Job details
Responsible to
Director of the Institute of Education & Skills
Location
Kedleston Road, Derby Campus
Closing date
Monday 23 November 2026
Salary
£71,346 to £89,183 per annum (for exceptional performers, there is scope for further progression up to £102,560 per annum)
Job grade
Academic Leadership – C
Reference
0269-26
Contract type
Permanent
Post type
Full-time
Adaptive working type
Hybrid
This role will be based on site, primarily in the named location with the opportunity to work remotely available in line with our Adaptive Working Framework.
About the University
We have one simple promise – to make a positive impact. Through our ground-breaking research, teaching excellence and commitment to sustainable living, we are changing lives for the better.
The University of Derby is a modern university with a modern outlook. Everything we do is driven by delivering excellence and opportunities for our students, our staff and our region.
We have some of the best university facilities in the UK and achieve outstanding results for our teaching and research and have been awarded Gold in the prestigious Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023 – making it one of the top universities in the country recognised for its outstanding student experience and student outcomes.
Financially strong and seriously ambitious we offer our employees an inclusive culture that centres itself around staff wellbeing, where you can be confident you will receive all the help and encouragement you need to build a rewarding career with lots of opportunities to enhance your skills.
About the College/Department
The Institute of Education and Skills plays a central role in delivering the University of Derby's commitment to opportunity, social mobility and lifelong learning. Through outstanding education, research and employer engagement, the Institute develops the educators, trainers, leaders and skilled professionals who shape communities, support economic growth and transform lives.
Our diverse portfolio spans Initial Teacher Training, Education, Childhood and SEND, Skills and Apprenticeships, University of Derby Buxton, and the internationally recognised International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGS), a global leader in careers and career guidance research.
We are committed to excellence in teaching, innovation in practice and impactful research. Through strong partnerships with schools, colleges, employers, training providers and public sector organisations, we ensure our programmes remain relevant to the needs of learners, industry and society.
From preparing the next generation of teachers and educational leaders, to supporting workforce development through apprenticeships and skills provision, the Institute makes a significant contribution to regional prosperity and educational advancement. With established strengths in research, professional practice and employer engagement, this is an exciting opportunity to join a forward-looking Institute with ambitious plans for growth and impact.
About the role
We are seeking an exceptional and inspiring academic leader to join the Institute of Education and Skills as Deputy Director.
Working in partnership with the Director and wider leadership team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the Institute's strategic priorities across education, research, skills development, employer engagement and partnership activity.
You will provide leadership across a broad and varied portfolio, supporting Heads of Discipline and academic leaders to drive excellence in teaching, student outcomes, research, knowledge exchange and external engagement. You will help ensure the Institute continues to respond proactively to developments in education policy, workforce skills needs and professional practice, positioning the University as a leading provider of education and skills development.
With responsibility for supporting organisational performance, portfolio development, student recruitment, quality enhancement and resource planning, you will help create an environment where innovation, collaboration and continuous improvement thrive.
The role offers the opportunity to shape the future direction of teacher education, educational research, apprenticeships, workforce development and professional learning, whilst strengthening relationships with schools, colleges, employers, professional bodies and other strategic partners.
As Deputy Director, you will act as a visible ambassador for the Institute, represent the University within regional and national networks and deputise for the Director as required.
This is a unique opportunity to contribute to an Institute that combines academic excellence with a clear commitment to making a positive difference for learners, communities and employers.
About You
You will be an experienced and credible academic leader with substantial experience of leading within a complex higher education, education or skills environment.
Holding a doctorate or equivalent professional standing in a relevant field, you will bring a strong track record of delivering strategic objectives through collaborative leadership, inspiring teams and building a positive culture focused on excellence and impact.
You will be able to demonstrate:
- Experience of providing strategic leadership that delivers organisational improvement, growth and measurable outcomes.
- Proven success in leading and developing high-performing academic or professional teams within a complex environment.
- A strong track record of developing effective partnerships with schools, colleges, employers, professional bodies, government agencies or other external stakeholders.
- Experience of enhancing educational quality, student outcomes, research, knowledge exchange, workforce development or skills provision.
- An understanding of the evolving education and skills landscape and the opportunities and challenges facing the sector.
- Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-building skills, with the confidence to engage effectively at senior levels both internally and externally.
- A commitment to inclusion, innovation and delivering positive outcomes for learners, organisations and communities.
Most importantly, you will share our ambition to create an innovative, inclusive and impactful Institute that develops the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to shape the future of education and workforce development.
