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About the Role

The Prospect Development Specialist plays a central role in delivering strategic prospect development capability across high-value philanthropy at Cancer Research UK. 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+. 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.

Responsibilities

Partner with senior stakeholders to shape and manage a strategic, high-value prospect pipeline.
Monitor pipeline health, ensuring clear prioritisation and delivery against targets.
Embed consistent frameworks for prospect identification, qualification and allocation.
Use data and insight to identify trends, gaps and opportunities, translating analysis into actionable recommendations.
Deliver high-quality research to inform fundraising strategy and decision-making.
Identify and qualify high-value prospects (HNWIs, trusts and foundations).
Translate complex analysis into clear, practical recommendations for engagement.
Proactively identify pipeline gaps and lead targeted prospecting initiatives.
Contribute specialist expertise to key organisational initiatives (e.g. Data & AI, Children and Young People’s cancer).
Ensure prospect development activity aligns with wider strategic priorities.
Support the development of future-focused capabilities within the function.
Oversee due diligence activity, ensuring consistency, quality and appropriate risk management.
Provide guidance and support on complex or high-risk cases.
Strengthen due diligence frameworks, processes and reporting for senior stakeholders.
Ensure alignment with organisational policies and best practice.
Act as a trusted partner to senior fundraisers and leadership.
Provide strategic advice on prospect selection, prioritisation and risk.
Influence decision-making to focus on the highest-impact opportunities.
Promote alignment and consistency across fundraising activity.
Lead the development and embedding of prospect development frameworks, tools and standards.
Drive consistency across pipeline management and due diligence processes.
Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, effectiveness and impact.
Support the shift to a proactive, insight-led prospect development model.

Requirements

Significant experience in prospect development, high‑value fundraising or strategic research.
Demonstrable experience supporting major and high-value fundraising activity, typically involving gifts of six figures and above.
Proven ability to operate at a senior or specialist level, applying judgement and influencing decision‑making.
Strong experience of pipeline strategy, prioritisation and management, including assessing pipeline health and shaping delivery against targets.
Experience of due diligence processes, including oversight of complex or high‑risk cases.
Strong understanding of risk, governance and reputational considerations in a fundraising context.
Experience contributing to or supporting strategic initiatives, programmes or organisational priorities.
Excellent stakeholder management skills, with experience engaging senior audiences.
Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to translate insight into practical, strategic recommendations.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
You must be eligible to work in the UK.
Candidates must be 18 or over.

Skills

Principal level fundraising (1m+)
Fundraising databases and prospect management systems (CRM)
Data-driven prospecting approaches or analytics
Sector priorities or mission‑led campaigns
Working within a large or complex organisation

Location

Stratford, London

Work Type

Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)
Permanent
Full time

Experience Level

Senior or specialist level

Salary/Compensations

£45,000 - £52,000 plus benefits

Benefits

Generous benefits package
Wide range of career and personal development opportunities
High-quality tools
Policies and processes enable work-life balance, career progression, and personal wellbeing goals

About the Company

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.
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.
Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do: Bold, Credible, Human, Together.
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.
Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do.

Equal Opportunity

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
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.