
• Lead on Eating Better’s fundraising strategy to support the diversification of income sources. Develop and maintain strategic partnerships with current funders from Trusts and Foundations and alliance members, and lead on development with new funding relationships.
• Provide oversight to the development and delivery of projects 
• Ensure effective performance of the charity, including good financial planning, management of the organisation and reporting to the Board. Monitor progress, and provide the Board with progress reports, including finance reports and information to enable decision-making and good governance
• Represent the alliance in the media, at senior-level meetings and with government

Essential 

• Excellent organisational leadership and facilitation skills including a minimum 5 years experience in managing teams within civil society organisations - experience in building culture in remote teams welcomed
• Excellent movement building skills particularly across sectors and different organisations 
• Demonstrable evidence of track record in developing exciting projects and relationships with funders
• Excellent speaking, writing and presentation skills
• Good financial management skills 
• Good IT and social media skills 

Personal attributes

• Ability to work on own initiative, manage personal workload, set realistic timetables and meet deadlines 
• Ability to create effective and supportive team working  
• Willingness to work collaboratively across organisations and teams towards shared goals and ambitions 
• Strong interest and knowledge in environmental sustainability, farming, food equity and/or public health 
• Demonstrable commitment to Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 
• Ability to be a credible and respected spokesperson for Eating Better 
• Adaptable and agile approach to work 
• Flexibility to travel within the UK and attend regular meetings in London. Ability to travel to Europe if needed

Access and inclusion 

The food systems and environmental sustainability sector is one of the least diverse sectors particularly  in terms of ethnic diversity and so applications are encouraged from people who identify as having protected characteristics. Eating Better is committed to a continuous journey of learning about and promoting Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) with a particular focus on embedding food and racial justice into our work. We are in the process of developing a JEDI strategy. In the meantime our DEI statement can be read here. 

Our recruitment process is intended to be based on merit, fairness and inclusion. To avoid unconscious bias or discrimination in considering your application, please do not include your name, age or address on your CV. We will ensure your name is not sent to the individuals in the shortlisting process. Your details will be saved anonymously on our drive for our panels to consider and deleted after the recruitment process is finished.

We will make necessary adjustments to ensure the recruitment process is equally accessible to all. Please feel free to contact us if you require an adjustment to be made either in the application or the interview process.

Application information

If you would like to speak more about the role, please do not hesitate to contact the current Executive Director, Sarah Wakefield or the Vice Chair of Trustees, Liz Gadd

Send (by email) to comms@eating-better.org: 

• your CV or examples of your experience (written, audio or video)
• a thoughtful covering letter OR video OR audio message demonstrating how your skills and experience are right for the role (no more than 2 pages if written, or 10 mins if video or audio) 

The deadline for applications is 9am Thursday 22nd May. 

We will invite candidates to interview by the end of Thursday 29th May. A short task to prepare a visual or audio presentation, or answers to pre-set questions will be set for the interview. We are only able to inform applicants who are shortlisted for interviews. 

Online interviews will be held on Thursday 5th June. 

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs