Job Title: Chief Operating Officer (COO) – QAHE
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) – QAHE
Location: London / Birmingham / Manchester – Travel to other QAHE locations as required
Department: QAHE – Exec Team
Vetting Requirement: Enhanced Disclosure

What you’ll be doing

• Leading wide-ranging operational services that underpin the QA Higher Education business.

Most challenging aspects of the role

• Fast paced multi-faceted role managing a broad range of competing priorities and teams whilst balancing student and employee experience with achieving strong overall business performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain QAHE’s position as a best-in-class provider of higher education provision within our sector through staying abreast of industry developments and best practice introducing and implementing these to the organisation. Ensuring that all aspects of our provision maintains and further develops our industry leading status.
• Leading teams in providing world class student services, both back office and student facing, ensuring our learners achieve to the best of their ability and are well supported during their studies.
• Continuous improvement and transformation of existing systems and processes, underlying data structures and ways of working.
• Leadership of a large, nationally located operations team, developing talent and ways of working.
• Leading the property strategy for QA HE, proposing footprint changes and adjustments that support the HE strategy and working with the CFO to deliver expansion of the QA portfolio.
• Lead in, and develop our Student Support services and processes across a wide range of specialisms including Registry, Student Helpdesks and the Library services, line-managing the incumbent Director of Student Operations.
• Operating as the epicentre of all Compliance and Risk matters providing leadership and guidance to currents heads of teams in controlling risk and ensuring compliance in a wide range of areas including University partner requirements, agent and external regulatory compliance matters, including OFS and UKVI.
• Manage scheduling and planning, driving the efficient and effective utilisation of all property, teaching and learning resources.
• Develop an effective project management and delivery function to support business owners to deliver strategic initiatives and major projects.
• Details of remit:
• • Student Operations encompassing all sub teams including Registry, Library, Wellbeing etc.
  • Estates and Facilities encompassing H&S
  • Academic team and fixed resource utilisation
  • Compliance – incorporating university partner and other regulatory compliance areas
  • Scheduling and planning
  • Project management
• KPIs & SLAs
  • Utilisation levels of permanent staff are achieved as per budget.
  • Room/property utilisation is not a constraint to growth.
  • Student satisfaction during their time on programme is improved.
  • Profit margins are maintained or improved against budget, looking ahead so the budget is managed proactively and taking every opportunity to optimise profitability whilst managing and maintaining student and employee experience.
• Key Working Relationships
  • CEO – QAHE
  • Exec Team and wider Senior Leadership Team
  • Student Operations Teams

Your Competencies

• The role holder will have experience in operational environments, ideally in an education or HE sector.
• Data analysis and the ability to challenge is a key requirement of the role, with an ability to make decisions where the data may be ambiguous.
• The role holder must have the ability to create buy-in and the tenacity to drive change, leading and aligning multiple teams through wide-scale improvements. These may concern process improvements, system changes and/or product changes, that are challenging to implement.
• Commercial acumen is essential, with a requirement to re-prioritise how resources and effort is allocated on an on-going basis.
• The role holder must constantly be scanning the organisational environment to assess the required next steps in the organisation’s development, road mapping and prioritising these as appropriate.
• The role holder must be able to operate under pressure; flexibility and team working are key.
• The role holder must be a clear and forward-thinking communicator, involving others where appropriate and managing stakeholder expectations.
• This is a highly visible role, with success of the QA Higher Education business being dependent on the operations team delivering to an exceptional standard and level of efficiency. Experience in learner welfare, safeguarding or support is highly desirable to support strong student satisfaction levels on a wider more holistic level.
• The role holder must be comfortable challenging the status quo in ways appropriate to our culture and have a desire to make continuous changes and improvements.

Your Experience

• You will have gained and be able to demonstrate outstanding leadership skills. It is crucial that the role holder has experience in taking organisations through change and development into more established and defined ways of working.

Your Qualifications

• Degree / Master Qualification preferred

What you’ll bring to QA

• Outstanding leadership skills with ability to engage all levels to the agreed organisational agenda and course of action.
• Forms appropriate relationships with those you collaborate with and maintains professional boundaries in your work.
• Works within organisational policies, procedures and Guidance specifically related to Safe Recruitment Guidelines.
• Is committed to demonstrating the organisations values and behaviours in your work, acting and raising concerns where necessary.

Commitments and safeguarding

QA is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults with care and support needs. We hold the expectation that all staff share this commitment in creating a safe and inclusive environment and as an organization, we comply with relevant legislation and best practices in safeguarding and safe recruitment.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and a comprehensive screening process will be undertaken on successful applicants including:

• an enhanced disclosure check
• qualification checks (where applicable)
• online checks
• identity and right to work

All applicants will be required to provide two references covering the previous three years.
We look forward to welcoming dedicated individuals who share our commitment to safety and well-being.

About QA Higher Education

QAHE is a private UK higher education provider working in partnership with UK universities to recruit to and deliver a range of programmes from foundation level to undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. We currently teach over 17,000 students from all over the world.

Students preparing for undergraduate study. Working professionals looking to specialise in their field. Career changers. Everyone should be given access to outstanding higher education and our aim at QAHE is to make that possible.

We work with our partner universities to offer courses ranging from foundation programmes to postgraduate degrees covering subject areas including Accountancy, Business, Computing, Cyber, Digital Marketing, Events Management, Project Management and Web Development and delivered in city centre locations.