Events Manager

Job details

• Location: London (work from home) + travel across Greater London + occasional travel abroad.
• Team: Events / Community Engagement / Fundraising & Membership
• Contract: 12 month fixed term (with opportunity to renew dependent on performance and funding)
• Salary: £31,000 – £35,000 (depending on experience)
• Hours: Full-time (some evenings/weekends)

Who we are

We want to create a world filled with wildlife, and we do this through pioneering community engagement and Rewilding Our Future. For us, rewilding is about rewilding people as well as rewilding nature, reconnecting communities to the natural world and restoring functional ecosystems through habitat restoration and species reintroductions.

From our work to reintroduce beavers to London for the first time in 400 years, to restoring river catchments with water voles, we focus on interventions that create real ecological change on the ground. We support landscape-scale recovery too, from bringing back iconic species such as white storks and working on wider habitat restoration across East Anglia.

The need

This role offers an exciting opportunity for an organised and proactive events professional to lead the planning and delivery of our third international rewilding conference, taking place in Copenhagen in spring 2027. This flagship event will bring together leading voices in rewilding and nature recovery and is a major moment for Citizen Zoo’s work and profile.

Alongside the conference, you’ll work closely with our Membership Growth & Engagement Manager to develop and deliver a programme of events throughout the year, from talks and lectures to community days and paid speaker nights, high profile fundraising events, designed to grow our audience, strengthen brand partnerships, and generate income. This is a hands-on role at the heart of a small, dynamic team, ideal for someone who loves making ambitious events happen and wants their work to directly support nature recovery.

Who you are

You are a confident, organised events professional who can hold a complex flagship project while also running a rhythm of smaller events that grow over time.

You love building an event from the ground up: shaping the purpose, building a plan, pulling together partners, managing budgets and suppliers, and delivering an excellent audience experience. You’re equally comfortable with high-level project management and the practical on-the-day details.

You’re commercially minded (without losing the mission), you think in audiences and journeys, and you enjoy working cross-team, especially with communications and membership colleagues, to make events do more than just “happen”: they help the organisation grow.

The team & the role

We’re a not-for-profit social enterprise with a team who mostly work from home in London. You’ll work as part of this remote team from home, shared desk spaces in central London, and out on the ground at events, partner venues and project sites across the city. You’ll also lead planning and delivery work that requires regular coordination with suppliers and partners in Denmark in the run-up to our rewilding conference in Copenhagen 2027.

You’ll work closely with our communications and delivery colleagues to design events that fit our work and values, and with our Membership Officer to build events into our membership proposition, from member-only perks through to recruitment, conversion and retention journeys.

What you’ll do

1) Lead delivery of our International Rewilding Conference (Copenhagen, spring 2027)

You will lead the day-to-day planning and delivery of our third international rewilding conference in Copenhagen in spring 2027, working with senior colleagues on overall direction. You’ll own the project plan and timeline, coordinate the venue and event production, manage the budget and key suppliers, and oversee speaker and participant logistics (including bookings, travel and admin). You’ll also support sponsorship delivery and income activity, and ensure the delegate experience is high-quality from ticket purchase through to post-event communications. Throughout, you’ll make sure the conference is delivered safely and reflects our values on inclusion, accessibility and sustainability.

2) Build and run a year-round Citizen Zoo events programme (London + beyond)

Alongside the conference, you’ll develop and deliver a year-round programme of Citizen Zoo events that grow our audience, partnerships and income. This includes planning and producing talks, lectures, high profile fundraising events, community events and paid speaker nights, delivering events end-to-end (venues, budgets, ticketing, suppliers and on-the-day delivery), and working with colleagues to promote events effectively. You’ll work closely with our Membership Officer to use events to strengthen our membership offer and convert attendees into ongoing supporters. You’ll build strong relationships with venues, speakers and partners, and you’ll track performance and feedback so the programme improves and grows over time.

Minimum requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience/track record (we value experience as highly as formal qualifications)
• Full driving licence
• A valid passport / right to travel internationally for work
• Ability to travel regularly across London by car and public transport and occasionally abroad
• Availability to work occasional evenings/weekends
• Proven experience delivering events end-to-end (planning through to on-the-day delivery), evidenced by examples
• Experience managing event budgets and coordinating suppliers/venues to deliver to plan
• Experience coordinating multiple stakeholders and workstreams on a timeline (e.g., venue, speakers, suppliers, internal teams)
• An interest in nature and making London a wilder place

Desirable

• Experience producing a conference or multi-session programme (or similarly complex large-scale event)
• Experience with ticketing platforms and/or CRM workflows (e.g., Hubspot, Salesforce, Eventbrite, Tito, Spektrix)
• Experience using events to support fundraising, sponsorship, membership or supporter journeys
• Experience in environmental, conservation, cultural or other mission-driven organisations
• Understanding of GDPR-consistent audience communications / supporter care
• Experience managing contractors/freelancers (e.g., event staff, AV teams, designers)
• Experience managing large budgets between £50,000-£100,000

Success measures (first year)

In your first year, success will mean that the Copenhagen 2027 rewilding conference is fully planned and delivered to a high standard, on time, on budget, and with a smooth delegate experience from ticketing and communications through to on-the-day delivery and follow-up, and that all tickets are sold (or sales are clearly on track to sell out by an agreed date). Alongside this, you will have built and delivered a consistent year-round programme of smaller Citizen Zoo events that run reliably throughout the year and clearly contribute to our goals by generating income and increasing brand awareness. You will also have put in place a simple approach to learning and improvement, capturing feedback and results after each event and using it to refine formats, operations and audience journeys over time.

Working hours

At Citizen Zoo we have standard working hours from 09:00–17:30, but team members can start earlier or later if agreed with your line manager. This role will require occasional evening and weekend work, particularly around events, and this is given back as time off in lieu.

Location

Must be based in London, with regular travel across London/Greater London, plus occasional travel abroad.

Benefits

In return for your enthusiasm and expertise, we’ll reward you with a competitive salary and a strong benefits package including 24 days holiday a year (with the option to buy more days) that rises by one day per year of service after your initial 5 years, as well as pension and life assurance.

Perks

Subsidised gym membership, social events and parties, and a day off for your birthday. We’re proud to offer progressive and flexible working practices designed to give you the work-life balance you need.

Application Timelines & Deadline

• Please submit your application by 15th March.
• Review week: 16th – 20th March
• Invitations to interview: 23rd March
• Interviews: 27th March