Principal accountabilities
Strategic Management
As part of the IoES’s Senior Management Team:
- Actively contribute to the development and success of the IoES assuring the achievement of strategic targets including Institutional Success Measures, Performance Indicators and operational goals.
- Ensuring the IoES is correctly positioned in the marketplace for the short and longer term with an appropriate portfolio including UG, PG and FE courses, apprenticeships, research and enterprise.
- Drive the development and delivery of sustainable growth plans for the IoES, including student recruitment, portfolio development and external engagement.
- Support the Director of IoES to enhance and diversify the IoES’s revenue streams by developing and implementing innovative and sustainable third stream income targets and initiatives.
- Support and enable the development of new income-generating opportunities aligned to the IoES’s strengths and market demand.
- Together with the senior leadership team, work to establish a thriving, innovative, and dynamic environment to position the IoES as the ‘go-to’ provider for high-quality education, skills development, and industry-relevant training across the region and beyond.
Academic Leadership
- Leading the Heads of Discipline and Programme Leaders to form a strong leadership team for the Institute.
- Lead the academic and curricula development for the IoES, identifying trends in student demand, anticipating emerging requirements and ensuring the promotion of employability, enterprise and inclusion across programmes.
- Use knowledge of the market to assess critically the future horizon to to deliver academic curricula that inspires and challenges students, is fit for the future and uses innovative methods of delivery to meet the highest quality standards ensuring the offer is ambitious, attractive and sector leading.
- Lead the development of teaching to ensure that the IoES delivers TEF Gold standard teaching, leading to outstanding learning and assessment practice that embeds the values and ambitions of the IoES within its core delivery. Develop metrics to deliver the rankings set for the college in areas such as TEF, REF, PTES, PRES, DLHE/LEO, NSS and other key performance indicators.
- Drive compliance with institutional performance expectations e.g. the OfS, Designated Quality Body and Ofsted.
- Lead the Discipline level relationship with the IoES’s collaborative partners supporting the operational delivery.
- Create an environment where all staff are expected to share good practice across the University and to encourage and respond positively to good practice wherever it is found.
- Establish and deliver necessary business development, identifying and responding to local and regional needs.
- Develop and sustain effective working relationships with external partners, including industry, professional bodies and academic collaborators, to support teaching, research and enterprise activity.
- Ensure that external partnerships are effectively managed to support delivery, student experience and mutual value.
- Embed the University’s core values with specific emphasis on academic quality and social opportunity.
- Develop and foster academic research and scholarship within IoES to inform the curriculum as well as appropriate knowledge transfer activities to enhance the standing of the IoES’s discipline areas, and deliver strong research outcomes to feed into REF.
- Create, deliver and continuous monitor the objectives to demonstrate that the work of the IoES has measurable external impact outside of the University, enriching the cultural value and impact of higher education across a number of contexts to support IoES strategy on a regional, national and international basis.
- Undertake a cross-University role in leading activities required to support the achievement of strategic goals.
- Take responsibility for all collaborative partnerships linked to the IoES.
- Demonstrable expertise in stakeholder engagement, partnership building, commercialisation, multi-party research collaborations and working in complex organisations with a range of disciplinary traditions.
Management
- Provide a collaborative leadership approach which is inclusive of professional services and cross discipline working.
- Create and deliver measures and plans to deliver effective communication with staff across the IoES.
Please refer to the Job Description for the full list of Principal Accountabilities.
Person specification
Essential Criteria
Qualifications
- Hold a doctorate in an academic discipline relevant to the Institute of Education and Skills or have extensive equivalent professional experience
- Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) with aim of achieving Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy within 3 years of commencement date in post (if not already SF-HEA)
- Relevant professional qualification/ membership of a professional body
Experience
- Significant management experience in an HE institution of a similar or larger size
- Successful experience of using effective leadership and management competencies to create a high performing team
- Delivery of outstanding learning, teaching and assessment practice, that is reflected in metrics and rankings such as TEF, REF, PTES, PRES, DLHE/LEO and NSS and other key performance indicators
- Successful experience of performance management, monitoring against agreed targets in a supportive environment
- Demonstrable experience gained through industry employment
- Experience of building capacity and capability of staff in relation to scholarship and research
- Evidence of sustained personal track-record of research and scholarship
Skills, knowledge & abilities
- Knowledge and utilisation of quality assurance and enhancement policies and procedures
- Highly regarded academic and people leader with a proven ability to deliver through people
- Knowledge and understanding of the FE and Skills sector
- Knowledge and experience of safeguarding relevant to the needs of children and vulnerable adults, including the Prevent duty
- Experience of leading provision through Ofsted inspections
- Self-confident and resilient with well-developed influencing and persuasion skills
- Enhanced negotiation skills
- Well-developed verbal and written communication skills, including report writing
- Strong business skills and commercial acumen and ability to manage budgets
- Good analytical and critical thinking skills
- Ability to enable and gain commitment to organisational change
- Flexible and adaptable, willing to challenge, innovate and change the orthodox
- A commitment to live and promote the University core values
Business requirements
- Evidence of Continuing Professional Development
- Completed DBS check with child barred list
- Prohibited from Teaching check
- Evening and weekend working including open days and applicant visit days
- Overseas / overnight business travel
Desirable Criteria
Experience
- Experience of teaching in the FE sector
- Experience of undertaking successful bids for external funding.
