You will work closely with Operations, Quality/IQA, Compliance, Product, Technology, Account Management and the senior leadership team. Success in the role means that assessment delivery becomes more predictable, more scalable and more accountable - with fewer manual workarounds, clearer ownership, better utilisation and stronger confidence that AP can meet current and future demand. Done well, this frees the Executive Director’s time and attention for new accounts, existing customer growth, major partner relationships, reform and regulatory priorities.

Key Responsibilities

Assessment Team Leadership

• Line manage the Lead SMEs, setting clear expectations for their leadership of assessors, performance management, communication, coaching, escalation and day-to-day delivery oversight.
• Create a strong operating rhythm across the assessment team, ensuring Lead SMEs are focused on the right priorities: assessor readiness, quality, utilisation, availability, standard coverage and learner experience.
• Provide direct, practical and fast-paced leadership to ensure delivery issues are resolved quickly and do not drift across meetings, inboxes or informal channels.
• Build a performance culture in which assessors understand expectations around assessment volume, preparation, grade submission, platform use, CPD, standardisation and responsiveness.
• Ensure Lead SMEs are equipped to manage both full-time and freelance assessors consistently, fairly and in line with AP’s operational and quality expectations.

Utilisation, Capacity and Workforce Planning

• Own the assessment team’s utilisation and capacity model, ensuring AP has clear visibility of available assessor capacity by standard, employment type, availability, training status and forecast demand.
• Use pipeline data, gateway forecasts, booked assessments, leave, sickness, freelancer availability and upskilling plans to anticipate pressure points before they affect SLAs or learner experience.
• Ensure full-time assessors are used effectively and that freelance capacity is deployed purposefully to manage peaks, specialist standards, cover requirements and short-notice volume changes.
• Lead the weekly and daily assessment-capacity rhythm, ensuring meetings result in clear decisions, named owners and visible actions.
• Identify under-utilisation, over-utilisation, lost capacity, recoverable slots and avoidable rescheduling, and drive practical actions to improve performance.
• Work with Commercial and Account Management colleagues to understand provider forecasts and major partnership pipelines, translating these into realistic workforce requirements.
• Maintain a forward-looking view of capacity risks across key standards, including where AP needs to recruit, cross-skill, upskill or retain specialist cover.

Scheduling, Delivery Control and SLA Performance

• Ensure assessment scheduling is efficient, capacity-aware and aligned to contractual and internal service levels.
• Oversee the allocation of assessors to assessments, ensuring bookings reflect standard expertise, availability, conflict-of-interest requirements, reasonable adjustments, learner needs and delivery timelines.
• Monitor SLA performance across standards and intervene early where bottlenecks, late gateways, grade delays, reschedules, cancellations or assessor availability issues create risk.
• Own escalation and resolution of delivery issues relating to assessment allocation, scheduling conflicts, assessor cover, freelancer availability and short-term capacity gaps.
• Make sure operational reporting translates into action, not just visibility - particularly around assessment status, slot availability, late grades, recoverable capacity and forecast demand.
• Work with Operations to improve the handover between gateway, scheduling, assessment delivery, grading and certification so that the learner journey is smooth and predictable.

Assessor Onboarding, Upskilling and Readiness

• Lead the operational management of assessor onboarding, ensuring new assessors move from recruitment to readiness through a clear, structured and time-bound pathway.
• Work with Lead SMEs, Quality/IQA and Compliance to ensure onboarding includes assessment practice, standardisation, platform use, regulatory expectations, reasonable adjustments, learner support and grade submission requirements.
• Maintain clear visibility of assessor status: trainee, qualified, upskilling, inactive, freelance, standard-specific approval and readiness for allocation.
• Ensure upskilling plans are linked to forecast demand, not treated as isolated training activity.
• Prioritise cross-skilling where it improves resilience, reduces dependency on individual assessors or supports growth in standards with increasing volumes.
• Make sure newly onboarded or newly upskilled assessors are not over-exposed before they are ready, particularly in complex standards, reasonable adjustment cases or higher-risk assessments.
• Work with recruitment partners and internal stakeholders to ensure future assessor recruitment is strategic, evidence-led and aligned to forecast demand.

Quality, Standardisation and Compliance

• Work closely with Quality/IQA and Compliance to ensure assessment delivery remains valid, reliable, fair and compliant with Ofqual requirements.
• Ensure assessors and Lead SMEs understand their responsibilities in relation to assessment judgement, evidence requirements, reasonable adjustments, special considerations, malpractice, appeals and grade release.
• Support a risk-based approach to assessor deployment, ensuring complex or sensitive assessments are allocated to appropriately experienced and trained assessors.
• Ensure standardisation, CPD and feedback activity is acted on through Lead SME line management, not left as standalone quality activity.
• Help identify patterns in assessment errors, delayed grading, learner issues, support queries, appeals, complaints or provider feedback, and translate those patterns into improvement actions.
• Ensure compliance risks arising from delivery practice are escalated quickly, with clear mitigations and owners.

Technology, Apex and Process Improvement

• Champion effective use of Apex, AP Gateway, AP Assess, AP Comply and associated reporting tools across the assessment team.
• Ensure assessors and Lead SMEs use platforms consistently, accurately and in line with agreed processes.
• Identify manual workarounds, duplicated effort, unclear ownership and process friction within assessment delivery, then work with Product, Technology and Operations to simplify or automate where possible.
• Support the development and testing of utilisation reports, scheduling tools, capacity dashboards, reschedule tracking, learner-status reports and operational MI.
• Ensure platform improvements are embedded into real working practices through training, communication, monitoring and follow-up.
• Act as a strong operational voice in product and technology discussions, ensuring system development reflects genuine delivery needs and reduces friction for assessors, providers and learners.

Performance Reporting and MI

• Produce clear, data-led reporting on assessment delivery performance for the Executive Director