The Role

As Head of Quality and Standards, you will provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for academic quality assurance, standards enhancement, governance and regulatory compliance across the institution.

Working closely with the Chief Executive Officer, Dean of Teaching and Learning, senior academic leaders and external partners, you will ensure that institutional policies, programmes, academic governance arrangements and assessment processes meet regulatory expectations and uphold the highest standards of academic integrity.

You will act as the institution's lead specialist on quality assurance and compliance, providing expert advice on OfS requirements, governance frameworks, quality enhancement and risk management.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Governance

• Lead the development and continuous improvement of SBM London's academic quality and standards framework.
• Support the CEO and Senior Leadership Team in progressing SBM London's Office for Students registration application.
• Provide expert advice to senior leaders and the board on regulatory compliance, quality assurance, governance and institutional risk.
• Lead quality-related governance committees and ensure effective implementation of agreed actions.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement, academic integrity and evidence-based decision making.

Regulatory Compliance and Quality Assurance

• Maintain institutional compliance with Office for Students conditions of registration and wider regulatory requirements.
• Ensure alignment with relevant sector expectations, including consumer protection requirements, GDPR and academic governance frameworks.
• Monitor developments across the higher education regulatory landscape and implement necessary policy and procedural changes.
• Oversee institutional audits, regulatory submissions, external reviews and compliance reporting activities.

Academic Standards and Programme Quality

• Lead programme approval, validation, modification, review and revalidation processes.
• Ensure robust academic governance arrangements support the maintenance of academic standards.
• Oversee assessment boards and ensure the fair and consistent application of academic regulations.
• Manage quality aspects of academic appeals, complaints and academic misconduct processes.

Data, Enhancement and Student Outcomes

• Use data and evidence to evaluate academic quality, student outcomes and institutional performance.
• Monitor continuation, achievement, progression and student satisfaction indicators and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Coordinate regulatory and partner returns, including submissions to the Office for Students and HESA.
• Develop quality dashboards and reporting mechanisms that support informed decision making.

Partnership and Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships with validating partners, awarding bodies, regulators and external stakeholders.
• Lead institutional engagement during audits, monitoring visits and quality review events.
• Work collaboratively with student representatives to ensure the student voice informs quality enhancement activity.
• Represent SBM London externally on matters relating to academic quality, standards and compliance.

About You

We are looking for an individual who combines strategic vision with operational excellence and has a strong track record of leading quality assurance and compliance activity within UK higher education.

Essential Requirements

• Postgraduate qualification or equivalent senior-level professional experience in higher education quality and standards.
• Extensive knowledge of the UK higher education regulatory environment, including Office for Students requirements.
• Significant experience in a senior quality assurance, academic standards or compliance role within UK higher education.
• Demonstrable experience of developing and implementing quality frameworks, policies and governance processes.
• Experience leading programme approval, validation, monitoring and review activities.
• Proven ability to prepare high-quality submissions, reports and evidence for regulators, awarding bodies and senior committees.
• Experience analysing student outcomes and institutional performance data to drive improvement.
• Outstanding communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience managing teams, leading change and working effectively across diverse stakeholder groups.

Desirable

• Experience supporting or leading an institutional application for OfS registration.
• Professional qualification in quality assurance, higher education practice, governance, project management or leadership.
• Experience within an alternative provider, validated provision environment or collaborative partnership model.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary of £65,000 to £75,000, dependent on experience.
• 28 days annual leave, plus bank holidays.
• Complimentary staff lunch.
• Opportunity to join the Senior Management Team and make a real difference to a growing higher education institution.
• A bright, modern working environment in our well-equipped campus building near the city centre, with excellent transport links
• The chance to make a lasting impact on institutional quality, governance and regulatory success.

Equal Opportunities

SBM London is committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse working environment where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. We welcome applications from suitably qualified candidates from all backgrounds and are committed to equality of opportunity throughout our recruitment and employment practices.

