RCN Northern Region, Sunderland (travel across the Northern region will be required)

35 hours per week, permanent

There is more to the RCN than you might think. We’re a trade union with a membership of over half a million nurses, midwives, nursing support workers and students. We support nursing practice, represent nurses at a local and national level, lobby the Government on nurses’ behalf, and support local and national development. We exist to make a positive difference to the working lives of our members and ultimately to standards in patient care. Our employees are drawn from many walks of life – we are nurses, trade unionists and communicators, organisers, IT professionals, policy and finance experts, lawyers… together we are so much more. We couldn’t do what we do without our people.

As the RCN officer (Reps & Activism) you will lead work in your region to empower our members to get active on workplace issues and support them in their activities. You’ll inspire activism, act as an enabler and recruit RCN reps. It’s a great opportunity for someone adept at networking and digital communications, as we’ll need you to build and foster relationships and engagement across our member-communities as well as support groups of members with collective workplace issues.

This is a role for someone with excellent organisational and prioritising skills, adept at dealing with conflicting and changing priorities. You’ll need experience of developing people and leaders in either an employment, community, or political setting and experience working with trade union reps. We need you to have innovative plans for effective communication, for spotting and harnessing talent, and for managing your time well to deliver in this demanding environment.

We are looking for someone with a commitment to increasing member presence at local level, supporting local representatives and working for justice in healthcare.

To succeed at the Royal College of Nursing all you need to do is think bigger, better and brighter. And with an attitude like that, anything’s possible.

What we offer you

We expect you to look after our members. And we expect you to be rewarded for it. We offer an impressive range of benefits, a broad range of learning development opportunities and an award-winning health and wellbeing programme. We offer annual leave up to 32 days plus bank holidays and three additional days for the Christmas break (pro rata) plus generous maternity, adoption, paternity, and shared parental leave packages.

We offer a competitive pay structure with annual pay progression until you reach the top of the salary scale. We normally offer new employees the first point of the salary range, although you may be able to negotiate a higher starting salary depending on your skills, experience and current salary.

We are a diverse organisation and understand everyone has different needs and many of our employees enjoy flexible working enabling them to deliver results whilst having a good work life balance. Our hybrid working model means at least 40% of your working time will be spent working in person, face-to-face with our members and your colleagues.

Our selection process

Please click the ‘apply now’ button to apply and answer the supporting questions online demonstrating how you meet the criteria for this role. You may not be shortlisted if you don’t. Any identifying information in your application will automatically be anonymised for shortlisting purposes.

We want your experience applying for a job with us to be the best it can be. We may hold our interviews and assessments in person or by video call. If you foresee any problems, please let us know.

Equal opportunities for everyone

Equity, diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we aim to foster an inclusive environment so our people can bring their authentic selves to work. This is integral to our mission to enable you to support our members and ensure their voice is heard by all UK governments to get the best outcomes for them and their patients.

As a proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities.

Contact details

For more information or for an informal discussion about the role, please contact Helen Metcalf, Head of Operations on 0191 511 5803.

For more information about the recruitment and selection process, please contact

Opening date: 27 March 2026

Closing date: midnight on 12 April 2026

If we receive many applications after a week of advertising, we may close this vacancy earlier.

Selection dates: TBC