Executive Director

For over thirty years, Asylum Aid has been providing legal representation to some of the most vulnerable people seeking asylum. We have built an expert service, delivering vital and life‑saving services in some of the most complex legal cases, with a particular speciality working with unaccompanied children, survivors of trafficking, torture or other forms of human cruelty, and stateless people. Our vision is that all those in need of protection from persecution and other forms of human cruelty in the UK can obtain it, and are treated fairly and with dignity.

Since August 2020, Asylum Aid has been part of the Helen Bamber Foundation Group. Asylum Aid operates as an independent charity, led by its own Director within the group structure, and is ambitious about growing its impact and reach in the future to ensure protection from persecution for those who need it.

This is an exciting opportunity to steer Asylum Aid at an important time in its 30-year existence. As Executive Director you will be responsible for delivering on our strategy for impact. You will oversee our work to increase access to expert, trauma‑informed legal representation to those in the asylum, trafficking and statelessness systems and lead our policy and strategic legal work to achieve systemic change that contributes towards our vision.

You will line manage the Director of Legal Casework to oversee the provision of supportive and enabling leadership to Asylum Aid caseworkers so that they can continue to deliver high quality expert advice in complex cases, while being supported in their professional development and wellbeing. You will also manage and develop the work of our welfare advice team within the Westminster Advice Services Partnership and beyond, and work collaboratively with colleagues in the sector to build capacity and increase our impact.

The ideal candidate, who may be legally qualified, will have experience of leadership in the charity/NGO sector and a sound understanding of the asylum, human rights and trafficking processes in the UK and the legal frameworks which govern the protection of refugees, survivors of trafficking and stateless people, and of the role of law in achieving system change.

We are looking for someone who is strategically minded and passionate about providing supportive and inclusive leadership to our expert team. You will be committed to our objectives and to the role which expert legal representation plays in enabling people in need of protection in the UK to obtain it.

As is the nature of this sector, the role may be exposed to a high volume of traumatic and distressing material and, whilstthey will be supported by the Helen Bamber Foundation Group CEO and surrounding team, the candidate should also be able to demonstrate knowledge of good self‑care principles in an intense work environment and dissemination of those principles to junior members of the team.

Salary: £ £65,000
-70,000 per year depending on experience

Hours:

Full Time (37.5 hours per week)

Annual leave: 27 days plus bank holidays (increasing to 29 days after three years of service, and up to 30 days after five years of service) plus up to 4 discretionary days for the winter closure period

Winter closure period: two week winter closure period where the charity is closed

Pension: 4% matched contribution by the Helen Bamber Foundation Group

Employee Assistance Programme

Hybrid working: 40% office presence

The first stage is to complete on our online application form on our website by 10am on Monday 26th January 2026.