Performance Programme Assistant
Who are we?
We are Manchester Students’ Union, the biggest SU in the country, supporting over 48,000 students throughout their time at university. We help to make student life the best it can be by supporting students to campaign for change, creating opportunities to meet new people, providing employment opportunities, providing advice and support and being a safe place on campus.
We are a values-centred organisation that employs around 90 permanent, full-time members of staff. We recruit a wide range of roles throughout the year within all our departments from our Commercial team operating Manchester Academy Venues, 13 Media, Bar 532 & Kitchen and Corridor Coffee to our Student Activities, Student Engagement, Marketing and Communications, Finance, HR and Facilities teams. Our team of around 400 part-time, studying staff are instrumental in providing to support to all departments as well as leading major projects like Student Angels. When you join UMSU, you’ll be immersed in an environment that empowers staff to make great things happen and we're always on the lookout for innovative, passionate, and proactive people to join us.
Our values are really important to us and shape the work that we do every day. As part of our recruitment process, we want you to demonstrate how your experiences, behaviours and skills align with our values. You can find more detailed explanations of our values on our website.
About the role
Are you a student with a passion for theatre and the arts? The SU Student Groups team is looking to recruit a new Performance Programme Assistant to support the organisation and delivery of the SU Theatre’s annual society performance programme.
The SU Theatre is a popular venue amongst student societies, and performing arts societies in particular, delivering a programme of around 40 shows across the academic year. In this role, you will work with the SU’s Student Events Programme Coordinator and Senior Room Bookings Coordinator to arrange scheduling for both the winter and spring theatre show seasons, acting as the first point of contact for and building relationships with student performing arts and technical theatre societies to ensure that any performance requirements can be met, collaborating with the SU Marketing team to arrange advertising for the various shows being held, and completing general administration and collating feedback on the theatre’s programme and show organisation from societies to analyse how the SU can maximise the impact of the Theatre space’s use.
This will be a varied and interesting role for a student who is passionate about theatre and performance and may be interested in developing their administration and programming skills. The Performance Programme Assistant role would also suit a candidate who would be keen for a balance between regular administrative tasks as part of their core workload and one-off opportunities to work on a variety of more project-based tasks. The work of the Performance Programme Assistant will be important in ensuring work to build relationships with performance groups continues and grows. We hope through this to learn from the candidate's insight as a student and that they will find ways to empower the voices of other students invested in the performance space.
This role is student-facing, requiring excellent customer service and communication skills to support bookings in the theatre space. In addition, the candidate will regularly use of a range of software packages including Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook. The candidate will deal with numerous email and face-to-face enquiries predominantly from students looking to use the theatre space. The candidate must be able to balance priorities and take an organised approach to ensuring tasks are completed across the working week. Throughout the year there will also be opportunities to support at events such as Awards Night and fairs.
Please read the full role profile before applying, as well as our guide to recruitment.
Details
Wage: £13.45 per hour + holiday pay
Contract: Fixed-Term until 31st July 2027
Hours: Zero-hours, Approximately 4-8 hours per week
Eligibility: Open to applicants with relevant skills and experience who are eligible to work in the UK from the start of employment and a current student at UOM, graduating no earlier than July 2027
Our Reward Package
You'll get access to our reward package which you can see here.
Recruitment Guide
We have a guide that explains our full recruitment process. We recommend reading through this before beginning an application.
If you are invited to interview with us, we will share our interview questions in advance so you can prepare your responses. We’re more interested in hearing about your experiences and ideas than in testing your memory, and so we want you to feel as prepared as possible.
AI Use
GenAI tools, like ChatGPT, are revolutionising how we approach a whole host of tasks at work. As a future-focused employer, we believe in embracing, not banning, these tools. However, as with all tech, some ways of using it are better than others. You can use GenAI to refine and articulate your ideas. It’s a tool to help structure your thoughts and improve clarity, not to replace your unique voice and experiences. Please don’t just copy and paste what AI tells you to write.
We recommend you read our guide on how to approach the use of AI within our recruitment process:
Inclusivity and Accessibility
We are committed to equality of opportunity, and we work hard to ensure we appoint based on skill and values.
We particularly encourage applications from Disabled or Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African candidates as these groups are currently underrepresented in our staff team.
If you have any accessibility requirements or require adjustments to support you to apply to work with us, please get in touch. We can offer reasonable adjustments at all stages of our recruitment process.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer. Under this scheme, we aim to offer an interview to candidates who declare a disability and meet the minimum essential criteria for the role. Minimum criteria are marked with an asterisk on the person specification. However, during periods of exceptionally high application volumes or peak recruitment times (i.e. July, August and September), it may not always be possible to guarantee an interview for every eligible candidate. In such cases, we will take steps to ensure that the process remains fair, consistent, and inclusive.
Recruitment Timeline
Applications opened: 27th March 2026
Applications close: 17th April 2026 23:59 pm
Interviews: 6th May 2026
Role Commencing: 13th May 2026
We may close applications early if we receive a high volume of applications. We recommend that you apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. Once the vacancy has closed, we’re unable to accept late applications to ensure a fair process for all candidates.
Contact
People Team:
You can contact the People Team with any questions regarding this vacancy or our recruitment process.
Email: jobs.su@manchester.ac.uk
Phone: 0161 306 3279
Hiring Manager: Daniel Findell
You can contact the hiring manager with any questions regarding this vacancy or our recruitment process.
Email: daniel.findell@manchester.ac.uk