Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a collaborative, people-focused and commercially minded individual with experience in fashion or charity retail to join us as a Store Manager in our Islington shop in London. In this role, you will lead a vibrant, fashion-conscious volunteer team, shape a distinctive retail offer, and create a welcoming, inclusive space that reflects Islington's diverse community while raising vital funds to change children's lives. 

About Us 

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard, delivering lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach. 

About the role 

As Store Manager for our Islington shop, you will lead the day-to-day running of a medium-sized, high-performing shop, located on a busy and competitive high street with a strong fashion presence. You'll balance retail excellence with local identity, ensuring the shop stands out among neighbouring boutiques and charity shops through its curated fashion offer, inclusive culture and strong community connection. 

You'll focus on enabling and inspiring a diverse team of around 50 committed, fashion-conscious volunteers, taking time to understand what motivates them, recruiting for the right skills, and creating an environment where people feel valued, empowered and proud of the impact they're making. Alongside this, you'll drive commercial performance, maximise income opportunities, and act as a passionate ambassador for Save the Children within the Islington community. 

In this role, you will 

• Build, lead and inspire a motivated volunteer team, championing volunteer recruitment, engagement and development to ensure the effective running of the shop. 

• Deliver retail excellence by managing operational efficiencies, following best practice guidance and maintaining high standards across all areas of the shop. 

• Drive income and profitability by understanding financial performance, analysing results and taking action to maximise sales across all product categories. 

• Shape and maintain an engaging shop proposition, using your understanding of fashion, local trends and community insight to influence product, layout and offer. 

• Act as an ambassador for Save the Children, building strong connections within the local community and promoting the shop and our mission. 

• Ensure proactive risk management, safeguarding and compliance with all SCUK policies, procedures and regulatory requirements. 

About you 

To be successful, it is important that you have: 

• Previous leadership experience managing staff or volunteers, ideally within fashion or charity retail. 

• A strong understanding of customer service and the ability to create a welcoming, inclusive retail environment. 

• Confidence using IT systems, including MS Office and systems for reporting and volunteer management. 

• The ability to build and maintain positive working relationships with people from a wide range of backgrounds. 

• A self-motivated, resilient and flexible approach, with the ability to work at pace in a fast-moving retail environment. 

• A results-driven mindset, with experience of working to targets, reviewing performance and adapting to change. 

• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values. 

To learn more about the position, please review the How Our Shops Operate and Job Description in the attached Documents. 

Location and Ways of Working

This role will be based on-site in our Islington, London shop.  We're looking for someone able to work 5 days (35 hours) per week to include weekend working. 

What we offer you 

We promote flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, and wellbeing both at work and beyond, and offer a wide range of benefits designed to reward your hard work and inspire you to help improve the lives of children every day. 

Some of the benefits you can expect include: 

• Generous Annual Leave – Starting at 27 days per year (pro rata for part-time employees) increasing with service up to 32 days, plus public holidays and our annual 'Save the Children Day'. 
• Family Leave – Up to 39 weeks of maternity/adoption pay (including up to 21 weeks full pay) and paternity/adoption leave of 10 weeks full pay (plus statutory entitlement).  
• Special Leave – Up to 10 days paid leave per year (pro rata) for urgent or exceptional personal circumstances, without using annual leave.  
• Volunteer Leave – Up to 3 days paid leave per year to support volunteering and give back. 
• Pension & Life Assurance – Helping you plan for the future with up to 7% employer pension contributions. 
• Employee Discounts – Access thousands of deals across groceries, retail, tech, travel, fitness, and more.  
• Health & Wellbeing Support – Including access to a 24/7 Virtual GP and Employee Assistance Programme and Counselling, eye care support, and seasonal flu vaccinations. 

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: 

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce, and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where structural inequality is actively addressed, and all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can thrive. 

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and are especially interested in hearing from people with diverse and intersecting identities such as lived experience of poverty, people of faith, people of colour, people with disabilities, with experience of migration and/or refugee status, care-experienced people, the LGBTQIA+ community and individuals with experience living in diverse families.  

We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. We know that different voices working together will enable us to do our work better, improving the lives of children around the world. 

Salary Structure: 

Save the Children is committed to paying staff in a fair and equitable way and will benchmark all salary offers in line with the pay of existing staff. To see our full offer please visit this link: Save the Children | Careers

Interview Expenses: 

Candidates should note that unfortunately it is not our policy to reimburse expenses accrued when attending interviews at Save the Children UK unless you are requested to attend an interview in an alternative location to where the role is based.

Pre-employment Checks:

Any Employment with Save the Children UK will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• A satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International Criminal Record Check (If applicable)
• Receipt of satisfactory references - As a committed member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, as part of our onboarding process, Save the Children UK will undertake a minimum of 2 references, and any additional references required to collectively cover the last 5 years of your employment history.
• Proof of eligibility to work in the national location for this role

If you have any questions, we have an FAQ section here.

For anything else you can email us on: careers@savethechildren.org.uk