Student Engagement Manager

Our mission is to provide transformative, high-quality digital education, so students can learn, wherever they are. We collaborate with academics and professional services staff across the university, and with our external partners, to design, develop and deliver a wide range of educational programmes. Our learners study with us from across the world, choosing when and where they study, working around their schedules. We are a dynamic team with ambitious growth targets in a priority area of development for King’s. We proudly foster a supportive culture and community which prioritises both individual and collective wellbeing. Employee support at King’s includes flexible working arrangements, paid maternity/shared parental leave, menopausal support, an active wellbeing programme, training and development opportunities and much more. All staff benefit from a generous pension contribution as well. This role will be hybrid, requiring usually 2 days per week on campus, subject to the requirements of the role. Join us as we open futures and unlock potential.

About the role

The Student Engagement Team within King’s Digital has the mission of building online students’ sense of belonging and community at King’s, leading to their positive student experience and academic success. Online students at King’s are living and studying in over 150 countries of the world; they are busy, committed and balancing their part-time, asynchronous study alongside many other commitments. For this role, we are looking for a candidate with creativity coupled with an ability to move ideas into actions, recognising that engaging online students comes with a unique but exciting set of challenges and opportunities. Working within the University, the Student Engagement Team is a professional centre of expertise, providing knowledge and understanding of what engagement means for online students, working with professional services, faculties, and students themselves.

Day to day, the role involves planning and delivering mechanisms to build students’ sense of belonging and community, bringing innovation and new approaches to the student experience. This spans communication, events, student voice activities, and facilitating our newly launched Digital Fellows scheme. Within King’s Digital Student Success, this is a leadership role requiring an experienced professional who demonstrates exceptional teamwork, relationship building and collaboration. The role will involve collating and analysing data, to measure, evaluate and continuously improve the experience of online students and ultimately, their success. Alongside, the postholder needs to be able to think long-term and contribute to planning, as well as deal with day‑to‑day operations. This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite contract.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

• Experience of coordinating events and communication including developing, planning, implementing and evaluating events and initiatives in a way that can be applied to online students
• Experience of team/line management, including an ability to oversee multiple projects whilst setting the direction and priorities for others
• Excellent leadership and communication skills with a proven ability to engage, inspire and influence audiences and stakeholders
• Excellent organisation and time management skills, managing a varied workload and working to tight, inflexible deadlines
• Comfort when collating, analysing and evaluating using data, both quantitative and qualitative, to inform decision-making and strategic direction, effectively using data to influence
• Confidence when working independently, proactively and flexibly, using own judgement and initiative whilst being equally confident when working as part of a team
• Using technology innovatively, particularly in relation to events and communication
• Experience in engaging hard‑to‑reach groups, such as online students who are often busy, working professionals living around the world in different time zones and cultures
• Prior experience working with postgraduate students

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university. The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension. We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible. We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day. We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.