Permanent; Full time
Salary: £32,640.00 per annum
Based in: Covent Garden, London
Prior to commencing your application, please review our application guide here.
The Royal Ballet and Opera continues to lead the way in opera, ballet, music and dance both live on stage and through multiple digital platforms, from live streaming to worldwide cinema screenings. Our Covent Garden theatre has been at the heart of London and British cultural life for three centuries. We are home to two world-class Companies: The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera.
The Royal Opera House describes the place we work, not who we are. The whole is always more than the sum of its parts – we may be a House, but three quarters of our audiences experience what we do outside this building. While our Covent Garden theatre is the nerve centre, the impact and influence of the organisation can be felt in every corner of the country, and around the world.
We could not maintain this range of work or our digital presence without support from philanthropists, funders, members, business partners and sponsors, Our Development and Advocacy department generates over £46m revenue annually, plus additional capital funds, and secures the annual Arts Council England grant (currently £23.8m).
The Department’s revenue generation and advocacy to Government of the value of our creative sector ensures the RBO can retain the best artists and crafts people, deliver our thriving National Schools’ Programme, maintain our beautiful Grade I listed building, deliver on our charitable mission, and continue to produce world class performances.
We are looking to hire a Research Officer to join the Research team in the Development & Advocacy department. The successful candidate will be tasked with providing high-quality fundraising research, including research on individuals, companies, wider industries and the philanthropy sector, as well as conducting preliminary individual and corporate due diligence checks.
An ideal candidate will be able to:
The Royal Ballet and Opera is one of the UK’s leading arts organisations and our aim is to inspire imagination, ignite emotion and make the extraordinary for everyone. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion underpin all that we do. We want our people to be representative of the diversity in the UK. We understand the creativity and innovation that diversity can bring and strive to create an inclusive environment in which everyone can thrive.
We encourage applications from people with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and skills to join our teams. We particularly welcome applications from those who are from a global majority background and/or those who are disabled, as they are under-represented within our organisation.
We are a Disability Confident Employer, which means that we are actively working to ensure that candidates with disabilities and long-term health conditions feel supported, engaged and able to fulfil their potential in the workplace. We will endeavour to offer an interview to candidates who tell us they wish to participate in the scheme and who demonstrate in their application that they meet the essential criteria for the role, though sometimes due to the volume of qualified candidates with declarations this is not possible.
The RBO is also committed to safeguarding and protecting all children, young people, and adults and we implement robust safer recruitment practices. Due to our safeguarding promise, certain roles will be subject to a DBS check before commencing employment with us, which will be indicated in the advertising.
A full job description can be found here.
For more information about working with the Royal Ballet and Opera, please review the info pack here.
For a list of potential reasonable adjustments, please review this guidance document. If you have any access requirements for your application, please contact the RBO Recruitment Team on hr.recruitment@roh.org.uk
If you are applying as an internal candidate, you might find this guidance document helpful.
Closing date for applications: 11:59pm, 14th October 2026
To ensure a fair process, late applications will not be considered under any circumstances.
Applicants must have work authorisation for the UK. No agencies.
Based at the Royal Opera House in the heart of London’s Covent Garden, our work is enjoyed by audiences in our two theatres and globally through our streaming platform, cinema Season and company tours.
Our work in schools and communities up and down the country is driven by our curriculum linked programmes, specially designed to inspire creativity, broaden participation and diversify the future of opera and ballet.
These sit alongside industry-leading talent development projects, regional partnerships, and a raft of daytime events, family activities, tours, exhibitions and concerts in our Covent Garden home.
We are also expanding our audience through our flagship Young RBO scheme and are committed to reducing our impact on the environment and aim to achieve net zero emissions by 2035.
