Lead Manager - CIMA Qualification Development

Overview

About the Role: You will help guide high-quality qualification development and lifecycle management across CIMA's qualification portfolio. Combining technical expertise with delivery capability, the Lead Manager leads qualification development activities, oversees important projects or workstreams, and ensures that outputs meet professional, regulatory, and pedagogical standards.

You will provide day-to-day leadership to the Manager and Specialist, ensuring delivery excellence while advocating design principles, governance, and continuous improvement across the qualification lifecycle. You will report to the Senior Director and use a hybrid in-office/remote work schedule.

You Will:

• Line-manage the Manager and the Specialist, providing coaching, oversight, and professional development guidance.
• Quality-check the work produced by the Manager and Specialist to ensure coherence, compliance, and pedagogical soundness.
• Lead qualification development workstreams or projects, ensuring delivery to scope, time and quality.
• Facilitate design workshops and development activities, providing expert direction to contributors and ensuring structured, evidence-based design, rigour and tangible outputs.
• Embed regulatory requirements and industry best practice throughout qualification development processes, maintaining clear controls, approvals, and documentation.
• Lead qualification lifecycle evaluation activities, including analysis of qualification performance, curriculum relevance, assessment validity and fairness and partner feedback.
• Translate evaluation insights into clear recommendations, action plans, and proposed updates.
• Draw on research to inform development work, and translate research outputs into practical direction for workshops, content development, and assessment design.
• Guide colleagues, subject matter experts and practitioners unfamiliar with qualification design to ensure their contributions meet required standards.
• Collaborate with a diverse expert network including employers, practitioners, academics, tutor partners, instructional and learning designers, technologists, pedagogy experts, psychometricians and DEI specialists.
• Represent us in areas of technical expertise in teams and projects; external governance, regulatory, and professional body forums.
• Analyse feedback, research findings, and assessment data to identify trends and inform updates.
• Participate in testing, implementation, and improvement of technology solutions supporting qualification delivery.
• Make recommendations to the Senior Director on latest assessment and learning technologies.

You Have:

• Bachelors’ degree or equivalent.
• 5+ years' relevant experience and track record in the design of qualifications.
• Experience leading workstreams and coordinating others.
• Experience translating research or job/practice analysis into learning or assessment design.
• Experience working with regulated qualification frameworks and compliance requirements.
• Experience working with versatile teams and multiple experts.
• Familiarity with assessment technologies, psychometrics and educational measurement approaches, with evidence of remaining up to date with developments in the field.

How We Support You:

We provide flexibility to help you achieve a good work-life balance. You'll be part of a global, diverse team who foster an environment of inclusion and belonging where you are valued for who you are and where you come from. We offer benefit options in and out of the workplace, including healthcare, pension plan, annual leave, parental leave, an employee assistance program. We care about our employees’ welfare and focus our benefits package on the benefits which support your wellbeing. We also recognise that everyone has different priorities, so in addition to our core benefits to support your health we offer flexible options for you to choose benefits that are right for you, your family and your lifestyle. We believe in non-stop learning and are committed to investing in learning opportunities that help you reach your full potential and support your continued development.

About Us: At The Association, a Great Place to Work-Certified company, we are transforming the accounting and finance profession. We are future-focused, empowering the world's most accomplished accountants to stay relevant, meet today’s demands, and prepare for tomorrow’s challenges through quality education, resources, and training.

EEO Statement: We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.