Senior Student Events Coordinator (Parental Cover)
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
At The University of Manchester Students’ Union, we want every student to feel connected, supported and part of a lively university community. Events sit right at the heart of that experience. They bring people together, help students explore Manchester, and create moments that define student life.
We’re looking for a Senior Student Events Coordinator to help shape these experiences across the year. As Senior Student Events Coordinator, you’ll lead the planning and delivery of a wide range of student-facing events from large Welcome and Refreshers programmes, to cultural festivals, community events, social activities and major moments like SU Awards and Reclaim the Night.
A key part of the role is making sure our events programme is both engaging and financially sustainable. Some events will be designed to generate income, others will run at cost to maximise participation, and some will be intentionally subsidised to support inclusion and access. You’ll be confident thinking through the balance of cost, value and impact when planning activity and will work within budgets to ensure each event delivers on its purpose. You don’t need to have worked in a commercial setting before, just a practical understanding of how to plan events with financial considerations in mind.
You will work closely with colleagues across the entire organisation and external partners to make sure events run smoothly and reflect the interests of our diverse student community. You’ll also line manage the Coordinator responsible for delivering our International Society Trips & Socials programme, supporting a calendar of trips and activities that help international students feel welcome and connected in Manchester.
To succeed as Senior Student Events Coordinator, you’ll bring experience of planning and delivering events, strong organisational skills, an eye for detail and the ability to communicate well with a wide range of people. You’ll enjoy supporting others, solving problems and working as part of a busy, collaborative team. You don’t need previous Students’ Union experience, we welcome candidates from hospitality, arts and culture, charity and community events, festivals, local government and other events-based roles. Because many of our events take place outside standard hours, the role includes scheduled evening and weekend working.
We are a values-driven organisation and want our team to reflect the diversity of our student community. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including those currently underrepresented in Students’ Union roles.
If you enjoy planning events, working with people and balancing creativity with practical delivery, we’d love you to apply for the Senior Student Events Coordinator role.
Details
Salary: £27,013 - £30,237 per year
Contract: Fixed-Term until March 2027
Hours: 35 hours per week
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: 22/12/2025
Applications close: 18/1/2025 23:59
Interviews: 03/02/2026
Role Commencing: February 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: jonathan.murray@manchester.ac.uk
You can contact the hiring manager with any questions regarding this vacancy or our recruitment process.