Prospect Development Specialist
£45,000 - £52,000 plus benefits
Reports to: Senior Prospect Development Manager
Directorate: Strategy & Philanthropy
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: Sunday 19 th Ju ly 23:55
Recruitment process: Multiple stage interview process – initial s creening call followed by a competency - based interview via MS Teams with a f inal s tage competency interview with a presentation task.
Interview date: w/c 6 th July 2026
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.
At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.
The Prospect Development Specialist plays a central role in delivering strategic prospect development capability across high - value philanthropy at Cancer Research UK.
Sitting within the Prospect Development function, this role provides senior level specialist expertise in pipeline management, insight and judgement to shape pipeline strategy, prioritisation and high - value engagement across Leadership Giving and £1m+. Working in close partnership with Associate Directors, senior fundraisers and leadership, the post holder will ensure that Prospect Development activity is proactive, insight-led and focused on identifying and advising on the highest-value opportunities, supporting strong pipeline growth and a strategic approach to cold prospect identification and engagement planning.
The role also has a core governance and oversight function, leading on due diligence quality, consistency and process development and contributing to key strategic initiatives across the directorate, including Data & AI and Children and Young People (CYP) priorities.
As a part of the wider CRUK fundraising efforts, the Philanthropy Directorate is one of the largest and most successful high - value fundraising teams in the UK. An ambitious and innovative team of 60 talented philanthropy professionals, our focus is the £400m ‘ More Research, Less Cancer’ (MRLC) campaign which has four key priorities: the Francis Crick Institute, Cancer Grand Challenges, Translation & Innovation, and our Future Leaders’ programme. We’ve recently reached the milestone of £200m.
This is a key role, working in close partnership with the Senior Prospect Development Manager, to embed a more strategically led, consistent and high-impact Prospect Development model, with shared ownership of complex work, prioritisation and decision support.
Pipeline Strategy & Prioritisation
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.
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 .
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.
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