- Successful development of international collaborations, recruitment of international students and internationalisation of the curricula
- Experience of successful inter-disciplinary developments
Benefits
- Generous annual leave entitlement of 42 days inclusive of bank holidays and concessionary days (pro rata)
- Teacher’s Pension Scheme
- Suite of holistic wellbeing benefits and support including family-friendly policies, generous sick pay provision and comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
- Access to a variety of staff discounts at high street retailers
- Discounted onsite gym
- Access to employer-funded Private Health Insurance
- Holiday purchase
- Cycle to Work scheme
- A flexible working environment
- A commitment to personal and professional development
Key contact
For further information and informal enquiries regarding the role, please contact Sarah Charles, Director of the Institute of Education & Skills via S.Charles@derby.ac.uk
For enquiries regarding your application and for sponsorship eligibility, please contact the recruitment team via recruitment@derby.ac.uk.
Important information
Visa Sponsorship Eligibility
This role is eligible for sponsorship by the University, however, your individual circumstances must meet the criteria set out by UKVI; this includes meeting the English Language requirement and earning a salary that meets the highest of either the going rate for the SOC code or the minimum salary threshold for the Skilled Worker route (£41,700 per annum, as of 22nd July 2025).
If the role is eligible, but the offered salary is less that the going rate for the role, you may still be able to apply for a Skilled Worker visa if:
- Your job is on the Immigration Salary List
- You’re under 26, studying or a recent graduate, or in professional training
- You have a PhD level qualification that’s relevant to your job
- You have a postdoctoral position in science or higher education
Please note that the University cannot confirm your eligibility for sponsorship until an offer is made and your individual circumstances have been considered.
For more information, please visit Applying from Overseas.
DBS check
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974 and is therefore subject to an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Any information you provide will be treated in confidence and only used when considering your suitability for the post.
To enable us to process your DBS check please ensure you are able to supply the documentation listed on the DBS website at interview stage.
Equity, diversity and inclusion
The University of Derby is committed to fostering an open, inclusive and diverse community where everyone is treated with dignity, fairness and respect. We are committed to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief (or none), sex or sexual orientation.
As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to inclusive recruitment and welcome requests for adjustments throughout the recruitment process. Applicants may choose their preferred title, including 'Mx', and may share preferred pronouns if they wish. We also use anonymised shortlisting to help reduce the potential impact of unconscious bias. For more information on equity, diversity and inclusion at the University of Derby, please visit our website.
We are also committed to promoting academic freedom and freedom of speech and expression within the law, in line with our Code of Practice, and value diversity of thought alongside diversity of backgrounds and experiences.
However you identify, we welcome applications from people whose experiences, perspectives and talents will contribute to our inclusive, supportive and intellectually vibrant community.
Environmental Sustainability
At the University of Derby, we are passionate about embedding sustainability into everything that we do. We aim to bring environmental sustainability into all aspects of the University, including teaching, research and operational activities. In line with the University's strategic framework, we expect all our staff to embed sustainability into their working practices and support the University's objective to reach net zero carbon by 2050.
Lead with purpose, apply now to make an impact.
How to apply
You can apply by submitting an online application. Once you have signed in or registered with us you will be able to begin your application. If you are creating an account for the first time, please ensure you provide an email address that you access regularly as this will be our main means of contacting you regarding your application.
The University reserves the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
If you require any assistance, including the provision of any documentation in an alternative format, please contact the Recruitment team at recruitment@derby.ac.uk.
Please note all applications must be submitted online by Midnight GMT on the closing date of the vacancy.
Further details
The University of Derby is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our staff, students and children. At the University of Derby, safeguarding is everybody's concern.
Please find our Safeguarding pages including our Safeguarding Policy.
