Senior Performance Manager

£50,000 - £58,000 per annum plus benefits

Reports to: Portfolio Performance Lead

Directorate: ​Marketing, Fundraising & Engagement​

Contract: ​Permanent​

Hours: ​Full time 35 hours per week​

Location: ​Stratford, London​ ​Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)​

Closing date: 2 November 2026 23:55

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.
Recruitment process: 2 stage competency-based interview, including a task at final stage.
Interview date: w/c 9 November 2026

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.  

We are looking for a proactive and experienced performance professional to join us as Marketing Performance Senior Manager in our Data, Insight and Performance team.

Cancer Research UK has a vision of a world where everyone can live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer. To help achieve this, we’re strengthening how we engage and inspire people, evolving the way we use insight, data and digital tools to deepen supporter relationships and grow our impact. 

Join us at Cancer Research UK as we step into an exciting new chapter of transforming how we engage supporters and accelerate progress towards beating cancer. 

As a Marketing Performance Senior Manager, you'll act as a strategic performance partner, supporting the teams responsible for some of our most important ways of raising funds, including regular donations, lottery, cash giving and in-memory donations. You'll bring together audience, marketing and financial performance to tell a clear and compelling story of delivery against plans. Working cross-functionally with Finance and specialist teams, you'll provide insight, forecasting, scenario modelling and performance recommendations that drive decision-making, inform investment choices, shape future plans and unlock opportunities for growth.

If you’re passionate about turning performance data into action and influence, we’d love to hear from you.

What will I be doing?  

•  Develop and communicate the function performance story (including audience performance) across hub & spoke (and key audiences) working in partnership with other performance managers, Finance and DIP specialist colleagues to ensure a consistent view

• Facilitate an effective performance management process, establishing function level performance measurement frameworks and enabling regular review of performance, identifying risks and opportunities to ensure insights drive decision making and action in year and during the annual planning process

• Lead forecasting and financial performance management processes, partnering with Finance, and Marketing teams, including annual budget planning, in-year reforecasting, scenario modelling and identification of risks and opportunities to optimise income, expenditure and return on investment.

• Ensure business stakeholders have easy access to a centralised, consistent, independent, and accessible view of performance which is up to date and relevant.

• Partner with marketing, fundraising and finance teams to set campaign and audience performance targets, ensuring plans are underpinned by robust forecasting, insight and evidence-based assumptions. Monitor campaign and portfolio performance to optimise marketing effectiveness and deliver income ambitions

• Lead on working with Senior Programme and Senior Product Managers (or equivalent roles) to prioritise, commission and deliver the programme of PM activity.

• Work with DIP colleagues to identify and enable opportunities to reduce manual work to focus effort on insight and performance storytelling and to identify opportunities for innovation through data to improve our processes, offer and engagement with supporters.

What skills will I need?  

This role could suit someone with a background as a Marketing Performance Manager, Portfolio Performance Manager, Fundraising Performance Manager or Business Performance Manager. Whatever your background, you'll be able to demonstrate

• Proven experience working with finance, data, insight, and planning or proposition teams to build a unified and trusted view of performance, including setting up frameworks and facilitating regular reviews.

• Strong understanding of performance measurement techniques across marketing, audience engagement, and organisational effectiveness.

• Experience of financial performance management, including budget planning, forecasting, reforecasting and scenario modelling, with the ability to translate financial and operational performance into actionable recommendations.

• Ability to synthesise performance insights across multiple propositions and audiences to support strategic planning and decision-making.

• Experience contributing to organisational change, particularly in evolving performance culture and embedding audience-led approaches.

• Understanding of data governance principles and ability to identify and address data literacy needs across teams.

• Ability to translate complex data into strategic recommendations and compelling narratives for non-technical audiences.

• Proficiency in tools such as Excel, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalent, with strong analytical and problem-solving

• Confident communicator with a proven ability to influence stakeholders at all levels, including in challenging or ambiguous situations.

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination  

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism   

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people  

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.

How do I apply?

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you fairly and objectively.

Please note that applications can’t be edited once submitted.

Owing to the nature of this position, any offer of employment for this role will be subject to a satisfactory basic DBS check.

For more information on this career opportunity please visit our website or contact us at recruitment@cancer.org.uk.  

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.

About Us

We’re the world’s leading cancer charity, dedicated to saving and improving lives with our research.

We work to reduce the impact of cancer on people’s day-to-day lives through our research, influence and information.

We are beating cancer – step by step, day by day. Our work means that people with cancer live better lives through earlier diagnosis and kinder, more effective treatments. Find a purposeful career that will empower you to grow and collaborate with like-minded experts.