Job Description

Provider Relations Manager

Location: Bristol

Salary: £56,209 - £58,820

Generous Civil Service defined benefit pension

About us

We are the independent regulator of higher education in England. We aim to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

We’re proud of our people, our culture and the benefits we offer. We care about supporting and developing our staff. At the OfS we want to create a welcoming and engaging working environment which is free from discrimination. We’re looking for skilled, committed people who care about students and their experience of higher education. Join us and you’ll be part of an energetic, forward-looking organisation with high ambitions and big opportunities for our people.

About the role

We are seeking a Provider Relations Manager to lead and drive forward our communications and engagement with providers we regulate. You will lead the OfS’s programme of provider engagement – managing our hugely important visits programme as well as delivering high-profile events and webinars aimed directly at senior leaders in universities and colleges – and oversee our annual stakeholder survey, which will form how we communicate with our diverse range of regulated providers.

You will help develop processes to gather intelligence on the sector, programme strategic engagement activity direct to providers, and ensure that the insights gathered from providers are acted on and shared effectively across the organisation.

Sitting within the Strategy, Delivery and Communications (SDC) Directorate, the communications team drives the OfS’s external and internal communications, including public affairs, media relations, digital publishing, stakeholder engagement, events and public information.  Communications is essential for the organisation to drive progress towards our strategic goals.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with strong project management and communications skills who wants to work at the heart of higher education regulation.

What you’ll do

As Provider Relations Manager, you will:

• Lead the OfS’s provider visits programme, ensuring visits run smoothly and to a high standard, including managing briefings, matching visitors and shaping future phases of the programme.
• Develop and oversee the chair and chief executive visit programme, acting as liaison with board and committee members.
• Manage how feedback from provider visits is used internally, shared back with providers and used to improve ways of working.
• Lead the operational delivery of the OfS’s annual stakeholder survey, analyse findings and develop strategic improvements to provider engagement.
• Lead programming for OfS accountable officer and chair events, including quarterly webinars, new accountable officer and chair induction events and mailings, which involved developing content, agendas, speeches and briefing notes.
• Develop and implement a provider engagement strategy, identifying key audiences and creating proactive engagement opportunities such as policy roundtables and regional meetings.
• Write briefing papers and discussion points for the chair and members of the OfS’s Provider Panel.
• Advise on and implement provider engagement activity for strategic communications plans and launches.
• Activity manage the Stakeholder Engagement Officer, Events and Communications Co-ordinator, and Administrative Resource Unit colleagues who support visit delivery.

What you’ll need

These are the skills and experience you’ll already have:

• Demonstrable project management skills, including the ability to plan, manage and deliver complex projects to time, coordinating resources and tracking progress.
• A track record of successfully working across teams and organisational levels, collaborating with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders to achieve shared goals.
• Outstanding written communication skills, including the ability to present complex policy and technical information in a clear, accessible way tailored to specific audiences – from briefings and speeches to event content.
• Excellent organisational skills, strong attention to detail and the ability to work proactively and autonomously without close supervision.
• The ability to make sound judgements and give strategic advice.
• Experience of working in or with the higher education sector.

Benefits

Our Total Reward Framework offers a range of benefits to suit your way of life. These include:

• Comprehensive learning and development – we’re invested in your future.
• Annual leave starting at 25 days per year, plus public holidays.
• Access to the highly regarded Civil Service defined benefit pension scheme.
• A variety of health-related benefits.

Working for us

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.

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 and sexual orientation.

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 days in a typical week.

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working – for example job share and part-time working – apply to this role.

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you through the application stage, please contact us at recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk and we will be happy to help.

Closing date for applications: Noon, Monday 8 June

For information: the OfS does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence.