Job Title: Senior Operations and Compliance Manager
Salary: £43,800 - £58,500 per annum
Location: Cambridge, Hybrid (2–3 Days Per Week)
Contract: Permanent, Full-time, 35 hours per week

A unique opportunity to lead compliance and operations for a globally recognised educational partnership, making a direct impact on the delivery of secure English language testing for millions of learners worldwide.

We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.

About the role

The Senior Operations and Compliance Manager plays a pivotal role in the IELTS Contracts Team, responsible for managing and ensuring compliance (regulatory and contractual) of key IELTS contracts, primarily the SELT (Secure English Language Testing) contract with UKVI (Home Office). You will work closely with the Contracts Lead and senior stakeholders across the IELTS partnership, ensuring risk and compliance are appropriately escalated and communicated, and that contract management activities are delivered to the highest standards.

Key accountabilities include:

• ensuring risk and compliance are appropriately escalated and communicated between the IELTS Contracts Team and the IELTS cross partner working groups, managing communications and reporting across multi-level groups they manage and track activities for effective contract management.
• having a detailed understanding of the SELT (and future HOELT) contract details, and other contracts as applicable, and to work with the Contracts Lead to ensure operational and regulatory adherence across the IELTS partnership.
• playing a pivotal role in relationship management through senior stakeholder and key document management (operational and contractual).
• working closely with cross partner functional teams to ensure network compliance with contractual requirements escalating to and working with senior external stakeholders where issues arise to reach resolution.
• deputising for the Contracts Lead as required and to act as deputy ISC Concession Manager as needed, carrying out essential activities and communications with stakeholders, including the IELTS Partners, the IELTS Board, the English Board, the Home Office, DOHA etc.
• implementing plans of any new incoming contracts which will require the development and roll out of cross partner procedures and ways of working.

About you

You are detail-oriented with a strong track record in reviewing data and producing accurate reports. Your ability to motivate individuals and influence key stakeholders enables you to build strong alliances across diverse teams. With excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, you confidently engage with colleagues at all levels, both internally and externally.

You bring proven experience in contract management, ideally within the publishing or education sectors, and are adept at creating and maintaining operational and regulatory documentation. Your written and oral communication skills are exceptional, and you\'re comfortable leading meetings and delivering presentations.

You thrive in fast-paced environments, working with precision and clarity. You\'re confident in making decisions around information categorisation, escalation, and distribution, and can assess implications and risks to provide sound recommendations.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity and what will make you successful, please see the full job description attached to the bottom of this vacancy on our careers site.

Rewards and benefits

We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:

• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Group personal pension scheme
• Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
• Green travel schemes

We are a hybrid working organisation, and we offer a range of flexible working options from day one. We expect most hybrid-working colleagues to spend 40–60% of their time at their dedicated office or location. We will also consider other work arrangements if you wish to work more flexibly or require adjustments due to a disability.

Ready to pursue your potential? Apply now.

We review applications on an ongoing basis, with a closing date for all applications being Sunday 21st September. Interviews are scheduled to take place on the week commencing Monday 29th September.

Please note, this could potentially be a two-stage interview process. First-stage interviews (either 29th September, 1st October or 2nd October) will be held in person at our Cambridge office.

Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is an approved UK employer for the sponsorship of eligible roles and applicants under the Skilled Worker visa route. Please refer to the gov.uk website for guidance to understand your own eligibility based on the role you are applying for.

Why join us

Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You'll belong to a collaborative team that's exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where it\'s safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background.

We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.