Head of Authorisation - SQE and Admissions (Senior Operations Manager)

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Full time

Working Hours: 35 hours per week

Salary: £58,698 - £62,000 depending on knowledge, skills and experience

Location Options: Birmingham with part of the week working from home

Function Type: Regulation

Are you an exceptional senior operations manager with a proven track record of delivering results in complex and challenging environments with competing priorities? Do you have a real passion for enhancing customer experience, driving simplification, and building a high-performance culture that nurtures high colleague engagement? Are you skilled in operational delivery, change management, and stakeholder engagement? We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Authorisation, SQE and Admissions - a key leadership role where you'll make a real impact.

The role involves overall responsibility for the delivery of Admissions and SQE (Solicitors Qualifying Exam) related applications and case work, consistent with an outcomes-focused, risk-based approach to regulation. Leading a team of around 50 dedicated professionals, you will provide guidance, support, and development opportunities, whilst instilling a culture of continuous improvement to enhance efficiency and customer service. Leading by example, you will foster a culture that embodies our values within your teams.

With robust credentials in operational delivery, you will ensure the achievement of key performance indicators (KPIs) with a customer-focused approach, both internally and externally. You will be equally skilled in the delivery of change initiatives, alongside being the operational subject matter expert, collaborating closely with Business Improvement colleagues. Your role will involve nurturing a high-performance culture enabled through data-driven insights, maintaining high controls and proactive risk management, and developing best practices within your area.

This is a senior and high-profile role within the SRA engaging effectively at various levels across the organisation. Accordingly, this will require an adaptive style of leadership and communication ensuring positive engagement and influencing skills. Alongside, you will bring a management style that's collaborative and empathetic with a high level of self-awareness.

What is in it for you:

• The chance to lead a significant team within our organisation
• Work for a leading regulator of legal services; protecting the public's interest, maintaining high standards and upholding the rule of law
• Accountability for confident and consistent decision making, ensuring regulatory principles are applied appropriately
• Visibility across all levels of the organisation with the opportunity to affect and lead change

What we are looking for:

• Excellent technical knowledge in the regulatory, legal, or relevant sector
• Strong leadership experience with a proven ability to plan, manage performance and to successfully coach and develop teams
• Ability to influence and constructively challenge internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority with awareness of risk and outcomes
• Demonstrable track record of leading and owning the development and successful implementation of project plans/change initiatives with tangible results
• Resilient and thrives in working in a constantly changing environment
• Proactive and makes evidence and data-based decisions, even if difficult or unpopular

There is a full role profile attached to the bottom of this advert on our website. If you have any questions that aren’t in this advert or on our website, please contact us via our recruitment page.

This is a full-time role working 35 hours five days a week. We operate on a hybrid working basis where you will work 2 days a week from our Birmingham office and the rest of the week from home.

To apply, please click 'apply' to complete the online application form and upload a CV and Cover letter, addressing how you meet the requirements of the role. Your Cover Letter should be no longer than two pages.

Closing date for applications is 2 June at 09:00. Interviews will take place at our offices in the Cube, Birmingham city centre. The first stage interviews are scheduled for 10 June, and the second stage interviews are scheduled for 17 June.

The SRA is the independent regulator of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales, protecting consumers and supporting the rule of law and the administration of justice. We do this by overseeing all education and training requirements necessary to practise as a solicitor, licensing individuals and firms to practise, setting the standards of the profession and regulating and enforcing compliance against these standards.

We offer an inclusive, supportive and friendly working environment and the chance to develop your career within a professional organisation. We are committed to the health and wellbeing of staff, helping everyone to strike a good balance between personal and professional life. Additionally, we provide a generous flexible benefits package, an excellent defined contribution pension scheme and an additional 3% of annual basic salary upon successful completion of probation.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is an Equal Opportunities Employer. Diversity and inclusion is central to everything we do. We are actively committed to promoting and participating in good practice in the way that we attract, recruit and retain staff. Everyone is encouraged to bring their whole self to work because we appreciate the value that a truly diverse workforce brings to an organisation. We celebrate difference, recognising the benefits this brings to our inclusive culture, including age, disability, gender identity and expression, religion, race, sex, sexual orientation and socio economic background.