Lead and evolve the organisation’s operating model, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and accountability across campuses and functions.
Act as the executive lead for core operational processes, embedding standardisation, performance discipline, and continuous improvement.
Shape and deliver the estates and campus strategy, ensuring physical environments actively enable academic delivery, collaboration, and future growth.
Lead IT, digital and systems strategy as a primary enabler of operational effectiveness and change, not a support function.
Act as senior responsible owner for major transformation, systems, and change programmes, delivering results in live operational environments.
Play a core role in shaping organisational culture—modelling values, embedding collaborative behaviours, and creating the conditions for high performance.
Ensure that operational delivery, systems, and campus environments consistently support and enhance student experience, service quality, and academic outcomes.
Set the tone for how the organisation plans, governs, and executes at scale.

Proven experience operating at executive level in complex, multi-site, multi-departmental organisations
A strong track record of designing, standardising, and scaling enterprise-wide processes
Significant experience leading IT, systems, and technology-enabled change
Credibility delivering large-scale transformation while maintaining operational continuity
The confidence to lead through complexity, ambiguity, and delivery
An understanding of how operational excellence enables student success and institutional performance.
Experience in education or regulated environments is welcome, but not essential as we recognise that strong candidates may bring transferable leadership experience from other sectors and encourage applications from those who meet most, but not necessarily all, of the criteria.

Chief Operating Officer

Key skills