Head of Funding Policy and Operations Office for Students

In discharging your responsibilities, you will ensure funding allocation decisions are taken on the basis set out in the OfS scheme of delegation and be able to translate the OfS’s approach to funding into effective operational systems as these relate to individual providers. You will also work collaboratively across the directorate to embed funding operations to achieve this aim.
Key to success in this role will be your ability to develop, lead and manage a team in a complex and changing environment, make reliable judgements about funding allocations at pace and have the ability to design, implement and communicate effective funding operations.
You will quickly adapt to working within the higher education sector and understand the key issues and challenges facing the sector. How we do things is as important to us as what we do and your approach will be underpinned by our values of Ambition, Openness, Learning and Diversity.
We are interested in hearing from candidates with experience of working in similar roles, who have significant experience of overseeing policy and turning it into deliverable funding operations, possible from within the higher education sector, or those who have similar experience from other regulators, or similar public sector funding policy and/or delivery backgrounds at a senior level. This is an exciting time to join a rapidly transforming organisation that works to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers. To find out more about the OfS, please visit our website at https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
+ Leading the Funding Team to deliver high quality products and strong engagement with the wider Regulation Directorate and beyond.
+ Engaging in agile working practices and the placement of Funding Team resources within CRTs and/or other Regulatory teams to ensure flexibility and knowledge sharing where required.
+ Negotiating the terms of the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) guidance letter with DfE, and allocating and monitoring the SPG according to the terms of the guidance letter.
+ Designing proposals for a reformed funding role for the OfS, and negotiating a settlement with DfE as part of the Spending Review.
+ Designing, running and monitoring challenge competitions (often working closely with policy teams), and overseeing the administration of capital grants.
+ Overseeing the allocation and monitoring of recurrent funding., We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.
Working arrangements
Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that it can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two to three days in a typical week.
Closing date for applications is 23:55 on Sunday 15 December 2024.
We will be in touch to let you know the outcome of your application after 6 January 2025.
Candidates through to the next stage will be tasked with a written exercise to be completed by 19 January 2025.
The final stage will be an interview either week beginning 27 January or 3 February 2025.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

+ Demonstrable intellectual credibility and analytical capability with the ability to think strategically and take a broad view of issues, events and activities and understand their likely impact or wider implications
+ Demonstrable ability to develop, lead and manage a team in a complex and changing environment through a matrix structure to make reliable judgements about funding allocations at pace.
+ Demonstrable ability to design, implement and communicate effective funding operations.
+ Demonstrable ability to reach and convey impartial, reliable and legally robust judgements on the basis of complex and imperfect information, and in novel circumstances, and ability to work creatively with qualified lawyers
+ Demonstrable ability to work comfortably with high levels of complexity and ambiguity.

The OfS is the statutory regulator for higher education in England. Our aim is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers. We do so by regulating the higher education providers on our register to make sure they are delivering high quality courses and positive outcomes for their students; where they are not, we take action.
The higher education sector in England is complex and diverse and the OfS’s approach to regulation recognises this. Our new strategy signals a shift from an organisation in a start-up phase to an established regulator that understands its regulatory tools and how best to use them to shape incentives across the sector we regulate. We work to ensure that students in England enjoy higher education provision that is high quality; that their access to opportunity, success and progression is not limited by background, location or characteristics; and that providers are well and sustainably led.
As Head of Funding Policy and Operations, you will be accountable for the development, implementation and continuous improvement of the OfS’s approach to the delivery of its funding policy and funding operations. You will have responsibility for delivering effective funding in practice, implementing arrangements for effective decision-making on funding allocations, and leading the development of funding capabilities and agile working of the Funding team., The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

+ Contributing to the delivery of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, and allocating medical and dental places according to guidance from DfE and DHSC.
+ Leading OfS stakeholder engagement on health issues, and overseeing the running of the Medical and Dental Survey (MDS).
+ Holding responsibility for the JISC MoU.
This is an agile working role, which means the role-holder may be expected to operate and work flexibly across different teams commensurate with this pay band undertaking portfolio and/or project work., Alongside your salary of £79,498, Office for Students contributes £23,030 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
+ Learning and development tailored to your role
+ An environment with flexible working options
+ A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
+ A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%