Head of Function in Oxford

Head of Function

Location ***Note this role is onsite in Oxfordshire not Hybrid or WFH***

Are you passionate about making a real difference? Do you believe in leading with heart and purpose?

At Campsfield IRC, we're committed to going above and beyond—because every interaction matters. We're proud of the meaningful impact we make, and we're on the lookout for inspiring leaders who share our dedication.

If you thrive on empowering teams, ensuring excellence, and creating safe, respectful environments — we want to hear from you!

Job Overview

As a key leader within IRC, you'll oversee a vital function, championing safety, security, dignified care, integrity, and respect — all aligned with contractual, legislative, and Home Office standards. Your role is to inspire, support, and guide your team to deliver outstanding results, ensuring the centre runs smoothly and efficiently.

What You’ll Be Doing

At Campsfield we have four departments namely Security & Operations, Residential Services, Activities and Safety and Business Assurance, each led by a Head of Function. In this role, you will lead one of these departments ensuring you work seamlessly together to provide a safe and respectful environment. You will be responsible for maintaining and updating operational procedures, ensuring they meet all relevant standards and regulations, and that staff are well-informed and equipped to do their jobs effectively. Developing strategies to optimise efficiency, improving quality, and controlling costs will be central to your work, alongside fostering strong relationships with stakeholders like the Home Office, senior leadership teams, and emergency services.

Supporting your team through coaching, motivation, and development is key — creating a culture of inclusion, excellence, and continuous improvement. You will also play a vital role in managing budgets, ensuring the delivery of a high-quality service within financial constraints. As part of the Senior Leadership Team, you will regularly step into the Duty Director role, leading the centre during critical times with confidence and professionalism.

What We're Looking For

Essential

• Proven leadership experience within detention, custodial, policing, or similar settings.
• Experience managing teams of 50+ staff, including supervising first-line managers.
• Budget management skills, with a focus on controlling costs and delivering value.
• Contract management skills with a proven track record of delivering high performance and contract compliance alongside excellent stakeholder engagement

Desirable

• HMPPS Silver Commander
• Qualifications such as Nebosh (General Certificate) or IOSH Managing Safely.
• Level 6 qualification (degree, apprenticeship, or equivalent) in a relevant discipline.

Important Notes

All employment offers are subject to security clearance and background checks.

Eligibility

• British Citizen, EU citizen with settled status, or ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain).
• No recent criminal convictions, CCJs, or significant activity outside the UK (apart from holidays).
• Lived in the UK for the past three years with no major footprints abroad.

If you're ready to lead with purpose and make a tangible difference, we'd love to hear from you!

Join us and be part of something truly transformative.

Our market-leading offering provides you with benefits that suit your lifestyle.

We have a virtual GP on hand for you and members of your household. So you can get expert advice by video or phone without having to leave your home. We offer financial wellbeing assistance through our Salary Finance scheme. For example, you could access 50% of your earned pay before payday for a small fee. Salary Finance also offers competitive loans.

When you join us, we’ll give you a link to our flexible lifestyle benefits platform, Choices. You might choose to purchase up to five extra days’ holiday each year. You might buy critical illness insurance, seek dental treatment or buy technology products at an affordable cost. There are many choices!

We give you access to high street discounts from thousands of well-known retailers, gyms and more through our MiDeals platform. And we have a cycle-to-work scheme. Life cover of up to four times your salary is available. We also offer enhanced pension contributions, a save-as-you-earn scheme, and a Mitie Matching Share Plan (you could even be awarded free shares in Mitie).

We award our employees with Mitie Stars as recognition for their hard work. There are cash prizes up for grabs each month and at the end of the year there’s a chance to scoop a top prize of £10,000!

Our success is a direct result of the experience and quality of our people. Progressing your career is therefore a top priority for us. We offer a diverse variety of training and development avenues via a wide selection of learning resources to suit you.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments, changes or do anything differently during the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing Zeeshan Siddiqui at Zeeshan.Siddiqui@hays.com.

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