AQA
Lead Developer - GCSE Art and Design
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Lead Developer - GCSE Art and Design
Lead Developers – Assessment Reform – GCSE Art and Design
Closing date: 12 Jul 2026, 23:00
Are you passionate about shaping the next generation of GCSE specifications? Your classroom experience—and the insights it brings—is exactly what we’re looking for.
As the leading provider of GCSE and A level qualifications and an education charity, AQA is dedicated to ensuring every learner has the opportunity to succeed regardless of background. We’re now recruiting Lead Developers to help redesign assessment frameworks—this is a flexible, mostly remote opportunity with a national impact.
About the Role
Do you want to turn your classroom expertise into national change? We’re looking for educators who can:
- Bridge gap between policy, pedagogy, and practice
- Ensure specifications reflect the needs of teachers and learners equally
- Deliver fair, high-quality assessments for all
This task-specific worker contract involves working with AQA to develop new GCSE Art and Design specifications. You’ll contribute from concept to delivery while balancing autonomy, collaboration, and consultancy—delivering results over 18–24 months without disrupting your current teaching role.
Key Responsibilities
You’ll lead on assessment development, blending subject specialist expertise with design, structure, and inclusivity. Your involvement includes:
- Aligning specification design with AQA’s assessment principles and regulatory frameworks, ensuring practical relevance and learner equity in mind.
- Shaping the overall assessment strategy, from core concepts through final design.
- Evaluating research and analysis, offering critical feedback and grounded insights.
- Collaborating with AQA’s team to create sample assessment materials: question papers, mark schemes, item commentaries, and external commentary reports.
- Testing and refining the customer-facing routes, including mock exams and supporting learning resources.
- Combining online collaboration with 10–15 days of hybrid in-person meetings across the 2-year programme.
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What We’re Looking For
A successful candidate will:
-
Depth in their subject –
- Substantial teaching experience (multiple years in Art and Design classrooms)
- Evident expertise in curriculum progression, learner needs, and debates around artistic diversity
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Curriculum crafting –
- Proven in specifications, question design, marking or moderation, demonstrating clarity, consistency, and pedagogical robustness.
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Leadership –
- Team player with positive influence, able to support, mentor, and collaborate out of professional consistency.
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Reliability –
- Demonstrated deadline proficiency with a track record of juggling multiple priorities without compromising on clarity, precision, and compliance.
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Regulatory insight –
- Strong understanding of Ofqual requirements, plus inclusivity awareness and strategies to balance gender, disability, and equality standards when designing feedback.
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Quality assurance –
- Unmatched work quality, able to identify and resolve technical flaws quickly.
How You’ll Have an Impact
Your role goes beyond “crafting assessment.” It’s about sustaining a system of fairness—ensuring teachers and learners have trusted, flexible, and relevant qualifications. By contributing:
- New teachers will benefit from a more reliable and learnable system.
- Your interpretation of assessment data will shape teaching standards nationwide.
- You’ll join thousands of educators—moving beyond classroom walls to shape the future of GCSE Art and Design.
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You might see this as another professional milestone, but for AQA—and our future candidates—this will rewrite the textbooks.
What’s in It for You?
Competitive Fees:
- You’ll be paid £4,000–£6,000 total (for work + meeting attendance), with regular reviews throughout the 50-week engagement.
Professional Growth:
- Exhibition and presentation experience
- Stronger curriculum I.T.L. profile – referenced in communities, CPD opportunities, and leadership discussions.
- Exclusive AQA-specific insights into emerging trends, with opportunities for participation in future projects.
Flexibility:
- 10–15 days of meetings (in-person and virtual) split over the 2 years.
Commitment & Confidentiality:
- Please declare any ongoing roles with AQA or other awarding bodies. If successful, you’ll be required to step back from any overlapping roles.
Application Process
How to Apply: Provide specific examples linked to each bullet point above. We encourage honesty and brevity: male and female applicants’ resilience, comprehensibility, and performance at task determine the conversation.
- Applications open now until 23:00 on Sunday 12 July 2026.
- Interviews will take place virtual between late July and mid-August 2026.
Diversity & Inclusivity
AQA has a strong commitment to inclusivity, equity across gender, race, neurodiversity, religion, disability, citizenship status, and more. Your background is valued here. For any further questions please email: seniorrecruitment@aqa.org.uk.
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