Head of Regulatory Portfolio – Office for Students

As part of the continuing expansion of our regulatory work and a number of internal promotions, we are now looking for a number of vital ‘Head of’ roles within our Regulation directorate. These roles are responsible for delivering the core regulatory work in relation to a specific set of ongoing conditions of registration or for a particular aspect of the regulatory system. As a Head of Regulatory Portfolio, you can expect to be leading a team delivering case work, monitoring the compliance of providers, and developing our approach to assessment, monitoring and compliance in one or more of:
+ TEF
+ Condition B3
+ Transformation: including taking forward actions from the Public Bodies Review (Fit for the Future: Independent Review of the Office for Students - GOV.UK) and corresponding activities, As part of the continuing expansion of our regulatory work and a number of internal promotions, we are now looking for a number of vital ‘Head of’ roles within our Regulation directorate. These roles are responsible for delivering the core regulatory work in relation to a specific set of ongoing conditions of registration or for a particular aspect of the regulatory system. As a Head of Regulatory Portfolio, you can expect to be leading a team delivering case work, monitoring the compliance of providers, and developing our approach to assessment, monitoring and compliance in one or more of:
+ TEF
+ Condition B3
+ Transformation: including taking forward actions from the Public Bodies Review (Fit for the Future: Independent Review of the Office for Students - GOV.UK) and corresponding activities
Key to success in these roles will be your ability to understand and interpret complex regulatory and legal frameworks, regardless of whether or not you have previous experience working in a regulator, in order to reach fair, evidence-based judgements on complex issues.
You will be equally adept at quickly adapting to working within higher education and able to learn and understand the key issues and challenges facing the sector. You will be people focused, committed to our mission of driving positive outcomes for students, and able to work at pace within complex and ambiguous environments. Regardless of the focus of your portfolio, you will be an experienced leader of people and able to demonstrate an ability to motivate, develop and deliver exceptional results through people across an organisation.

Person specification
Key to success in these roles will be your ability to understand and interpret complex regulatory and legal frameworks, regardless of whether or not you have previous experience working in a regulator, in order to reach fair, evidence-based judgements on complex issues.
You will be equally adept at quickly adapting to working within higher education and able to learn and understand the key issues and challenges facing the sector. You will be people focused, committed to our mission of driving positive outcomes for students, and able to work at pace within complex and ambiguous environments. Regardless of the focus of your portfolio, you will be an experienced leader of people and able to demonstrate an ability to motivate, develop and deliver exceptional results through people across an organisation.
You will understand the role and value of a regulator and, regardless of your professional background, show an understanding of how effective regulation works in practice. 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 relevant roles in the higher education sector, as well those who have experience of other regulators or regulated environments. 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 directorate’s staff and teams to deliver
+ Ensuring that the OfS is able to discharge those of its functions that fall within the remit of the team
+ Continuous improvement of the service provided by the team
+ Internal and external communication, 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 ability to develop, lead and provide strategic direction to a team of multi-disciplinary experts in a complex and ambiguous environment
+ Demonstrable ability to quickly understand and interpret complex regulatory and/or legal frameworks to develop strategic and operational approaches
+ Experience of working with, and commanding the confidence of, a diverse set of external stakeholders through complex and contentious issues
+ Demonstrable experience of shaping and delivering organisational change to processes, culture and delivery
+ Demonstrable ability to reach and convey impartial, risk-based, reliable and legally-robust judgements on the basis of complex and imperfect information, and in novel and ambiguous circumstances
+ Demonstrable intellectual credibility, 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
+ An interest in and ability to think innovatively about the theory and practice of regulation
+ Demonstrable ability to develop quickly a comprehensive and sophisticated technical knowledge and understanding of the areas in which the OfS regulates individual providers

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.

£75,712 - £82,951 Plus generous defined benefit Civil Service Pension
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., Alongside your salary of £75,712, Office for Students contributes £21,933 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%