Senior Academic Lead (across all subjects)

Salary: £70,000-£80,000 per year, plus performance-based bonuses and potential equity options.

Location: London or Shanghai.

Contract: Full-time | Hybrid | Evening/weekend teaching required during peak cycles.

We are accepting applications for Academic Lead in the following subject areas:

• Maths
• Physics / Engineering
• Economics
• Humanities & Social Sciences
• Biochemistry

About Blue Education

Blue Education is a leading education technology company specialising in helping students achieve their academic, university admissions, postgraduate and career goals. Our team is comprised of graduates from Oxford, Cambridge, Ivy League and other world-leading institutions, bringing academic excellence, teaching expertise and a strong record of student success. We support ambitious students and families through rigorous teaching, personalised academic guidance and strategic planning. Our mission is to help students thrive academically, gain admission to the world’s top universities and develop the confidence, curiosity and skills to make meaningful contributions to society.

Role Overview

The Senior Academic Lead is the senior academic owner for a designated subject division. The role is accountable for the quality, consistency, growth and commercial success of all academic provision within that subject area. This includes responsibility for all students in the discipline, subject curriculum strategy, teaching standards, student outcomes, tutor performance, staff recruitment and training, and the development of new academic programmes that support Blue Education’s growth. It is a senior leadership position responsible for building and scaling a high-performing subject team, ensuring every student receives excellent academic support, and taking the subject area forward as a strategic business unit.

Responsibilities

• Subject Area Ownership & Student Outcomes: Take overall responsibility for all students within the designated subject area, ensuring each student has a clear academic plan, appropriate teaching provision and measurable progression.
• Subject-Level Academic Outcomes: Be accountable for student progress, university admissions success, retention, parent satisfaction and student experience.
• Escalation Point: Act as the senior escalation point for complex academic cases, underperformance, family concerns and high-stakes university application decisions.
• Data Review & Intervention: Review student data and academic feedback regularly, identifying risks early and implementing interventions to improve outcomes.
• Consistent Academic Quality: Ensure consistent academic quality and student support across tutors, Academic Leads and programmes within the subject area.
• Teaching & Mentoring: Deliver exceptional teaching and high-level academic mentoring for top-performing students targeting Oxbridge, Ivy League and other globally competitive universities.
• Admissions Guidance: Provide specialist guidance on demanding admissions pathways, including subject preparation, written work, personal statements, admissions tests, interviews and scholarship preparation.
• Final Academic Review: Serve as final academic reviewer for critical applications, interview preparation and high-value student cases within the subject area.
• Standards Model: Model the standard of analytical rigour, intellectual curiosity and student-centred teaching expected across the academic team.
• Knowledge Update: Maintain deep and current knowledge of global university admissions requirements, subject curricula and competitive selection processes.
• Curriculum Leadership: Own the academic vision, curriculum strategy and pedagogical framework for the entire subject division.
• Curriculum Design: Design, approve and continuously improve curricula, enrichment programmes, teaching resources, assessment frameworks and intervention models.
• Rigorous Curriculum: Ensure the curriculum is academically rigorous, commercially relevant and aligned with Oxbridge, Ivy League and global university admissions standards.
• Scalable Products: Develop scalable academic products and subject pathways that support students at different stages of academic development and application readiness.
• Program Quality: Use student outcomes, tutor feedback, parent feedback, market insight and admissions trends to improve programme quality and effectiveness.
• Team Management: Directly manage and lead Academic Leads, and Tutors within the subject area, as applicable.
• Expectation Setting: Set clear expectations, objectives and performance standards for the subject team, ensuring alignment with Blue Education’s academic quality and service standards.
• Performance Reviews: Conduct regular performance reviews, lesson observations, coaching conversations and feedback sessions.
• Culture Building: Build a culture of excellence, responsiveness, collaboration and intellectual ambition across the subject team.
• Gap Identification: Identify capability gaps, manage underperformance professionally and support succession planning for future academic leaders.
• Recruitment: Lead recruitment, selection and onboarding of academic staff within the subject discipline.
• Hiring Standards: Establish and maintain subject‑specific hiring standards, sample lesson expectations and evaluation criteria.
• Training Delivery: Design and deliver training programmes for Academic Leads, and Tutors.
• Training Materials: Create scalable training materials, teaching frameworks, quality guidelines and best‑practice resources for the subject team.
• Staff Understanding: Ensure all new academic staff understand Blue Education’s teaching standards, communication expectations, student management processes and admissions methodology.
• KPI Establishment: Establish and monitor subject-level academic KPIs, including student progress, lesson quality, report quality, admissions outcomes, retention and satisfaction.
• Quality Assurance: Implement quality assurance processes for lesson delivery, curriculum use, student feedback, tutor reporting and academic interventions.
• Records Review: Review academic records, student plans and tutor performance data to ensure consistency and excellence across the subject area.
• Subject Review Meetings: Lead regular subject review meetings and produce clear recommendations for continuous improvement.
• Compliance: Ensure academic delivery remains aligned with safeguarding, professional conduct, data protection and internal operating standards.
• Relationship Building: Build trusted relationships with students and families, particularly high‑value and complex cases requiring senior academic input.
• Strategic Consulting: Provide strategic educational consulting, long‑term academic planning and senior‑level advice on university placement strategy.
• External Representation: Represent Blue Education as a credible academic authority in meetings with parents, students, schools and external partners.
• Communication Support: Support Academic Leads and tutors in managing sensitive family communications, expectations and progression concerns.
• Professional Communication: Ensure student and parent communication is timely, professional, accurate and commercially aware.
• Growth Strategy: Partner with senior leadership to define and deliver growth strategy for the subject division.
• Revenue Contribution: Contribute to revenue growth through improved student retention, programme expansion, referrals, conversion support and premium academic services.
• Market Insight: Identify market opportunities, competitor trends and emerging student needs to shape new programmes and services.
• Sales Support: Support sales, marketing and partnership activity by providing expert academic insight, webinars, workshops and public‑facing thought leadership.
• Planning & Priorities: Contribute to annual planning, resourcing, team capacity decisions and subject-level commercial priorities.
• Public Engagement: Represent the academic team in school collaborations, external partnerships, webinars, parent seminars and public speaking engagements.
• Reputation Strengthening: Strengthen Blue Education’s reputation for academic excellence through high‑quality content, events and strategic academic initiatives.
• Trend Watching: Stay ahead of global education trends, admissions developments, curriculum changes and competitor positioning.
• Insight Translation: Translate external insight into practical improvements in curriculum, teaching practice, student support and commercial offering.

