Team Manager, Education Specialist

Job Title: Team Manager, Education Specialist

Division: Assessment & Qualifications Delivery
Location: Manchester or Rotherham – Hybrid

This role aligns with positions commonly known in the external market as Systems Product Lead, Assessment Systems Delivery Lead, Technical Product Delivery Manager or Assessment Technology Operations Manager.

Role Summary

The System Product Lead (M30) is accountable for the performance of multiple product features within Assessment delivery of a government contract. The role ensures alignment with business priorities, regulatory requirements, and Pearson’s Assessment and PQ strategies, while championing Product Excellence to improve quality, customer value, operational resilience and scalability. Accountable for end-to-end delivery, governance and readiness, the System Product Lead orchestrates cross functional activity across business teams, technology providers and transformation streams. The role ensures Pearson is equipped for future operating models and technological evolution, and that programme outputs transition seamlessly into scalable, sustainable BAU services that meet Pearson’s operational and quality standards and the standards of government contracts.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Exemplary performance is demonstrated through the successful delivery of agreed product enhancements and contract commitments within required timescales. The role maintains strong governance and oversight of system changes, ensuring risks, issues and dependencies are managed effectively and escalated appropriately.

Success is reflected through high levels of system availability, compliance with contractual and regulatory requirements, effective stakeholder engagement, and positive feedback from operational teams. Clear documentation, accurate reporting, timely incident management and continuous improvement in product performance are key measures of success.

Particular emphasis is placed on ensuring systems can reliably support the significant volume fluctuations inherent in large-scale assessment delivery. This includes demonstrating, through capacity planning, operational readiness activities and performance testing, that systems can process very high volumes of transactions over short periods while maintaining service levels, data integrity and a positive user experience.

BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATIONS

Managers at this level are expected to:

• Put Customers and Learners First by ensuring product decisions support contract outcomes and improve the experience of users and stakeholders.
• Deliver with Accountability by taking ownership of agreed deliverables, managing risks effectively and following established governance processes.
• Collaborate for Success by building productive relationships across operations, technology teams, suppliers and government stakeholders.
• Support Continuous Improvement by identifying opportunities to improve quality, efficiency and service performance.
• Lead Through Influence by providing clear direction, constructive challenge and support to colleagues and delivery partners.

Key accountabilities Customer Service

• Leading the Assessment division in ensuring first class customer service by achieving internal and external service levels and driving change where service levels are not met
• Developing effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure efficiencies in operational delivery are contributing to retention and growth targets.
• Providing guidance and support for assessment staff on what constitutes quality systems, delivery and systems performance.

Deliver Government contract

• Proactively work with the technology delivery teams to ensure systems are in place action plans are committed to, to ensure on the contract.
• Lead on and represent Assessment requirements for the contract.
• Understand technology delivery, architecture and systems design to ensure solutions are fit for purpose and scale.
• Lead on the active management and resolution of delivery issues and risks across for the contract, and ensuring that contingency plans and lessons learned are put in place after any incident. Technical understanding of the issues is critical.
• Ensure all issues and risks relating to delivery are identified and actively managed
• Timely delivery of robust and auditable examination outcomes, including responsibility for ensuring results sign off process happens on time and accurately
• Manage requirements and delivery of test cycle set up and close down activities to time
• Manage review activities across the contract, ensuring systems meet contract compliance and are of the highest quality
• To develop robust quality control mechanisms that minimise the risk of errors for business critical activities and ensure our adherence to core business standards

Leadership and people management

• Be recognised as a leader within Assessment and the contract delivery team, as well as across UK Schools, and deliver best in class line management experience
• Be accountable for ensuring direct reports have effective training and development opportunities to enable them to succeed, including creating opportunities for high performance as well as actively managing and supporting poor performance
• Being a positive advocate for Assessment within the division, as well as across UK Schools, modelling Pearson behaviors and leading by example
• Actively contribute to, and deliver, the UK Schools people strategy, driving people initiatives within Assessment as appropriate
• Accountable for identifying and developing talent within Assessment, including recruitment and retention
• Be responsible for managing processes and teams based in different locations as appropriate

Innovation and Transformation

• To initiate, develop and lead on process innovations for the contract, arising through team members, corporate plans or contractual changes
• Take responsibility for ensuring developments in assessment technology are championed to ensure that the technology assessment delivery is fit for purpose
• Ensuring readiness of the contract delivery team of any technology changes
• Securing and enabling resources to review each project or process to drive continual improvements to the quality and efficiency of delivery
• Reviewing each examination session to drive continual change to operational processes, delivering improvements to the quality and efficiency of the examination cycle
• To motivate and lead teams through constant change, reviewing regularly to deliver improvements to the quality and efficiency of the assessment process for the contract.

Strategic relationships

• To build and maintain effective relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, as well as key third-party suppliers
• To represent the contract and Assessment on cross-company boards and committees as required