We’re seeking a Democracy Coordinator with experience in democratic structures, strong relationship-building skills, and a talent for organising. If you're passionate about empowering student voices and driving meaningful engagement, we’d love to hear from you.
The Role:
In 2024/25 Oxford SU is going through a Transformation. We’re reviewing every aspect of what we do, why we do it and how we do it. We’re looking for innovative, creative and intellectual staff to support us through this process – people who can think big whilst also making sure that the day-to-day gets done.
Oxford SU is a student-led organisation. You’ll be working with exceptional elected leaders and student volunteers across a wide range of projects – balancing your experience and expertise with active student representation and input. We work in a high-support, high-challenge environment – we are a small and relatively flat staff team which means our staff use their initiative and work together as a high performing team.
A major output of the Transformation project has been a complete overhaul of our democratic structure. In May 2025 we'll be launching a new model, putting Oxford University's unique common rooms at the centre of our new representative democracy structure. Alongside this, we'll be rethinking how we support common rooms and build infrastructure to enable common rooms to thrive.
Our new democratic structure is currently under consultation, but at the moment it is likely to be made up of a Conference-style democratic structure (known as Conference of Common Rooms) where representatives from each common room from each college of the Oxford University come together to set policy and take action. We’ll be supporting marginalized voices and cross-college communities through 30 part-time volunteers whose role will be to represent their constituents to the University, alongside our 4 elected officers who are also full-time employees. Our ‘RepComs’ (Representative Communities) will bring together students with protected characteristics to make sure that our policy, organisation and work is inclusive.
Job Purpose:
To ensure that the Oxford students' union remains a democratic and active students’ union. This will include developing, delivering and continually improving democratic procedures.
To build strong relationships with common rooms and colleges at the University of Oxford, this might include identifying new infrastructure projects for the SU to take forward.
To equip common room representatives to advocate on behalf of their members within their colleges, providing high-quality training and support, developing datasets, insights and policy for common room representatives to use in advocating for themselves and others.
Further Details:
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Job title:
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Democracy Coordinator
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Location:
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The post will work primarily at Oxford SU’s main office (currently Worcester Street, Oxford). We expect staff to be on campus 60% of the time.
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Working hours:
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37.5 hours per week
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Contract:
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Full-time, fixed-term for 1-year with possibility of extension
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Salary:
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£29,659 (subject to inflationary increase end of March ’25)
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How to Apply:
To apply for this role, please send your CV and cover letter to jobs@oxfordsu.ox.ac.uk. Your cover letter should outline your skills and experience, paying close attention to the Person Specification outlined in the full Job Description below. We ask all candidates to complete an Equality Monitoring Form which can be returned to us along with your application.
The application deadline is Monday 24th March at 12 noon.
Interviews are currently scheduled to take place on Monday the 31st of March and Tuesday the 1st of April.
Our commitment to diversity:
The SU sector needs a wide range of skills and experiences, and we’re committed to ensuring our workforce reflects the diversity of the world and community we’re based in. We positively encourage applications from all individuals irrespective of their gender, age, home country, ethnic background, sexuality, religious beliefs or disability.
Job Description
Equality Monitoring Form