Custom Programme Team Lead

Department: Custom Solutions

Location: Home based with occasional travel as required

Reports to: Head of Custom Solutions

Hours: 37.5 per week 

Salary: (Depending on experience)

A quick note before you apply: This role is strictly UK-based and must be performed entirely within the United Kingdom; we do not employ remote staff overseas, nor do we offer relocation support. Candidates must have the legal right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment. While we hold a sponsor licence, visa sponsorship is only considered in exceptional circumstances and is not available as standard for this vacancy

Role Overview

As a Custom Programmes Team Lead at Cambridge Spark, you will join the Custom Solutions Business Unit, reporting to the Head of Custom Programmes. You will be responsible for leading and managing a team of Programme Managers, overseeing the project management of custom programmes from the initial go-ahead, through to delivery. 

A key part of your role will include driving the operational success of our programmes, ensuring they are delivered on time, within budget, and to scope. 

In addition to your management responsibilities, you will retain hands-on project ownership, working closely with a cross-functional team to deliver your own portfolio of programmes.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Line Management

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of Programme Managers, providing guidance, day-to-day support, and performance feedback.
• Allocate project resources effectively and ensure the team is aligned with strategic objectives and delivery timelines.
• Foster a collaborative and high-performing team environment, ensuring seamless communication between programme managers and other teams. 
• Support the professional development and growth of direct reports. 
• Conduct regular 1-2-1s and performance reviews with direct reports, addressing underperformance proactively.

Project Lifecycle Management & Delivery

• Oversee assigned projects through their lifecycle, ensuring gold standard delivery of custom solutions programmes. 
• Support the team in developing robust plans for on-time and on-budget delivery, serving as the owner for project organisation artefacts. 
• Lead the project, organising module KO calls and ensuring all stakeholders are aligned on scope and deadlines.
• Manage risk effectively outlining expectations around communication, response times, and issue flagging.
• Ensure the successful launch of programmes by verifying all assets (blueprints and programmes) are correctly uploaded to KATE.
• Drive the closure of projects by ensuring the scope defined in the brief has been fully actioned by contractors.
• Ensure a seamless handover process in partnership with Solutions Engineering, guaranteeing full alignment on curriculum blueprints before launch.

Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the senior operational escalation contact for enterprise clients, establishing a premier bespoke delivery standard and maintaining a "Gold Standard" of customer service to drive high customer satisfaction and client retention.
• Partner with internal teams, clients, and enterprise sponsors to capture qualitative feedback, track learner engagement, and deliver high-quality impact reports proving ROI, while supporting account growth and expansion opportunities.

Financial & Contractor Management

• Manage the day-to-day tracking of project budgets and allocation on a workflow level. 
• Oversee the raising of Purchase Orders and share them with content developers, ensuring financial processes are followed.
• Support the maintenance of the external contractor database, identifying resource gaps based on project pipelines. 
• Track contractor performance, identifying if work is subpar or requires quote revisions, and maintain records of such incidents.
• Orchestrate the onboarding, scheduling, and administrative setup for external associate faculty and contractors to support program execution.

Quality Assurance & Execution

• Define QA timelines, assign QA tasks, and ensure resources are allocated effectively.
• Ensure issues are logged, prioritised, and resolved within project deadlines.
• Oversee the visual clarity and presentation of content, ensuring the learning design execution meets the required standards.
   

Candidate Specification

Essential

• Proven experience as a Project Manager in an Agile environment, with demonstrated leadership or mentoring experience (experience in a consulting or agency background preferred).
• Experience in line management and developing team members.
• Strong skills in project planning, with the ability to create detailed timelines, manage critical paths, and deliver projects on time and within budget.
• Proficient in budget tracking, resource allocation, and vendor management.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to manage risks, determine escalation points, and resolve issues under pressure.
• Effective in cross-functional collaboration, particularly in working alongside Product Managers to execute technical and content requirements.
• Exceptional communication skills, capable of liaising with external contractors and internal stakeholders to ensure project completion.
• Skilled in managing QA processes, including quality control processes, prioritisation, and ensuring scope completion.
• Proficient in the use of technical collaboration tools (e.g., Google Workspace, Slack) and project management software.

Desirable:

• Formal Project Management certification (e.g. APM PMQ, Agile Practitioner).
• Familiarity with Learning Management Systems and content development workflows.
• Experience managing projects in Notion
• Interest in Education & EdTech. 

Company Benefits: 

• Pension with 4% matched contributions, opportunity to opt into salary sacrifice scheme
• 25 days holiday + Flexi bank holidays + 1 day off on your birthday
• A day for volunteering
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave 
• Health & Wellbeing allowance of up to £30 per month
• Annual Summer and Xmas events
• Company socials including everything from Cambridge College formals, pub nights to team building events
• CPD Allowance alongside quarterly reflections to ring fence time for development and growth
• Private medical insurance and cash plan
• Holiday buy back scheme (up to 10 days p/a)
• Employee Assistance Programme with a dedicated company counsellor

Background to our Organisation

We are an education technology company that enables corporate and government organisations to achieve their business goals by educating their workforce with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era.

We deliver unique and innovative professional education that is accelerating the digital transformation of our clients, advancing the careers of their employees, helping people get into work and closing the digital skills gap. We are in a sector that is crucial to the economy and workforce, with a lot of opportunity for change and innovation. We are at the cutting edge of teaching applied data and digital skills, with our unique patented learning platform EDUKATE.AI offering our clients and learners a unique learning experience. EDUKATE.AI was developed with support from Innovate UK and provides all of our learners with 24/7 immediate feedback on their work, helping accelerate the learning process and providing a sandbox environment to experiment on real world datasets.

Since 2016, we have supported more than 15,000 learners across four continents with nearly 550,000 pieces of code submitted for feedback on EDUKATE.AI. We are trusted by some of the most recognisable brands in the world to educate their workforce, including Microsoft, the NHS, GSK, easyJet, the BBC and John Lewis. Our focus on applied learning to create business impact sets us apart - individual learners have reported applying their skills at work to generate recorded value of up to £40m. 

Our Values

At the centre of the way we work together and inspire each other to achieve success are these core values:

Entrepreneurial

We take initiative and show entrepreneurial spirit which fuels innovation at Cambridge Spark. This includes identifying opportunities for improvement, taking ownership for implementing solutions effectively and driving improvement by using proof of concepts to demonstrate the feasibility and value of their work.

Team Spirit

Everyone is part of building an open and transparent culture, communicating effectively to raise issues, discuss improvements and share the evidence used to make decisions.

Customer-focused

Our customers are at the centre of everything we do, inspiring us to create great work. We strive to build friendly, professional and lasting relationships with them to better understand and anticipate their needs.

Gold Standard

We are experts in our field and are constantly developing our technology and offering. We set the benchmark in our industry: both in what we offer customers and in how we deliver it.

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Cambridge Spark is an Equal Opportunities Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind.  Cambridge Spark is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunities for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Cambridge Spark are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, colour or ethnicity, ability or disability, gender or gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Cambridge Spark will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Cambridge Spark encourages applicants of all ages.