Head of School Operations

Salary: £59,390 to £62,994 with progression to £68,817 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 2 November 2026

The Role

Are you a strategic and collaborative leader who thrives in a complex environment and is passionate about supporting both colleagues and students to succeed? 

The Faculty of Science, Agriculture & Engineering (SAgE) at Newcastle University is seeking an exceptional individual to take on the role of Head of School Operations to work in partnership with the Head of School to deliver excellence across education, research and innovation. Leading professional services within the School of Engineering, you will drive operational performance, champion continuous improvement and help create an outstanding experience for students, staff and external partners. 

You will lead and develop high-performing teams within a matrix management model, working closely with professional service business partners and academic colleagues to deliver strategic priorities and outstanding service. You will play a key role in shaping the School's future, leading change, building effective partnerships and ensuring the smooth operation of a large and complex School. 

This is an exciting opportunity for an influential leader with experience of managing people, delivering through collaboration and inspiring others to achieve their best.

For informal enquiries about the role please contact Kate McGill, Director of Faculty Operations at kate.mcgill@ncl.ac.uk

We would welcome requests for flexible working and depending on the needs of the role, blended working opportunities to work remotely as well as on campus may be considered. The hiring manager will discuss the requirements of the role, should you be invited to interview.

To apply, please attach your CV and a cover letter, no longer than 2 pages, that demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria for the position, as outlined in the Person Specification of the Job Description. Any requested additional documents required as part of your application, should be included within the same file as your cover letter. The total file size must not exceed 10MB.

Key Accountabilities 

A Head of School Operations at this level would typically support a complex unit comprising of a significant number of administrative, academic and research colleagues located over several sites, which includes several different academic discipline areas and both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including lab-based programmes. Please see the School website to understand the size and scope of this particular unit.

The Head of School Operations will work in partnership with the Head of School to set the strategic agenda for the School and ensure effective implementation and delivery of school wide plans, coordinating both administrative and academic effort to achieve this success.

The post holder will be expected to deliver the following:

• Ensure the effective and efficient operation of the School by directing and actively leading the day-to-day running of the school including supporting, reacting and responding to queries effectively and in a timely manner, delivering an exceptional operational environment.
• Drive the successful delivery of the School’s strategic and operational objectives by shaping, contributing and participating in the School’s strategic and operational planning processes,
• supporting the strategic direction of the School, Faculty and University, including responding to opportunities and challenges that might affect these strategic and operational plans and to forward-plan the business cycle of the School.
• Build, develop and lead a high-performing professional services team. Manage and develop a team of administrative colleagues supporting and facilitating the School’s activities, ensuring that they are deployed efficiently to deliver a customer-orientated service to all colleagues, students and visitors. This includes the coordination and leadership of business partner teams line managed via the matrix structures.
• Foster strong partnerships between professional services and academic colleagues to ensure that the School meets its academic objectives and to minimise the need for academic colleagues to undertake administrative or support tasks.
• Deliver continuous improvement in service quality, efficiency and resilience through the evaluation of existing provision, adoption of innovative solutions, and collaboration across Schools, Faculties and professional services, keeping abreast of feedback and broader developments in the external environment to ensure appropriate innovative solutions are proposed to consistently enhance and maximise service quality, efficiency and continuity.
• Lead strategic reviews and a dynamic programme of project portfolios that strengthen School performance, identifying opportunities, managing risks, and translating intelligence and environmental insights into effective organisational action and decision-making in support of the School’s strategic plan as required. This will include the need for internal and external horizon scanning, identification and analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and the identification and oversight of the management of risks.
• Ensure robust financial and resource management, by leading and contributing to full School planning and budgetary discussions. Utilise and manage allocated budget and resources effectively and flexibly, controlling all related expenditure to ensure delivery of targets/objectives within the School’s budget.
• Successfully deliver any major change initiatives and projects at the request of the Head of School or Director of Faculty Operations, including working with the Services to review and improve processes and to respond positively and effectively to any opportunities and challenges that arise internally or externally.
• Strengthen and promote the School’s reputation and external profile, ensuring stakeholders experience a professional, well-managed organisation that reflects the School’s strengths, achievements and strategic ambitions.

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience of working in a large complex organisation, with an understanding of the Higher Education Sector operations and challenges.
• A knowledge and understanding of the external environment in which the School operates and ability to develop strong relationships with external stakeholders.
• An understanding of business and management processes, and the application of performance measures.
• Proven ability to lead, empathise, inspire confidence, foster a team-based approach, and build equally effective relationships with colleagues from multiple job families.
• Evidence of developing and implementing strategy to deliver key objectives and of leading innovative solutions and managing strategic planning processes.
• Experience of managing and controlling budgets/resources/funding and a good understanding of financial management procedures.
• Intellectual capacity and strong Influencing skills - getting 'buy in' to policy and strategy and to facilitate changes in behaviour and direction at both a strategic and operational level across organisational boundaries.
• Effective contribution to organisational change, e.g., in a leadership role within a research-intensive organisation
• Experience of leading a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion including skills to coach and mentor individuals across the Faculty and effectively motivate and lead individuals across teams.

Attributes and Behaviour (assessed at interview)

• Inspirational and provide clear direction, particularly in times of uncertainty.
• High drive and initiative, able to demonstrate professional resilience.
• An articulate, confident and politically adept communicator, ready and able to deal with difficult situations and to challenge where necessary.
• Takes the initiative to develop and implement new ideas and approaches.
• Acts in a collaborative, inclusive, transparent and open manner, acting with integrity and able to build high levels of trust.
• Possesses the personal stature to engage with and earn the respect and good will of peers and more senior colleagues.
• Is a role model for professionalism and commitment to the University values and stated goals and to exhibit such professionalism both internally and externally.

Qualifications

• Professionally qualified with a degree plus significant relevant management and leadership experience, in a similar role or environment

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 29815