Dean’s Welcome
Thank you for your interest in joining our team as Chief Operating Officer.
Liverpool Cathedral is an extraordinary place. It is first and foremost a place of Christian worship, prayer, welcome and mission, but it is also one of Liverpool’s great landmarks, a major visitor destination, a centre for music, culture and civic life, and a place which holds a special place in the hearts of people across our city and region.
Our scale and reach bring both enormous opportunity and significant responsibility.
We want the Cathedral to flourish spiritually, culturally, socially and financially. We want to extend our welcome, deepen our service to the city and Diocese, care well for this magnificent building and ensure that the organisation supporting our mission is sustainable, well governed and equipped for the future.
The Chief Operating Officer will have a central role in achieving this.
We are looking for a warm, collaborative and enabling leader who listens well, communicates clearly and brings people together. You will combine strategic thinking with the ability to make things happen, building trust and creating the clarity, confidence and organisational conditions that enable others to succeed.
This is also an important period of organisational development and change. We need to ensure that our structures, resources and ways of working are aligned behind our mission and priorities, while continuing to build a positive, healthy culture in which people are supported and empowered to do their best work. Alongside this, we need to strengthen our operational effectiveness and financial resilience and develop sustainable ways of working for the future. The new COO will play a central role in leading this journey and taking people with them.
The successful candidate will work closely with me, the Cathedral Chapter, clergy and senior colleagues. Together we aim to translate our aspirations into delivery and foster an environment in which our hard working and talented staff and volunteers can do their best work.
We are ambitious about the future of Liverpool Cathedral and realistic about the challenges ahead. For the right person, that combination makes this a particularly exciting leadership opportunity.
I hope you consider joining us
The Very Revd Dr Sue Jones
Dean of Liverpool
Overview of the role
As Chief Operating Officer for Liverpool Cathedral, you will bring your leadership, judgement and experience to an extraordinary environment that balances tourism with worship, cultural ambition with Christian mission, and the care of a magnificent building with the needs of a living community.
The Chief Operating Officer is at the heart of our strategic planning and operational delivery, bringing together the people, resources and systems that enable Britain’s largest cathedral to flourish. Working closely with the Dean, Cathedral Chapter and senior colleagues, you will help turn our ambitions into practical action, strengthen our financial resilience and ensure that our organisation is equipped for the future.
This is a hugely exciting and multifaceted role, spanning people, finance, operations, governance, safeguarding, heritage and commercial sustainability. It will suit you if you can see the bigger picture while attending to the detail that makes an organisation work well. You will bring energy, clarity and a collaborative approach, working with and through talented staff, volunteers and specialist colleagues.
You will need to build trust, navigate competing priorities and lead change thoughtfully, bringing people with you. We are looking for someone who listens well, empowers others and can create capacity and opportunity from limited resources. Above all, you will understand how effective leadership and sound stewardship support the Cathedral’s Christian mission and its welcome to the city and beyond.
In return, you will receive a salary of £70,000 and the opportunity to make a lasting contribution to one of Europe’s great cathedrals. Reporting to the Dean, you will hold an influential position in Cathedral life, helping shape its future alongside committed colleagues. The role is based at the Cathedral, where visible and engaged leadership matters, with some flexibility in working arrangements possible.
We use six pillars to describe the breadth and variety of our work:
- Inspiring Christian worship
- A breath-taking experience
- A community committed to justice and mercy
- A safe and generous place in joy and sorrow
- A dynamic community of staff and volunteers
- A God who knows you and loves you
Standing on St James’ Mount and visible across the city, Liverpool Cathedral is a powerful expression of Christian faith and a place where worship, heritage, music, culture, community and hospitality come together. We are the UK’s largest cathedral and we occupy an iconic place in the city landscape.
Our challenge is to steward this inheritance while ensuring that the Cathedral continues to develop and flourish for future generations.
But the Cathedral is much more than its building.
We are a living Christian community, a place of daily prayer and worship, a major destination for visitors, a breathtaking venue for major services and events, a centre for music and learning, and a civic space where Liverpool comes together at moments of celebration, remembrance and significance. We are also free to enter, committed to serve and support those on the margins and we are working to become Net Zero Carbon by 2030.
As the Cathedral’s senior lay executive, the COO provides leadership and coordination across the organisational functions that support the Cathedral’s mission and day-to-day life.
These currently include:
- Finance and financial planning
- People and HR
- Operations and organisational systems
- Safeguarding
- Governance, risk and compliance
- Fabric, property and estate
- Commercial and enterprise activity
- Fundraising and development
- Communications
- Security and business continuity
These functions are delivered through dedicated Cathedral teams, and through shared arrangements with the Diocese (including Safeguarding, HR, Comms, Finance, and IT).
You can download the recruitment pack here.
To apply, please click here. You will be taken to Church Pathways where you can complete and submit your application.
Application deadline: Sunday 1st November 2026