The Donkey Sanctuary is an international animal welfare organisation, offering care and protection to donkeys worldwide. Our vision is a world where every donkey has a good quality of life, and our mission is to improve the lives of donkeys every day. We will achieve this by transforming the lives of donkeys in need worldwide by fostering greater understanding, collaboration and support, and by promoting lasting, mutually life-enhancing relationships. 

These are exciting times for the charity, and we have an excellent opportunity for a motivated and professional self-starter with outstanding collaborative and interpersonal skills to join our busy Governance Team. As Policy Advisor, you will lead a time-limited, organisation-wide programme to improve the quality, accessibility and consistent application of The Donkey Sanctuary's existing policy suite. Using known issues and stakeholder feedback to prioritise work, you will investigate additional gaps, simplifying policy wording and guidance; coordinating corrective actions; and implementing proportionate lower-level improvements as opportunities arise. Working with policy owners, sponsors, subject matter experts and key stakeholders, you will support effective implementation and develop recommendations that strengthen the future operation of the policy framework.

About you:

• Significant experience in policy, compliance, governance, HR, operations or a comparable environment, including reviewing and improving organisational policies and procedures.
• Demonstrable experience of managing a complex review or improvement programme involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities and fixed deadlines, including delivering practical improvements alongside analysis and recommendations.
• Strong policy analysis and editorial skills, with the ability to identify gaps, duplication and Inconsistency, simplify complex wording without losing accuracy, and translate requirements into clear, accessible and practical policy content and guidance.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Able to facilitate consultation, build constructive relationships, challenge appropriately and influence colleagues at different levels.
• Strong organisational, project-management and digital skills, including the ability to maintain accurate records, monitor progress, work confidently with Microsoft 365 and knowledge-management systems (e.g. House on the Hill), and deliver high-quality outputs independently.

 About the role:

 Your principal duties and responsibilities will include –

• Planning and delivering a prioritised, organisation-wide programme to review and improve the Charity's policy suite, coordinating activity across multiple policy owners and stakeholders.
• Reviewing existing policies and related guidance for clarity, accessibility, consistency, duplication, gaps, cross-referencing and practical usability, taking account of known issues whilst investigating additional areas for improvement.
• Collating policy issues identified through existing reviews, records, stakeholder interviews and feedback, validating concerns with policy owners and stakeholders, and delivering or coordinating proportionate corrective action.
• Editing and simplifying policy wording, guidance and supporting materials to improve accessibility, understanding and practical implementation, ensuring accuracy and accountability.
• Working collaboratively with policy owners and other subject matter experts across the charity to ensure policies meet organisational needs and reflect applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
• Ensuring that, where relevant, policy owners arrange appropriate localisation and translation of policies for overseas operations, coordinating reviews by in-country stakeholders and local legal counsel, and monitoring completion of any required actions.
• Identifying recurring issues, ambiguities and opportunities for improvement in the operation and consistent application of the existing policy framework and referring recommendations to the framework owner.

What we offer in return:

Based in Sidmouth, Devon – an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – this is a full-time, 6-month, fixed term contract starting as soon as possible, working 35 hours per week, 08.30-16.30, Monday-Friday.

This is a hybrid working position, combining onsite and home working under our guiding principles for such roles. The working pattern and requirement for site attendance for essential meetings will be agreed between the line manager and post-holder, currently anticipated to be 1 - 2 days per week.

Benefits: 

Competitive pension.

Life assurance.

31 days holiday (including Bank holidays), rising to 34 will each full year of service.

Wellbeing team.

Recorded Pilates and Yoga classes.

Long service awards.

Healthshield plan, including reimbursement of some medical expenses up to the specified limits per membership, offers, discounts and cashback on shopping, travel and entertainment from participating outlets and access to a 24/7 GP and counselling service.

Free parking.

Subsidised restaurant and shop.

Closing date for completed applications: Thursday 3 December 2027.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy before the advertised date and therefore encourage early applications.

Before submitting your application, please ensure you read our candidate journey page, in particular our FAQs section – https://jobs.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/jobs/candidate-journey/

The Donkey Sanctuary is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable people (children and adults), and expects all staff and volunteers to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to safer recruitment processes, including an application for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check where required for the post.

The Donkey Sanctuary also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and, for relevant posts, may request information from applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment.

Please note: The Guaranteed interview scheme is only applicable to candidates who consider themselves to have a disability applying for roles based within the United Kingdom.

NOTE TO APPLICANTS: We look forward to receiving your application, but we do ask you to complete this in your own words, and not to employ an Artificial Intelligence (AI) writing tool or assistant. Applications that are considered not to be an applicant’s own work may not be shortlisted for interview.

Before submitting your application, please ensure you read our candidate journey page, in particular our FAQs section – https://jobs.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/jobs/candidate-journey/