Join SBM London and play a leading role in delivering an outstanding Higher Education experience to the local community and beyond.What You Will Do:

Lead the Education Strategy 

• Translate our global education vision into meaningful learning experiences that support our people, partners and customers across the UK, Ireland and International markets. 
• Working closely with the Global Director of Education, you'll ensure Education remains commercially relevant, globally consistent and aligned with the evolving needs of the business. 
• Champion an education strategy built around three core pillars: Treatment Excellence, Product Expertise, Commercial Excellence 

Inspire One High-Performing Education Team 

• Lead, coach and inspire an integrated Education team, bringing together our field-based Spa & Retail Trainers and Content Designers to create one connected approach to learning and capability across ELEMIS. 
• Offer direction to the Content Designers, ensuring their priorities are closely aligned to the Education strategy, commercial priorities and the needs of our Retail, Spa and International markets. 
• Drive the connection between what we create, what our trainers deliver and what our colleagues and partners need to perform at their best. 
• Collect feedback and insight from the field to help shape future content, while our Content Designers will ensure trainers have engaging, consistent and commercially relevant tools to bring learning to life. 
• Prioritise team member development by ensuring every member of the Education team has clear objectives, meaningful development opportunities and the coaching and support they need to be successful. 
• Oversee the deployment of the field Education team, ensuring trainer schedules, regional coverage, business priorities and major events are effectively planned so Education resource is always focused where it delivers the greatest value. 
• Build capability across the wider Education team, including external commercial sales training and the ELEMIS Spa education programme where required, ensuring the team continues to broaden its capability and expertise. 
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Drive Commercial Performance Through Education 

• Partner with the Commercial Director, Retail Leadership Team, Area Managers and Spa Business Partners to ensure learning is directly linked to business priorities. 
• Deliver education to strengthen consultation skills, improve conversion, increase retail performance and help our teams confidently maximise every customer interaction. 
• Success will be measured not only through learning engagement but through improved commercial performance, customer experience and business results. 
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Build Strong Business Partnerships 

• Become a trusted partner across the business, working collaboratively with Retail, Spa, Marketing, Product Development and our International distributors. 
• By building strong relationships and understanding business priorities, you'll ensure Education remains agile, relevant and capable of supporting product launches, commercial initiatives, events and long-term strategic growth. 

Create Inspiring Learning Experiences 

• Lead the development of engaging, innovative and accessible learning experiences, working closely with the Content Designers within your team to translate Education and commercial priorities into high-quality learning content. 
• Oversee learning across face-to-face, digital and blended channels, ensuring content is globally aligned, commercially relevant and designed for reuse across Retail, Spa and International audiences wherever possible. 
• Ensure the eHub continues to evolve as a valuable learning platform for colleagues and partners across the business, while encouraging innovation, embracing new technologies and continually looking for opportunities to enhance the learner experience. 
• Create a strong feedback loop between the Content Designers and field training team, using insight from learners, trainers and commercial stakeholders to continually improve both the content we create and the way it is delivered. 
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Education Events & Experiences 

• Lead the Education strategy and delivery for key ELEMIS events, ensuring every experience reflects our brand standards, education priorities and commercial ambitions. 
• Ensure Education resource is planned effectively and that trainers are fully prepared, briefed and deployed to deliver exceptional experiences including conferences, roadshows, product launches, partner events and key commercial moments. 
• Partnering with key stakeholders to agree event objectives, Education requirements and measures of success. 
• Personally representing ELEMIS Education at key strategic events where appropriate. 
• Review event outcomes and using feedback, engagement and commercial results to continuously improve future activity. 

What We Are Looking For:

• Extensive leadership experience within Education, Learning & Development within the retail sector. 
• People Leader: expert in developing high-performing field teams, nurturing and succession planning talent. 
• Content expertise: Applied deep expertise in content, enhancing creative, content and learning-design capability within the team. 
• Commercial awareness: directly impact business performance through execution of the learning strategy. 
• Continuous optimisation: able to measure impact of learning delivery and use feedback to inform roadmap for optimisation. 
• Innovation: delivers best-in-class learning methodology, tools and assets, support the team to operate with a test-and-learn mindset and engage in experimentation to remain relevant. 
• Stakeholder management and influencing skills. 
• Travel: willingness to travel across the UK and internationally when required. 
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