Business Manager in Birmingham

We are seeking an experienced and motivated Operations Manager to join our Senior Leadership Team on a fixed-term basis to cover maternity leave. As an Operations Manager, you will play a key strategic role in ensuring the effective and efficient management of the academy’s finances, operations, and support services. You will oversee areas including finance, HR, estates management, health and safety, ICT provision, procurement, and administration, ensuring that our academy continues to run smoothly and sustainably.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic leadership on all aspects of business operations.
• Manage the academy’s budget, financial reporting, and long-term financial planning.
• Oversee HR processes, staff recruitment, and workforce administration.
• Lead on site management, health and safety compliance, and facilities development.
• Manage supplier relationships, procurement processes, and contract compliance.
• Support the Senior Leadership Team in the delivery of operational and strategic goals.
• Ensure robust systems are in place to maintain high operational standards across the academy.

Fortis Academy is a very large 11-18 academy serving a local area of high-density housing in Birmingham’s outer suburbs. The Academy is the largest employer in the ward, with over 200 employees. It is part of the North Area Network of schools, one of six network regions in the city. The setting is uniquely split into a Foundation Academy and Senior Academy.

Fortis Academy’s vision is Enriching Lives. This is underpinned by the values of Character, Resilience and Aspiration. Our curriculum centres around three key areas; a rich and ambitious knowledge-based academic curriculum, a continuous attention to physical and mental well-being, with increasing use of 21st century technologies to support improved outcomes. We believe this combination will help our students lead confident, healthy, and fulfilled lives as adults and ready for the world of work.

All candidates are required to provide a supporting statement on the formal application forms which states clearly your reasons for applying, skills and experience for this position.

Join Shaw Education Trust – Support, Teach, Lead… Make the Remarkable Happen. At Shaw Education Trust, we believe every role holds the power to transform a life. Whether you’re supporting behind the scenes, inspiring in the classroom, or leading with vision, you’ll be part of something extraordinary.

We are a dynamic and growing family of Primary, Secondary, and Special Schools, proudly serving communities from Birmingham to Bury. Our mission is to unlock opportunity for every young person—whatever their background, ability, or starting point.

Our people are our greatest asset, and we are deeply committed to their growth. Through high-quality training, apprenticeships, talent acceleration, and research opportunities, we empower our staff to thrive as skilled, confident professionals and we champion wellbeing, value every voice, and create a culture where you feel supported, motivated, and inspired to make a real difference.

You will join a collaborative network of schools where shared expertise and professional community fuel success. Every academy in our Trust has an equal voice, and every colleague plays a vital part in shaping tailored learning experiences that raise aspirations and build brighter futures.

At the heart of our work is a deep respect for the children and young adults we serve—our “precious cargo.” We are proud to "exactly like nothing else” and bridge the gap between education and the wider world, preparing every student for further education, employment, or training in inclusive environments where integrity, equality, and opportunity thrive.

If you have the heart, passion, and drive to help shape lives and create futures filled with promise, we would love you to join our incredible team. Support. Teach. Lead. Belong. Thrive. Together, let’s make the remarkable happen.

In our secondary schools, we pride ourselves on our innovative approach to curriculum design, to ensure all our schools have breadth and ambition for all students, regardless of their starting points and barriers. Standard curriculum models don’t always engage all students, so we constantly seek to innovate and provide better opportunities to develop both knowledge and skills for life. We want our students to believe their curriculum is bold, exciting, purposeful, and ultimately leads to something meaningful for them.

Some examples of our innovation include moving towards an extended school day, to provide a world class enrichment programme and more opportunities for essential skills like reading and cultural capital. We are also introducing vocational and technical pathways, which run through the normal school curriculum but attract support from leading employers and universities to develop work-readiness in our students, so that they can progress onto T Levels and apprenticeships.

Our secondary schools are currently driving ‘PedTech’ across the sector: we believe teaching and technology should go hand-in-glove and are passionately committed towards providing a fully digitally enhanced curriculum. We are very close to achieving full 1:1 device delivery and are sprinting towards better use of iPads in lessons to enhance the experience and learning.

Shaw Education Trust offer the following employee benefits with your Teaching or Support Staff employment:

• Generous holiday entitlement from your first day of employment (37 days holiday rising to 39 days after 5 years’ service including Bank Holidays)
• Access to Medicash Health & Wellbeing Plan: Enjoy health services designed to support your well-being.
• Free DiscountForTeachers Scheme for all staff (Support and Teaching), Exclusive discounts to save money with a wide selection of discounts and exclusive offers from hundreds of the biggest brands.
• Free Eye Tests
• Cycle to work scheme
• Access to our Institute of Education and fantastic opportunities to help you grow, contribute and flourish in your role and in the Trust.

We know our people are the key to our success and so we’re committed to ensuring the employment experience at Shaw Education Trust is a rewarding one.

Actual Salary: £35,877 - £40,388 pro rata

Working Hours: 37 hours per week - Term time + 3 weeks which includes 5 INSET days – 41 weeks per year

This position is subject to robust vetting procedures, including an online search for all shortlisted candidates, in line with our Trust’s commitment to safer recruitment. An enhanced criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is required. You will be asked to disclose all relevant unspent and, where applicable, unfiltered spent reprimands, formal warnings, cautions, and convictions.

Shaw Education Trust is an Equal Opportunities employer. We are fully committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection processes promote equality, diversity, and inclusion at every stage. In accordance with our safer recruitment policy CVs alone will not be accepted.

We reserve the right to appoint before the closing date as we review applications on an ongoing basis and interviews may be arranged as suitable candidates are identified, therefore, we encourage early applications. Successful candidates will be subject to a fully Enhanced DBS check along with other relevant employment checks.