Awards Judging & Jury Recruitment Manager (Maternity Cover 1 Year)

The Drum is transforming from a traditional publishing company into a global media, events and intelligence business that connects the world's marketing leaders through journalism, experiences, insights and community. Events sit at the heart of that transformation, bringing our community together in person to celebrate, connect and share ideas that shape the future of marketing.

This role sits within The Drum Awards product team and will focus primarily on the recruitment and coordination of jurors across The Drum's awards portfolio, and the running of judging days in partnership with event producers, during a period of maternity cover.

Working closely with the Managing Director of Events, Event Director, Communities team and wider awards teams, the successful candidate will oversee the day-to-day running of jury recruitment activity, ensuring panels are progressing on schedule and recruitment targets are being met across multiple awards programmes and regions.

The candidate will support jury recruitment and communications activity for The Drum's B2B Awards programme, a major end-of-year awards event, working closely with the current Senior Judging & Strategy Manager to support a smooth handover as this programme transitions into the maternity leave period.

This role will start by supporting The Drum's B2B Awards, before extending across the wider awards portfolio — including further flagship programmes — throughout the cover period.

The successful candidate will need to build a thorough, end-to-end understanding of The Drum's judging process, acting as the go-to authority for event producers and wider team members on how judging should run — including troubleshooting and adapting processes where none yet exist. This role is focused on the operational delivery of recruitment and judging logistics; while there's scope to contribute insight into strategic areas under guidance, ownership of awards strategy and category structure remains with the Event Director.

This role requires a highly organised and proactive individual who is comfortable managing multiple moving priorities, communicating with senior industry professionals and keeping complex recruitment processes running smoothly in a fast-paced environment.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the recruitment and coordination of judges across The Drum Awards portfolio, researching and identifying suitable senior industry professionals across marketing, media and creative disciplines.
• Build and manage recruitment target lists, outreach activity and tracking documents, working closely with the Communities team to support jury recruitment and engagement.
• Send invitations, manage follow-ups and track confirmations to ensure panels are completed on time, proactively identifying and resolving recruitment gaps.
• Ensure diversity remains a key consideration across jury recruitment activity.
• Manage onboarding communications and respond to juror queries professionally and efficiently.
• Organise all jury collateral, including judging packs, and manage Evessio judging rounds and related system workflows in collaboration with the Platforms Manager.
• Plan and deliver judging days in partnership with event producers — covering running order, format and how categories will be judged — attending in person and hosting remote judging calls as required.
• Proactively set up communications for each judging round,and develop and document clear processes where none currently exist, briefing the wider team on how to follow them.
• Act as the go-to authority on the judging process for event producers and internal stakeholders, troubleshooting issues as they arise.
• Work closely with the Senior Judging & Strategy Manager to support the handover of B2B jury communications and related judging activity where required.
• Assist the Event Director with category structure, judging criteria and awards positioning as needed, contributing recruitment and market insight to inform these decisions.
• Provide recruitment updates and progress reporting to senior stakeholders where required.
• Any other reasonable duties.

Requirements

• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
• Experience managing complex projects, timelines and tracking documents.
• Comfortable working with spreadsheets and database management tools.
• Experience proactively reaching out to and securing engagement from senior or hard-to-reach contacts, with the persistence to follow up without being deterred by early non-responses.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with confidence communicating with senior industry professionals.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• Proactive mindset with the confidence to use initiative and problem-solve independently.
• Good judgement on when to keep processes moving independently versus when to flag issues or escalate — particularly important given the fixed-term nature of this role.
• Strong instinct for documenting processes and decisions clearly, and confidently briefing others on how to follow them, to support a smooth handover at the end of the cover period.
• Ability to quickly build deep working knowledge of an end-to-end process, and confidently act as the reference point for others once up to speed.
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
• Interest or experience in marketing, media, events or awards industries is a bonus, but not essential — we're equally interested in strong coordinators/recruiters from adjacent industries.
• Experience in recruitment, events, awards administration or project coordination is beneficial.

Benefits

• 28 days holiday
• Auto Pension - (after 3 months' service)
• Company-wide discretionary bonus scheme based on business performance
• Enhanced above industry standard family leave package
• x2 paid volunteering days a year
• Company-wide mentoring programme
• Employee referral bonus
• Company social events
• Hybrid working
• Early finish on Fridays
• Dog friendly offices
• Eye care vouchers and contribution towards glasses