At AQA, we’re committed to advancing education and we’re committed to our people. As the largest provider of academic qualifications in the UK , we mark over 10 million exam papers each year and it’s our people who make this happen.

Director of Assessment

Permanent

£90,000 to £120,000 Manchester

£95,000 to £125,000 Milton Keynes, Guildford, London

Hybrid working with UK wide travel

Are you ready to Lead Strategic Change in the Future of Assessments?

Imagine being at the forefront of a rapidly evolving educational landscape, where your leadership shapes the next generation of assessments. As the Director of Assessment, you’ll not only drive the transition from paper to digital exams but also seize opportunities to redesign and prepare for curriculum and general qualification reform. If you’re a strategic leader with a passion for innovation, change and inclusive excellence who possesses the gravitas to influence key stakeholders and thrive in a regulated environment, this role is your opportunity to make a lasting impact.

Empowering Vision and Inspiring Leadership: Guide Our Transformative Journey in Assessments.

At AQA, we are embarking on a journey of significant transformation in our assessment landscape and of our assessment teams. As the Director of Assessment, you will craft and steer the strategic direction, ensuring our assessments are not only cutting-edge, fair and accessible equitable but also reflect the latest educational advancements. Your talent for weaving together diverse perspectives and fostering a culture of continual ongoing improvement will be crucial in guiding us through these changes and reinforcing AQA's reputation as a beacon of educational excellence and innovation.

Landscape

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and working closely with the Directors of Operations, Associates, Product Management and other senior leaders across AQA, the Director of Assessment manages Heads of Assessment Design, Assessment Production, Assessment Development and Assessment Quality and collectively the team creates fair, practicable, valid, reliable, accessible and error free questions papers, marking instructions schemes and other assessment materials for the domestic and growing international core GCSEs and A levels to time and which are regulatorily compliant.

What Will You Accomplish?

In your role as Director of Assessment, you will lead a dedicated team of over 110 permanent colleagues and 1,000 senior associates, gracefully guiding the development and delivery of GCSE and A-level assessments. Your leadership will focus on preparing for and implementing curriculum and qualification reforms, ensuring that our assessment expertise and practices consistently exceed regulatory standards and support our commitment to educational innovation and excellence.

What’s in It for You?

• Lead a strategic function in an environment poised for significant change and innovation.
• Enjoy a flexible work environment with a 35-hour week and extensive opportunities for professional and personal development.
• Benefit from a competitive pension scheme, starting at 6% and rising up to 11.5%.
• Receive 25 days of annual leave, increasing to 30 days with service, plus bank holidays and additional Christmas office closure.
• Comprehensive health coverage from day one, including Bupa PMI, Health Cash Plan, and Life Assurance.
• Participate in eco-friendly transport schemes, including electric vehicles and cycle-to-work options.

What you’ll do

As Director of Assessment with a strong track record, you will be instrumental in nurturing the future of educational assessments. Your role will be central in guiding the strategic evolution of our assessment processes, especially as we embrace digital exams and adapt to curriculum and general qualification reforms.

• Champion Strategic Transformation: Lead the reimagining and delivery of high-quality, accessible, and error-free assessment materials. You will ensure adherence to regulatory standards while promoting a culture of innovation and continuous growth.
• Empower and Develop Teams: Cultivate an inclusive, supportive environment that encourages collaboration, development, and excellence. Your leadership will be pivotal in mentoring and nurturing emerging talent within the team.
• Guide Data-Informed Insights: Apply your expertise in interpreting complex data to resolve ambiguous issues and communicate clear, actionable insights to diverse audiences.
• Foster Strong Relationships: Build and sustain meaningful relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including regulatory bodies like Ofqual. Your influence will help ensure our assessments set the standard for educational excellence.
• Lead Organizational Change: Steer the organization through significant changes in the educational landscape with empathy and foresight, preparing for future opportunities and challenges with a visionary approach.
• Contribute to the development of assessment products more widely: as AQA seeks to diversify its assessment products beyond General Qualifications, you will have the opportunity to contribute and develop your expertise beyond general qualifications

To excel in this role, you should possess:

• Experienced Leadership: A history of leading large teams with compassion and clarity in high-stakes, time-sensitive settings. You are known for creating a supportive vision and fostering a high-performance culture.
• Results-Oriented Decision-Making: The ability to make thoughtful, timely decisions that achieve the best outcomes for a diverse group of stakeholders.
• Customer-Centric Approach: A deep commitment to advocating for optimal outcomes for customers while ensuring full regulatory compliance.
• Collaborative Leadership: Proficiency in managing and inspiring cross-functional teams within a matrix structure. You excel at building consensus and working harmoniously with a broad range of stakeholders, including executive leadership and regulatory bodies.
• Strategic and Financial Acumen: A forward-thinking mindset that translates organizational strategy into practical plans. You possess a keen sense of commercial awareness and financial performance modelling, enabling you to make informed decisions that support the organization’s long-term goals.
• Excellence in Assessment Development: A commitment to ensuring zero tolerance for errors while leading the development of cutting-edge assessment solutions. You are adept at translating complex information into clear, actionable insights that drive continuous improvement and maintain the highest standards of quality.

