Soka Partners
Operations Lead - Education
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Operations Lead – Education
Location: Multi-site (Travel Required)
Salary: Competitive + Benefits
Are you an experienced operational leader looking to make a meaningful impact within education? An established organisation is seeking an ambitious Operations Lead to support a portfolio of specialist schools. This is a fantastic opportunity to work alongside Headteachers, Principals and central support teams to drive operational excellence, strengthen performance and help deliver outstanding outcomes for children and young people.
This is a varied and influential leadership role, ideal for someone who enjoys building strong relationships, leading change and improving operational performance across multiple sites.
The Role
As Operations Lead, you will provide both strategic and operational support to school leaders, ensuring schools operate efficiently, remain compliant with regulatory requirements and are well positioned for continued success.
Working across a portfolio of schools, you will:
- Lead operational improvement initiatives
- Monitor performance
- Support organisational change
- Help ensure schools are always inspection ready
Key Responsibilities
- Partner with Headteachers and Principals to support the effective day-to-day operation of schools.
- Drive consistency in operational processes, systems and standards across multiple sites.
- Monitor operational performance and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
- Support schools through periods of growth, change and service development.
- Provide operational leadership during inspections, audits and regulatory visits.
- Identify operational risks and implement effective solutions.
- Work closely with HR teams to support workforce planning, recruitment, retention and employee engagement.
- Monitor key performance indicators and provide insight and recommendations to senior leaders.
- Lead operational projects and support the implementation of new systems and improvement programmes.
- Coordinate compliance activity, ensuring schools meet regulatory and safeguarding requirements.
- Support school leaders with budget monitoring, resource utilisation and operational efficiency.
- Build strong collaborative relationships with internal teams and external stakeholders to drive positive outcomes.
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About You
You'll be an experienced operational leader with a track record of supporting multi-site services, improving performance and delivering successful change within a regulated environment. You'll be confident influencing senior stakeholders, analysing performance data and managing multiple priorities while maintaining a strong focus on quality, compliance and continuous improvement.
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Essential Skills & Experience:
- Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience.
- GCSE English and Mathematics (Grade C/4 or above), or equivalent.
- Evidence of ongoing professional development.
- Experience supporting operational performance across multiple sites.
- Experience working within a regulated environment.
- Strong understanding of quality assurance, compliance and performance improvement.
- Proven experience using management information and performance data to drive decision-making.
- Project management and change implementation experience.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Strong organisational, analytical and problem-solving abilities.
- Ability to work independently across geographically dispersed locations.
Knowledge of:
- Independent School Standards.
- Ofsted or Estyn inspection frameworks.
- Safeguarding within education.
- Workforce planning and HR processes.
- Health and Safety legislation.
- Data protection and GDPR.
Essential Requirements:
- PGCE or equivalent teaching qualification.
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