Team Manager, Connect to Work, Oxfordshire

This is a hybrid role. It is expected that you will spend approximately three days per week in Oxfordshire working with the team, stakeholders, employers and partners. Proximity to Oxfordshire is essential.

Salary: £35-40K depending on relevant experience.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead a team of up to 20 people (including partners) in the successful delivery of the programme, ensuring that service users receive an excellent service that meets the IPS framework and exceeds contractual quality outcomes.
• Work alongside Enterprise Oxfordshire to build and shape the Stakeholder Engagement plan, establishing community networks to meet engagement targets that mirror contract priorities.
• Co‑produce and deliver an Employer Engagement plan in partnership with employers, creating working documents with clear lines of responsibility and involving partners as needed.
• Provide line management, coaching, consistent communication and performance‑management support to direct reports and partners.
• Accountable for partners’ performance, building strong relationships and ensuring operational processes are effective.
• Oversee quality monitoring of tasks and processes and governance related to delivery, embedding the IPS framework from the outset with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Champion high standards of integrity and conduct, embedding safeguarding best practice across the team.
• Accurately forecast performance against targets monthly, proactively ensuring contract compliance by addressing shortfalls in performance, fidelity or capacity.
• Oversee induction and training, ensuring the entire team (including partners) is equipped with a focus on development and retention.
• Maintain the primary relationship with the Commissioner for operational matters and produce performance reports as required.
• Build relationships with broader stakeholder groups to ensure effective service delivery, supporting the co‑location of services where needed.

Required Skills and Experience

• Experience building and managing stakeholder engagement plans that meet targets and align with contract values.
• Experience in a responsible management position within a comparable UK sector, managing remote or geographically dispersed teams.
• Experience running projects to deliver stretching contractual performance targets or Service Level Agreements and analysing data to drive performance.
• Proven skills in delivering operational performance through a supply chain alongside an in‑house team.
• Experience launching new support programmes, including system configuration, office set‑up, recruitment and supply‑chain mobilisation.
• Strong influencing and engagement skills, with a track record of building lasting and effective external stakeholder relationships.
• Level of independence and professionalism to take the lead as needed.

Desirable

• Experience delivering SEQF and/or IPS contracts against fidelity standards and owning an action plan for continuous improvement.
• Leadership of a contract or programme in employability, integration, community support, education or social care.
• Exposure to the challenges faced by residents who may be out of work due to health or disability, or personal lived experience of these challenges.
• Driving licence and access to a car for community travel.

Key Competencies

• Taking responsibility, driving tasks through to completion and achieving results.
• Ability to motivate, challenge and inspire.
• Proactive, solution‑focused, bringing creativity and practicality to bear.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Use of management information to inform and drive performance improvement.
• Performance and target focused.
• Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills.
• The determination and drive to make a positive difference.

Guiding Principles

• We are One Palladium – accountable, responsible, and celebrating positive impact.
• Our business grows when our people grow – opportunities for development for all.
• Our strength lies in our differences – listening to and respecting each other.
• Making mistakes is part of learning – we admit mistakes early and learn together.
• We don’t exist without results – driven by outcomes we achieve, staying focused on what matters.

Project Overview and Role

Connect to Work is a UK government‑funded initiative that forms part of the Get Britain Working Strategy. It supports individuals with disabilities, health conditions or other complex challenges in finding and maintaining sustainable work. Programme delivery includes both IPS (Individual Placement Support) and SEQF (Supported Employment) approaches, tailoring the service to the individual. Local embedded community support is key to engagement and delivery, working alongside local partners, stakeholders and employers. Individuals can self‑refer or be referred by professionals. Palladium is responsible for the IPS delivery of the contract in Oxfordshire, working alongside key partners.

About Palladium

You would be joining Palladium, a global impact organisation with 3,000 employees in over 70 countries. Palladium is mission‑driven, with impact of its work as important as commercial return. We call this ‘Positive Impact’. For the past 50 years, Palladium has helped clients see the world as interconnected in over 90 countries, delivering lasting positive impact through strategies, partnerships and programmes.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We strive for diversity in our workforce, and all applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics.

Disability Confident Employer

Palladium will offer a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this position. Reasonable adjustments or accommodations can be made upon request.

Safeguarding

Palladium defines Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. All successful candidates will undergo an enhanced selection process, including safeguarding‑focused interviews and rigorous due diligence.

Real Living Wage Employer

Palladium International is a real living wage employer.

Seniority Level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment Type

Full‑time

Job Function

Management and Manufacturing

Industries

Business Consulting and Services