We are at the forefront of the global fight against cancer, bringing together millions of people who share our determination. But we need to go much further. We’re looking for people who can work collaboratively and focus on what matters to help us to get to where we want to be.
Whether you’re a graduate, undergraduate, school leaver or looking for a career change, we have programmes that will help develop your skills at the UK’s leading cancer charity. Our schemes offer insight into working for a charity in a supportive environment, all while playing a vital role in the fight against cancer.
Our early career programmes are unique as no previous experience or qualifications are required. This is because we are committed to breaking down barriers and creating an inclusive and diverse workforce, which we believe will help us beat cancer.
At Cancer Research UK, we want you to get involved with all we have to offer. Outside of your day-to-day role, you will have the chance to
Get involved in exciting staff fundraising activities
Join our expansive range of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion networks
Benefit from our comprehensive wellbeing services
Build experience and gain skills that will last a lifetime with our internships. We’re passionate about your personal development and we have opportunities across the charity throughout the year.
Length of programme: 12 weeks
For: anyone looking to gain work experience within the charity sector.
Find out more about interning with us
We’re currently reviewing our Accelerate scheme and will decide the future of the scheme in late summer/ early autumn of 2025; we’ll update this page when there’s more information to share.
In the meantime, as well as our other early careers options, we recruit a large number of vacancies each year that are suitable for those looking to start or build a career in the charity sector.
Gain invaluable experience with our placements within the Centre for Drug Development or lab-based Cancer Research Horizons. We provide students with an interest in scientific or clinical research the unique opportunity to develop key skills in a world-class clinical research or lab environment.
Length of programme: 12 months
For: life sciences or chemistry students who want to gain experience in their placement year.
Discover more about student placements
Learn and study for a qualification whilst working in a role that contributes to our mission of supporting people affected by cancer.
Length of programme: Various
For: anyone wanting to start their career in a new profession, or to progress their career in their current profession, whilst getting an insight into what it’s like working for one of the UK’s leading charities.
All our programmes offer a competitive salary and a range of benefits. Our Accelerate trainees earn £26,000 in your first year with an increase to £27,750 in your second year, whilst our Interns earn the London Living Wage.
Each and every one of our employees contributes to our progress. And every ounce of effort you put in will be supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that’s impressive. In return, we make sure you are supported by high-quality tools, policies and processes to help you to do your job well. Our work – from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy – will change the world. It’s exciting to be part of our team.
We want our people to have time away from work to support their different commitments, needs and interests. We encourage a flexible working culture, including options such as home-working, reduced or flexi-hours, job shares, job-splits, compressed and core hours. We offer a high level of flexibility for the vast majority of our office-based roles, meaning that you’ll only be required to work from a specific location for 1 or 2 days a week on average.
We offer a wide range of career and personal development opportunities, including induction, core business skills, leadership and management development, talent programmes, accelerated progression opportunities for those with leadership potential, secondments and much more.
Working with us, you’ll be encouraged to take your 25 days holiday a year, plus bank holidays, and an extra day for Christmas Eve. We provide flexibility on religious holidays meaning you can choose to use the 5 UK religious bank holidays at another time for any reason including religious festivals, caring, wellbeing or other interests.
Cancer Research UK staff enjoy great benefits in and around Stratford with deals at local shops, bars and restaurants. Our staff have access to a wide range of discounts, benefits and cashback deals to support you with your financial wellbeing, through our Rewards platform. We offer an online savings and discounts portal covering many widely recognised retailers and brands from electronics, groceries, home and leisure, holidays and more.
Read more about our benefits and rewards
Beating cancer means beating it for everyone. Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do.
This will help us make faster progress: it is well known that more diverse organisations perform better, and we will enable our community of cancer researchers to thrive.
We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented, and believe that a diverse workforce will help us to beat cancer sooner.
We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any questions or concerns you have about how we can support you with a disability or health condition or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen.
Together we will beat cancer.
Learn more about equality, diversity and inclusion at Cancer Research UK
Please contact us if you have any questions or should you require any adjustment due to a disability or a long-term health condition.
