Technical Project Manager Volunteer - Volunteer

Free UK Genealogy; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Part time

Job summary

A charitable organisation in Greater London is seeking a Technical Project Manager to support the FreePRO project, aimed at making probate records accessible online. This role involves coordinating with technical volunteers and guiding the project from planning to delivery. Candidates should have experience managing projects and excellent communication skills. The position requires flexibility for around 3 to 5 hours per week, working home-based with collaborative online meetings.

Qualifications

• Experience managing or coordinating technical or digital projects.
• Confidence working with developers or technical specialists.
• Strong organisational skills to clarify priorities.

Responsibilities

• Translate FreePRO vision into technical milestones.
• Coordinate workstreams for digitisation and publication.
• Identify risks and practical solutions.

Skills

Managing technical or digital projects

Working with developers

Collaborative approach

Organisational skills

Clear communication

Job description

Help deliver FreePRO, a major new digital project opening up historic probate records for everyone. Use your technical project management skills to support volunteers, guide an MVP and make a lasting public impact.

What difference will you make?

FreePRO has the potential to unlock a vast and previously hard-to-access body of public records for researchers, families, and communities across the UK and beyond. Delivering it well requires careful coordination so that volunteer effort is focused, sustainable, and rewarding.

By supporting the technical foundations of FreePRO, you will help ensure that

• Volunteer time and skills are used effectively and respectfully
• Technical progress is steady, transparent, and well documented
• Decisions are made with clarity and shared understanding
• The project develops in a way that is sustainable for the long term

Your contribution will directly support a volunteer‑led team working for public benefit rather than commercial gain. In practical terms, your work will help FreePRO move from early development into a reliable, trusted service that becomes a permanent part of Free UK Genealogy’s offer.

This role also supports the wider charity by strengthening our ability to deliver complex digital projects in a structured but human way, helping us learn, improve, and grow responsibly.

What are we looking for?

You do not need to be a genealogist or probate expert, although curiosity and interest are welcome. We are particularly keen to hear from people who bring the following

• Experience managing or coordinating technical or digital projects, in a professional or voluntary setting
• Confidence working with developers or technical specialists, even if you are not one yourself
• A pragmatic, collaborative approach, with an understanding of the realities of volunteer‑led delivery
• Strong organisational skills, with an ability to clarify priorities and keep work moving
• Clear and thoughtful communication, especially around progress, risks, and decisions
• Enough time and flexibility to provide continuity over several months

You will be comfortable working in an environment where targets are aspirational rather than fixed, and where success is measured by steady progress, shared understanding, and positive volunteer experience.

If you enjoy enabling others to do their best work, and want to apply your skills to a project with genuine public value, this role could be a very good fit.

What will you be doing?

Free UK Genealogy is a UK charity providing free online access to hundreds of millions of family history records, supported entirely by volunteers. Our projects include FreeBMD, FreeREG, FreeCEN, and now FreePRO.

FreePRO is a new programme to digitise, transcribe and publish probate records from England and Wales (1854–1943), making them richly accessible for the first time. The project has been approved by trustees and is moving from planning into early delivery, with a technical MVP underway.

We are looking for a volunteer Technical Project Manager to help guide this next phase. This role focuses on coordination rather than coding and is ideal for someone who enjoys bringing structure, clarity, and momentum to complex digital work.

You will work closely with technical volunteers, editorial leads, and organisational leadership to

• Translate the agreed FreePRO vision into clear, achievable technical milestones
• Coordinate technical workstreams such as digitisation, OCR, data processing, and publication
• Support delivery of the FreePRO MVP, keeping scope realistic for a volunteer‑led project
• Identify risks, dependencies, and practical solutions with technical contributors
• Maintain lightweight documentation such as roadmaps, decision logs, and priorities
• Act as a bridge between technical, editorial, and organisational perspectives

The role is home‑based, with online meetings, and requires around 3 to 5 hours per week. We work flexibly, with an agile approach suited to volunteer availability, and place strong emphasis on collaboration, learning, and shared purpose.