Qualifications And Competencies

• Academic Credentials: Graduate, Master’s or PhD degree from Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial College, Ivy League, or an equivalent top global university.
• Subject Expertise: Outstanding subject expertise and the credibility to lead a team of high‑calibre academics and advise ambitious families.
• Teaching Experience: Minimum 1,500+ hours of teaching, tutoring or academic mentoring experience, ideally with high‑achieving and university‑bound students.
• Admissions Track Record: Proven track record supporting students applying to Oxbridge, Ivy League or other competitive university programmes.
• Outcome Improvement: Demonstrated ability to diagnose student needs, design targeted learning plans and improve academic outcomes.
• High‑Stakes Experience: Experience handling complex or high‑stakes student cases, including admissions strategy, interviews, written work and subject‑specific preparation.
• People Management: Minimum 2-3 years of people management or academic team leadership experience within education, tutoring, schools, higher education, admissions consulting or a related sector.
• Team Motivation: Proven ability to lead, motivate and engage teams to achieve excellent performance.
• Recruitment & Training: Experience recruiting, onboarding, training and developing teachers, tutors or academic staff.
• Performance Management: Confidence setting standards, giving feedback, managing performance and holding team members accountable.
• Curriculum Design: Experience designing curricula, academic pathways, assessments, teaching resources or enrichment programmes.
• Quality Assurance: Strong understanding of academic quality assurance, student progress tracking and teaching excellence frameworks.
• Process Translation: Ability to translate educational insight into scalable processes, training materials and commercially viable academic products.
• Commercial Acumen: Commercial acumen with evidence of measurable contribution to business growth, student retention, programme development, referrals, partnerships or premium service delivery.
• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Entrepreneurial mindset and ability to identify opportunities that take the subject area and wider business forward.
• Leadership Collaboration: Comfortable working with senior leadership on planning, priorities, resourcing and strategic initiatives.
• Communication Skills: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to advise students, parents, tutors and senior stakeholders clearly and professionally.
• Organisation: Highly organised, responsive and capable of managing multiple students, team members, deadlines and priorities.
• Digital Literacy: Strong digital literacy and confidence using online learning platforms, data tools and collaborative working systems.
• Availability: Willingness to teach and support families during evenings and weekends in peak application cycles.
• Integrity: Intellectual curiosity, integrity, resilience and strong commitment to student development and educational excellence.
• Collaboration: Collaborative, ambitious and energised by working in a high‑achieving, fast‑growing academic environment.

Success Measures

• Student Progress, Retention, Satisfaction and Admissions Outcomes across the subject area.
• Quality and consistency of teaching delivery, reporting and academic intervention across the team.
• Recruitment, onboarding, training and development of academic staff.
• Improvement and scalability of curricula, resources and subject pathways.
• Commercial contribution through growth, referrals, programme innovation and premium service quality.
• Strength and reputation of the subject area within Blue Education and the wider market.

What We Offer

• £70,000-£80,000 base salary, plus performance-based bonuses and potential equity options.
• UK work permit sponsorship for exceptional candidates, where applicable.
• A collaborative environment with colleagues from Oxford, Cambridge, Ivy League and top global universities.
• A senior leadership pathway with real influence over academic strategy, programme design, team development and business growth.
• Comprehensive benefits including private health insurance and pension scheme.
• International exposure across the UK and Asia, with opportunities for travel.
• The opportunity to make a transformative impact on students’ academic and personal development while helping to scale a leading education business.

Equal Opportunities

Blue Education welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds and is committed to building an inclusive environment where talented educators and academic leaders can thrive.