Head of Operations (Strategy and Impact Division)

Head of Operations (Strategy and Impact Division) Application Deadline: 12 September 2025

Department: Product Development

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Manchester

Reporting To: Lyndsey Stark

Compensation: £62,100 / year

Description We are looking for a Head of Operations to lead the operational support that enables our Strategy and Impact division to deliver on its priorities.

This division brings together Strategy, New Product Development, and Research, alongside teams that drive our internal governance and organisation-wide change projects. As Head of Operations, you will play a central leadership role, acting as the engine room for the division. You will make sure systems, processes, people, and resources work together smoothly to deliver our strategic goals efficiently and effectively. You will have a key role in delivering our operating plan objectives and supporting the wider organisational strategy.

You will work closely with senior leaders across the division to make sure all work is high-quality, delivered on time, and within budget. This is a senior role suited to someone highly organised, analytically minded, and action-oriented, with a talent for building strong working relationships. Success in this role means helping teams collaborate effectively and making sure they have everything they need to keep getting better at what they do.

Who are Ambition Institute?

A great teacher changes the future every day. Especially for children who have had a tough start in life, a teacher can be the critical factor in their success.

At Ambition Institute we help schools tackling educational disadvantage to keep getting better and help their teachers and school leaders to become more expert over time.

That's how we'll make sure every child gets a great education and the best possible start in life.

• We train teachers and leaders at all levels to get better at the things that make the biggest difference: what you teach, how you teach it, and how you create the conditions for schools to thrive.
• We share what works. Everyone can benefit from evidence of how great teaching and leadership can improve schools and change lives, so we connect people to the latest research and best practice.
• We champion every teacher and school leader's potential to develop, as the driving force for sustainable school improvement.

We would like you to: Divisional operations and planning

• Lead the day-to-day operational management of the Strategy & Impact division, ensuring teams and workstreams are well-coordinated, well-resourced, and aligned to divisional and organisational priorities.
• Work closely with senior leaders to plan and sequence divisional work and resources effectively across multiple teams and initiatives, monitor budgets and capacity across the division, identifying pressure points and enabling strategic deployment of resource.
• Develop, embed and maintain clear systems and processes to support high-quality delivery and effective collaboration.

Programme and project management

• Lead the implementation of consistent and effective project and programme management practices across the division.
• Oversee a pool of project management and administrative support, ensuring its effective and efficient deployment and assuring its quality and impact.
• Work with matrix teams to ensure key projects remain on track, with clear timelines, ownership and delivery plans.
• Support colleagues to manage risks, issues and dependencies, and coordinate delivery planning for high-priority initiatives.

Leading delivery of complex initiatives

• Take the lead on the delivery of large-scale, complex initiatives, coordinating projects across a multi-disciplinary matrix team.
• Build, refine and deliver excellent processes to help our teams achieve more in service of our mission, such as in building out our approach to the scaling up of successful pilot programmes.
• Ensure readiness for delivery of large initiatives such as new contracts, programmes or philanthropically funded work, tracking milestones, facilitating excellent decision making and progress and acting as a point of escalation.

Governance and reporting

• Oversee internal governance processes and support leaders with divisional reporting, ensuring accuracy and visibility of key information to support effective oversight and timely decisions.
• Lead divisional budget and resource planning and reporting, working closely with Finance and People teams to ensure accurate reporting, forecasting and informed decision-making.
• Maintain oversight of risks, timelines, resources and performance across the division's portfolio of work.

Collaboration and team culture

• Foster strong communication and collaboration across the Strategy & Impact division, supporting staff to thrive while delivering excellent work in service of our long-term strategy and mission.
• Support clear and inclusive team rhythms that help colleagues feel connected to our mission, strategy and impact - and empowered to contribute to our collective endeavour.
• Promote a culture of shared ownership and continuous improvement, enabling teams to make good decisions that align with our long-term strategy and mission.

Working in a hybrid way, you'll be attached to either our Birmingham, London or Manchester office and will report to Director of Product Development In line with our current ways of working, you'll be expected to be in the office at least 1 day a month, in addition to team days and this may be reviewed by Ambition.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

• A confident and personable leader with experience overseeing complex operations across multiple teams, ideally in a matrix or cross-functional environment.
• Exceptional organisational and project management skills, with a strong track record of delivering large-scale initiatives on time and within budget, through collaboration rather than control.
• A strategic thinker with sound judgement, able to balance detail with big-picture priorities, and to make clear recommendations that support high-quality decision-making.
• Experienced in planning and resource management, including workforce planning, budget forecasting, and working with finance and HR colleagues to ensure capacity is aligned to ambition.
• Action oriented and comfortable working at pace and in ambiguity, with the initiative to spot issues early, respond flexibly, and drive continuous improvement.
• A confident communicator, able to build trust quickly and communicate clearly with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior leaders, peers and cross-team contributors.
• Committed to fostering an inclusive, collaborative culture, and supporting teams to thrive while delivering excellent work aligned to our mission.
• Deeply connected to our purpose, with a belief in the power of education to unlock opportunity, and a commitment to our long-term strategy and collective endeavour.

What's in it for you .?

• Competitive annual salary
• Professional development for all staff
• 25 days' annual leave, plus bank holidays and 'winter shut down' at the end of December/beginning of January
• Employer pension contribution of 11%
• Agile, hybrid working culture, so you can manage when and where you work
• Staff affinity networks that help keep equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
• Blind recruitment process to ensure equality and fairness in our hiring
• Enhanced maternity pay after a year's service
• Shared parental leave package
• Access to free, confidential 24/7 wellbeing and support line
• Comfortable and collaborative workspaces in the city centres of Manchester, Birmingham and London
• Work-from-home technology package to support hybrid working
• Interest free season ticket / bike loans

We don't expect the person we hire to have all of the following, but this should give you a sense of what would enable you to thrive in this role and in our organisation:

• You care deeply about educational disadvantage and being part of an organisation that challenges inequality
• You have a good work ethic and strive to make a difference in the job you do
• You always give maximum effort to understand and meet the needs of our partners and participants
• You always have a great attitude so we "can do" for all our colleagues, partners and participants
• You are open to feedback and learning because we want to keep getting better
• You work with your initiative to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective
• You are well organised and can prioritise work that will have the greatest impact

• You want a career with a person-centred organisation with a cause at its heart.
• You have a collaborative work ethos, bring warmth and good humour to work and constructive outlook to every situation
• You enjoy working in a fast-moving workplace, with a great support structure around you
• You would like to grow with an ambitious organisation as it progresses over time
• Want flexibility in how you work - splitting your time between one of our offices and remote working and managing your own working patterns to get the job done.

Applications will be accepted for all office locations.
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