This is a co-leadership role at a time of significant and exciting change within Extant. As Strategic Lead, your main responsibilities are organisational and financial leadership, HR, partnerships and positioning, fundraising and evaluation, ensuring we deliver against organisational priorities. You will also work with other members of Extant and the board to ensure the organisation operates with a sense of mutuality and care whilst playing a lead role in evaluation, reflection and development.

• Provide organisational leadership to Extant, including leading on Financial Management, Organisational Partnerships and Positioning, Fundraising and Evaluation
• Lead on developing an accessible and sustainable business plan with realistic growth strategies in collaboration with The Extant Hive, Board of Trustees and team
• Identify, develop and support strategic partnerships with other organisations, partners, funders or grant makers to help deliver Extant’s ambitions
• Plan and ensure appropriate resourcing of all creative projects, establishing co-investment relationships and negotiating with partners
• Lead on the development of a new monitoring and evaluation framework that covers all organisational activities
• Develop and implement a fundraising and income generation strategy, assign responsibilities, and provide support to staff to make appropriate approaches as required
• Lead the financial function for the company, setting and monitoring budgets and cashflows and produce financial management reports for the board and Arts Council England, ensuring staff have clear delegated responsibilities and processes to follow.
• Work with The Extant Hive and the board to ensure the company maintains the highest standards of governance and organisational compliance.
• Keep up to date with current UK and international trends in the arts, access and leadership fields to inform and progress the company’s organisational development.

About

Founded in 1997, Extant will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2027 and as part of this journey, we are transforming. Our new leadership team which will be called The Extant Hive.

We are recruiting: two Performing Arts Leads, a Strategic Lead and an Innovation and Partnerships Lead (non-arts experience required) and have been an Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) since 2010. We are currently in receipt of NPO extension funding for 2026/27 which is expected to continue in 2027/28.

Extant has made a commitment to working towards all its internal roles being held by visually impaired* people by 2033. The Extant Hive will begin this process.

Requirements For All Roles

We support flexible working, but we expect you to work from our Brixton office (London) at least one day per two weeks, to collaborate with the rest of the team.

We recognise that The Extant Hive is a new structure and will need time at the start to work out and establish modes of agreement, discussion and reflection to establish a sense of inter-relatedness at its core. This time will be built into a full and robust collaborative induction from October 2026-March 2027.

Whilst each member of The Extant Hive will have a formal line management relationship with one of the co-chairs, we want them to create a mutual peer management and pastoral support system that ensures mutuality and care sit at the heart of the organisation.

Prior to confirming any offer of employment we will undertake certain checks including references, confirmation of the right to work in the UK, willingness to undertake an enhanced DBS check and that you are comfortable working in an environment where guide and other assistance dogs may be present.

Salary and Benefits

These are permanent (subject to securing new ACE NPO funding from April 2028) part-time PAYE contracts paid at £38,000 pa / FTE starting on 5th October 2026.

Performing Arts Lead (2 positions) – 0.6 FTE
Strategic Lead (1 position) – 0.6 FTE
Non-Arts Lead (1 position) – 0.4 FTE

* We support the University of Oxford’s definition of visual impairment as a ‘loss of sight that cannot be corrected using lenses.’

How To Apply

We are holding 2 online x1hr Zoom FAQ sessions where you will have a chance to ask any questions about the role.

FAQ1: Date TBC

FAQ2: Date TBC

To sign up for the FAQ sessions please email admin@extant.org.uk and the Zoom link will be emailed on the day.

Access

We will endeavour to support any access requirements you may have during the recruitment process and make reasonable adjustments where required.

If you have any access requirements that you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to let us know at any stage of the application process.

For more information on how to apply, please view the job pack below:

The Extant Hive Recruitment Pack

The Extant Hive Recruitment Pack Large Print

The ideal candidate is someone who understands the publicly subsidised arts sector, and/ or the context of disability arts in the UK, and is interested in supporting ethical, radical and inclusive models of working. You will have strong strategic leadership experience, have guided organisations through moments of change, have embedded evaluation across organisations and marketing, have a wide network of partners that Extant can benefit from and a flexible and adaptable approach and enjoy working as part of a small team.