Chief of Staff London OR Birmingham based

Are you a dynamic, determined, ambitious individual ready to take on a stretching opportunity within a vibrant team? If you are an outstanding problem solver, passionate about improving education and looking for a varied challenge in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment, we would love to hear from you.

Our Chief of Staff is a new role to support our QA Higher Education Chief Operating Officer in the development, implementation and operation of the operational strategy and operating model. You can expect a varied role, working across projects, processes and systems, where you will need to demonstrate insight and initiative as well as represent the COO.

You will plan, coordinate and implement key strategic initiatives across QAHE ensuring full engagement and clarity on initiatives and activities across the business. Strategic Initiatives will be project-based in nature focusing on projects of high importance to the COO and Executive team and strategic importance to the business and its stakeholders.

Here's some of what’s involved:

• Designing and managing the business and governance cycle for QAHE including Exec, SMT and wider leadership meetings, All Hands, key workstreams and their regular meeting cycles.
• Supporting governance and performance management of the organisation, including attending, setting agendas for and minuting key meetings.
• Program Managing pieces of work directly, supporting and communicating business-wide change and Strategic Initiatives.
• Thought leadership and external scanning for market and competitive insight as well as Higher Education policy to inform operational strategy.
• Supporting the COO directly to prioritise and manage workload, representing the COO in different meetings and with different audiences when appropriate.
• Developing the COO’s presentations and speeches for internal, external and partner meetings.
• Supporting the COO and Exec team in all aspects of external relations, including planning for and execution of key business events.
• Supporting workstreams directly as required, for example the Target Operating Model and Digital Transformation activity as these pieces of work reach critical points in their delivery.
• Being an ear to the ground for the COO and Exec team on company morale and culture, key people issues or communications challenges.

Required Skills

• Strong business acumen with a focus on developing creative solutions.
• Outstanding communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Collaborative and solution-driven approach.
• Resilient performance under pressure.
• Analytical thinker with data-driven decision-making abilities.
• Creative in approach, generating new ideas and approaches.
• Change advocate demonstrating commitment and initiative to drive change.

Additional Preferred Skills

• A background in consulting desirable.
• Proven success in a project coordination/management role.
• Experience with financial and performance management.
• Report writing and presentations to senior leaders.

Qualifications

• Educated to Degree level.
• MBA desirable.
• Project Management qualification potentially helpful.

At QA Higher Education, we are absolutely committed to breaking down barriers, eliminating discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities so that diversity can flourish here. One of our core values is that ‘our Diversity makes us stronger’ - we recognise that people from different backgrounds and experiences bring valuable perspectives and enhance the way we work at QA. As a leader in education, it’s our duty to drive diversity and inclusion not only for ourselves, but also the wider industry, the clients we serve and the communities in which we work.

As an equal opportunity employer, we stay true to our mission by ensuring that our place can be anyone’s place. The successful candidate will be required to undertake the Basic DBS check.