Governance and Operations Manager in Newcastle upon Tyne

Salary £47,389 to £50,253 with progression to £56,535 per annum. Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 11 February 2026

The Role:

Join Our Team as a Governance and Operations Manager. Are you an experienced leader who thrives on building efficient processes and ensuring robust oversight? We are seeking a Governance and Operations Manager to join our IT Business Management team within Newcastle University’s IT Service. This is a unique opportunity to lead two small but critical functions that are essential to the effective delivery of our IT services. This is an exciting time to join us. You'll work directly with colleagues across the entire IT function to shape our strategy and ensure we’re running as effectively as possible.

As the Governance and Operations Manager, you will be responsible for:

• Leading our integrated governance function, ensuring robust planning and oversight of all IT activity
• Driving effective integration with wider University governance
• Enabling the University’s IT Service to operate effectively and efficiently

We’re looking for someone with outstanding communication, interpersonal, and influencing skills to drive key governance processes like operational planning, risk management, change management, and policy oversight. Your leadership will be pivotal in enabling our IT services to operate seamlessly.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and maintain a system of governance that provides timely assurance to the NUIT Senior Management Group on business plan activities and performance against targets
• Implement, monitor and enhance quality management policies, processes and procedures across NUIT
• Establish and maintain regular tracking and management reporting in support of all processes within the area of responsibility
• Implement University policies, procedures, and standards (or develop local procedures where necessary) and communicate these effectively to ensure that related teams across NUIT are working to the same direction and standards
• Ensure that there is up to date and appropriate cross-team/core service area collaboration through the sharing of knowledge, priorities, and expertise
• Build capability, manage performance, and ensure cover and resilience for all services and components provided by the team
• Manage, coach and support team members and ensure that high standards are achieved and maintained and that examples of good performance are shared

The Person:

• Substantial proven and practical experience of having implemented, utilised and delivered tangible benefits from governance processes and disciplines (for example ITIL and/or COBIT)
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with proven ability to communicate orally and in writing and via the presentation of management information and other data
• Strong negotiating and influencing skills with evidence of the ability to persuade and encourage colleagues
• The ability to see the bigger picture and to express it coherently in terms of strategic planning
• Proven project management experience where the project team has been drawn from several functional areas or organisations
• Experience of coaching or training others
• The ability to plan, organise and prioritise workload, to work under pressure and meet deadlines
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

How:

If this sounds like you, we invite you to submit your CV and a 1-page covering letter. Your application should outline examples where your knowledge, skills, and experiences align with the person specification within the Job Description. If you would like to have an informal chat about this opportunity, contact Gary Davison, Head of IT Business Management, at gary.davison@ncl.ac.uk.

Why Join Us?

The University values both on-campus and remote working, with a flexible, informal approach tailored to each team. We’re also open to discussing relocation support for candidates applying from outside the region.

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution. We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality. We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education. We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme. In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe.