Be part of our journey, supporting students to lead on and learn for sustainability.

Job vacancies

Working for SOS-UK

We’re looking for talented people who want to do something different to support our student leaders.

At SOS-UK we strive to make our community a welcoming, caring and enthusiastic one, fuelling ambition with opportunities and support to help us all achieve our personal and professional goals.

In return for your passion and experience we offer the flexibility for work-life balance, a competitive salary for the non-profit sector and excellent holiday allowance. We’re open to considering requests for job-share or part-time working.

Pay and benefits

We believe we have a fair and transparent pay framework. Our salary bands and pay gaps are public.

We have always paid at least the real living wage and we do not offer any unpaid/non-credit-bearing placement opportunities or work experience.

We offer up to 6% pension contributions, annual cost of living increases and annual spine-point salary increases until the top of your band.

Other benefits include:

  • Support and paid time for learning and development in your role and to support onward progression (if desired)
  • Cycle-to-work scheme
  • Eye care vouchers
  • Free flu vaccinations
  • Work laptop and home-office equipment where needed
  • Health Cash Plan and Employee Assistance Programme via HSF
  • A minimum of 27 days paid annual leave, plus bank holidays (pro rata for part-time staff or those on contracts for under 12 months). Additional leave is awarded for each year of service, up to 30 days
  • Discretionary paid leave over the Christmas break for everyone
  • Various other leave allowances, as agreed with line managers, including for (but not limited to):
Parents, carers and dependents: support and understanding for family emergencies and caring for dependents
Employee volunteering: up to three days paid leave per year which you are   encouraged to take - pro rata for part-time staff
Medical appointments: reasonable time off during working hours including time for fertility treatment and gender reassignment
Religious or belief-related obligations
Study

Maternity and childcare pay:

We offer:

  • Reasonable paid time off for ante-natal care
  • Shared parental or paternity leave allowances
  • 39  weeks’ maternity pay (linked to length of service and earnings) which is     paid as follows:
  • Occupational  Maternity Pay (OMP) for 28 weeks, with the first 16 weeks at full pay; followed by 12 weeks at half pay, (dependent on the employee returning to work at the end of their maternity leave)
  • Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) for 11 weeks at the lower rate
  • Up to 52 weeks’ maternity leave
  • Additional protection against unfair treatment, discrimination or dismissal as provided by the Equality Act 2010
  • The right for the employee to return to their original job or a suitable alternative role (depending on the length of maternity leave taken)
  • Allowance of £120 per child per month under 5 and £35 per child aged 5-13 is provided to contribute towards the cost of childcare. The allowance is pro rata to hours worked 

Diversity and equal opportunities

We’re totally committed to equality of opportunity for all. We are striving to be an organisation where all staff are able to thrive and be their whole-selves. As part of our action on inclusion, diversity and equality, we encourage applications from individuals from underrepresented backgrounds and groups, including but not limited to, age, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.

At SOS-UK, our staff team is currently under-representative of people of colour, LGBTQIA+ people and disabled people. We are committed to ensuring we are representative and inclusive, so we particularly encourage you to apply if you represent these characteristics. We have an opt-in guaranteed interview scheme for candidates who declare a disability and/or are a person of colour and meet the essential criteria of the role profile.

We are always happy to speak to candidates informally about the role before applying and encourage you to do so.

We run liberation learning sessions for all staff and there are staff networks for individuals with shared protected characteristics.

On our job applications, we do not ask as standard whether applicants have any spot or unspent convictions (under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974). Applicants will still be requested to complete a DBS check if the role requires one.

Wellbeing and work-life balance

SOS-UK adopts an open and flexible approach to working arrangements, with many of the current team opting to be home-based, with those that prefer the location and environment of an office space able to work in one of NUS' offices around the UK.

To further support positive work-life balance, all staff are offered a generous holiday and leave allowance as described above. Additionally, whilst working overtime is not encouraged for staff wellbeing, in cases where this is necessary a time-off-in-lieu (TOIL) policy is in place.

SOS-UK has a mental health working group and designated mental health first aiders who act as the first point of contact for staff who need support with their mental health.

Should you have family/caring responsibilities, we have a whole package of family-friendly policies that provide for flexible working; additional paid maternity and paternity leave; childcare pay; and leave for family emergencies.

Commitment to sustainable practices

As an organisation devoted to furthering sustainable development, it's important we practice what we preach: 

  • To minimise our carbon emissions, our travel policy favours overland/water     travel, and we abstain from internal flights within Great Britain;
  • Our default option is for video-conferencing/calling when communicating within the team and externally;
  • We offer the Cycle to Work scheme for employees;
  • When organising internal and external meetings and events, we opt for     vegetarian or vegan catering from local suppliers; and
  • We're also conscious of whom we work with and for, reviewing individual clients, funders and partners' ethical practices and reputation, as per our partnerships policy.

Please find our Employee Privacy Notice here.
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If you have questions about working at SOS-UK, drop us an email.