Ready to Shape the Future of Assessments?

We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where every team member can thrive. If you’re a strategic thinker with a vision for the future of education and ready to lead transformative change, apply today sending your CV and a supporting statement outlining your motivation and transferable skills.

Closing date: Sunday 15th September 2024

The screening process will consist of a prescreening call followed by a two stage Interview process held via MS Teams and face to face respectively in September and October 2024.

All applications will receive a written response.

AQA is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes people unique. AQA is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and post holders to share this commitment. Our Safeguarding Policy is available on our website.

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Full Job Description

Summary

The Director of Assessment ensures that that AQA aims never to let a learner down, leading the Assessment function by setting the vision and direction for the delivery of consistently high-quality domestic and international General Qualification (GQ) assessments across AQA Education and OxfordAQA (together ‘AQA’) moving from paper to digital exams. The Director of Assessment will provide an authoritative voice on assessment and assessment quality for AQA both internally and externally, build relationships with customers and other stakeholders, nationally and internationally, and contribute to building AQA’s reputation for assessment expertise and innovation. As a senior AQA organisation leader, the role holder inspires and motivates not just Assessment colleagues across multiple locations, role modelling AQA’s values, embedding a high-performance mindset and driving a culture of continuous improvement, but across the wider organisation. As AQA Education prepares itself for a period of qualification reform, this role will also need to lead their team and stakeholders through significant change, both organisationally and culturally, to ensure we are set up for success in the future.Landscape:

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and working closely with the Directors of Operations, Associates, and other senior leaders across AQA, the Director of Assessment manages Heads of Assessment Design, Assessment Production, Assessment Development and Assessment Quality and collectively the team creates fair, practicable, valid, reliable, accessible and error free questions papers, marking instructions and other assessment materials for the domestic and international core GCSEs and A levels to time and which are regulatorily compliant.
The role holder leads a wider team of approximately 110 permanent colleagues across two locations, supplemented by about 1,000 senior associates responsible for quality and assessment creation to produce in the order of 700 standard and 750 modified large print question papers with an annual budget of circa £7.9M.
As part of the accountability for assessment quality, the role chairs the management group that drives assessment quality (Assessment Quality Management Group) which draws on other functions outside of Assessment, such as Operations, Standards & Awarding, to promote ever greater standards of assessment quality in our assessment materials.
As an awarding organisation, AQA’s qualifications are regulated, and the role holder represents AQA with Ofqual and associated external stakeholders and is directly accountable for ensuring AQA complies with all related Conditions of Recognition.
Key internal interfaces are the two technology teams, Assessment Technology and Enterprise Technology (responsible for the technologies used in assessment creation, marking and moderation), Product Management to improve or create new products, as well as our Regulation & Compliance Team.


Activities (aligned to our AQA values):
Results matter: take the lead role in overseeing the design, production and timely printing of all GQ assessment materials, establishing robust plans, tracking plan attainment, managing risk/issues effectively and reviewing performance of staff and senior associates. Oversee the drive for improved quality of marking, more precise assessment instruments and a culture of zero tolerance of assessment errors to further improve customer and regulatory confidence in AQA’s core, high stakes qualifications.
Shape tomorrow: define and evolve the Assessment plans and team structures as part of the wider adoption of digital exams, preparation for GQ reform and the development of new products, ensuring the GQ assessments of AQA and OxfordAQA remain at the cutting edge of assessment standards and best practice. This is in support of the maintenance or growth of market share both domestically and internationally, and improving product profitability, which underpin AQA’s strategic objectives for international diversification and securing the core.
Work and learn together: coach and develop direct reports and the wider Assessment team, developing a collaborative, high performance culture within Assessment, ensuring all colleagues have clear accountabilities, performance measures and goals. In so doing develop and curate assessment expertise within Assessment and more widely across the organisation.
Step up: support the Chief Operating Officer and COO Leadership Team to define and deliver the COO Business Plan objectives, deputising for the COO as required.
Build collaborative relationships across all key internal and external stakeholders, driving engagement and support across strategic, tactical and operational delivery and assessment quality improvement plans.

To be successful in this role, you will need to know:
An experienced senior leader of large teams in time critical, high stakes, low tolerance of error environments, setting a clear vision and establishing a high-performance culture.
Results matter: deliver at pace, taking balanced decisions to ensure optimal outcomes for multiple stakeholders.
Customers front and centre: outstanding customer focus with a proven track record in championing the best outcome for the customer in an efficient and effective manner whilst remaining regulatorily compliant.
Comfortable managing cross-functional teams in a matrix approach and influencing a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders, including the regulator and executive leadership.
Data-driven with expertise in analysing complex information but also able to deal with ambiguous issues and present both in an easily understood way to a wide audience.
Shape tomorrow: able to translate the strategy of the organisation into business area plans.
Good commercial awareness with knowledge of financial performance modelling
Wide ranging experience in leading and embedding successful change and transformation programmes.