Chief Executive Officer
Employer: Farm Carbon Toolkit
Location: UK home-based with travel required for meetings & events
Working hours: Full time
Salary: £65,000-70,000
Closing date: Saturday 31st October 2026, at Midnight
-
The Opportunity
This is a rare opportunity to lead a respected, mission-led organisation at a pivotal moment in its development — building a resilient commercial foundation beneath work that already matters deeply to the farming community it serves.
Reporting to the Chair and Board, the Chief
Executive Officer will provide strategic and operational leadership across Farm Carbon Toolkit, bringing coherence across our Advisory and Calculator business lines and ensuring every decision is tested against both mission and commercial reality.
FCT's foundations are strong: a distinctive reputation, deep technical expertise, long-term partnerships, and a team genuinely motivated by the organisation's purpose. The task for our next CEO is to build on this — sharpening strategic focus, strengthening financial resilience, and providing the consistent, visible leadership that allows our people to do their best work.
This role does not require deep subject-matter expertise across every FCT discipline. What it requires is the judgement to understand the marketplace, a genuine affinity for FCT's mission, and the confidence to lead through others — deploying the expertise of the team rather than duplicating it.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
● Define and articulate a clear, credible vision and strategy for FCT that aligns the Advisory and Calculator business lines
● Provide strategic coherence across all activity, ensuring decisions are tested against mission and commercial reality
● Prioritise the right work — moving FCT toward purposeful, margin-conscious project selection
● Develop a compelling external narrative for FCT's place in the market
Commercial & Financial Stewardship
● Take ownership of financial health: understand FCT's cost base, revenue dynamics and fragility, and act accordingly
● Build toward financial resilience — recurring income, reduced dependency on grant funding, and meaningful cash reserves
● Work closely with the Operations function to improve financial forecasting, controls and reporting
● Drive business development with discipline: the right work at the right margin, rather than income for its own sake
People & Culture
● Provide visible, consistent and trustworthy leadership that builds team confidence and cohesion
● Line-manage the Senior Leadership Team, holding people to account while supporting their development
● Model and protect FCT's culture — the empathetic, grounded, mission-led way of working that clients and staff value
● Create clarity of structure, role and expectation across the organisation
External Profile & Partnerships
● Represent FCT at sector level in conversations on GHG accounting, agricultural land use and sustainability standards
● Build relationships that open doors to new collaborations and funding opportunities
● Position FCT's technical experts as sector leaders, with the CEO providing the platform and the frame
● Act as the public face of FCT with funders, partners, the farming community and the wider sector
Governance & Board Relationship
● Work transparently and constructively with the Board, providing the information, assurance and strategic input needed for effective governance
● Support a clear and productive working relationship between Board oversight and operational management
● Keep the Board informed of significant risks, opportunities and decisions in a timely and structured way
● Be an ambassador of the organisation, its staff and mission
About You — Person Specification
We are seeking an experienced, commercially confident and values-led leader with the judgement and presence to lead Farm Carbon Toolkit into its next phase.
Essential
● A proven track record of leading an organisation, or a significant business unit, through a period of strategic development or growth
● Knowledge and experience within the agriculture, environmental or sustainability sector
● Commercial acumen — able to read a P&L and understand margin dynamics
● A proven ability to secure significant commercial or grant-funded projects
● An understanding of small company dynamics and the ability to support all staff with their day-to-day activities
● Strong people leadership — experience building team trust, managing senior professionals, and creating clarity of structure and accountability
● An excellent communicator — clear, confident and honest, with staff, clients, funders and the Board
● Comfortable operating as a generalist leader, bringing energy where it's needed and deploying expert team members as required
● The ability to juggle competing priorities as the business requires
● Genuine empathy for FCT's mission and the farming community it serves
Highly Desirable
● A network in the agricultural, environmental or sustainability sector, or a closely adjacent field
● Familiarity with the dynamics of a dual-model organisation — professional services alongside a software/product offer
● Experience managing a Board relationship and working within a governance framework
● A track record of building recurring or diversified income streams
● Knowledge of Employee Ownership Trusts and how to engage employees in the future of the business
● Strong networking ability
● Experience operating in grant-funded or public-benefit environments
A Note on Expertise
Deep sector expertise in carbon accounting is not a prerequisite for this role. FCT's competitive advantage lies in its technical team — expert advisors, software developers and data specialists who are among the best in their field. The CEO's role is to provide the strategic frame, the commercial confidence and the organisational conditions in which that expertise can flourish and be brought to market effectively.
Priorities for the Incoming CEO
Consultation with the Senior Leadership Team points to five areas that will shape the new CEO's first year.
1. Establishing Clear Direction
● Develop and communicate a clear, credible strategy for FCT that the whole team understands and believes in
● Align the Advisory and Calculator teams behind a shared narrative and set of priorities
● Build early team confidence through visible, consistent and honest leadership
2. Strengthening Financial Foundations
● Develop a thorough understanding of FCT's cost base, revenue dynamics and financial risks within the first 60 days
● Work with the Operations function to improve forecasting, financial controls and cash flow visibility
● Develop a plan for building financial resilience, including recurring income targets and a path to meaningful cash reserves
3. Building a High-Performing Senior Leadership Team
● Confirm the SLT structure and ensure every member has a clear, valued role
● Establish effective line management, regular SLT communication and a culture of accountability
● Build stronger business development and finance capability within the first 90 days
4. Focused Business Development
● Develop a disciplined approach to project selection, using a framework that assesses impact, margin and mission-alignment
● Work toward a pipeline of purposeful, well-priced work
● Leverage FCT's growing reputation to open new conversations with commissioners, funders and strategic partners
5. External Profile & Sector Influence
● Establish FCT's voice in key policy and sector conversations — GHG accounting, agricultural land use, sustainability standards
● Build the relationships that will open doors to new collaborations and funding opportunities
● Position FCT's technical experts as sector leaders, with the CEO providing the platform
and the frame
What Success Looks Like at 12 Months
The Board will review the incoming CEO's progress against the following outcomes at the end of year one:
● FCT has a clear, articulated strategy that the whole team understands and is motivated by
● Financial position — improved forecasting, a growing reserves position, and a clearer pipeline of recurring income
● The Senior Leadership Team is functioning as an effective, accountable team with well-defined roles
● Staff confidence in leadership is measurably higher — reflected in engagement, retention and internal communication
● The CEO has established an active, credible external presence for FCT in key sector conversations
● Business development is purposeful: FCT is winning the right work at the right margin
● A clear plan is in place for the next phase of growth — agreed with the Board and owned by the Senior Leadership Team.
The Work From Home Hub is dedicated to finding and sharing remote and hybrid job opportunities across the UK. The content available on theworkfromhomehub.co.uk is intended for general informational purposes only. While we strive to ensure the information provided is accurate and reliable, we make no guarantees or warranties, expressed or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of the information presented on our site.
Whether you are looking to change careers, advance in your current role, navigate workplace challenges, or return to work after a break, I can give you expert guidance and practical strategies to help you achieve your goals.
Visit Victoria-Hopkins.com for more information
This page may contain adverts for products and services tailored to those seeking homebased roles or already working remotely. These adverts help The Work From Home Hub source and share more job opportunities to our community. Support our mission - become a partner today.