Cluster Operations Manager, Portugal

Publicado 03-02-2022

Lisboa Lisboa (Contabilidade / Finanças)


Date: 03-Feb-2022

Location: Lisbon, European Union, PT

Company: British Council

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language. We work in two ways ? directly with individuals to transform their lives, and with governments and partners to make a bigger difference for the longer term, creating benefit for millions of people all over the world. We help young people to gain the skills, confidence and connections they are looking for to realise their potential and to participate in strong and inclusive communities. We support them to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Our work in arts and culture stimulates creative expression and exchange and nurtures creative enterprise. We connect the best of the UK with the world and the best of the world with the UK. These connections lead to an understanding of each other's strengths and of the challenges and values that we share. This builds trust between people in the UK and other nations which endures even when official relations may be strained. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications. Purpose of Role:
The role is the country/cluster lead for business improvement, efficiency and cost management for teaching operations through effective teacher utilization, management of indirect costs and process improvement to improve margins. Accountable for the delivery of in-year efficiency targets. This is a key role in ensuring that the teaching business is sustainable, future focused and delivers the operational performance in line with corporate objectives.
Main Accountabilities: Service delivery
  • Translates Global and Regional English strategies into 1 -3 year operations plan, and deploys resources efficiently and cost-effectively to deliver the commercial strategy.
  • Liaises closely with Country/Branch Operations Managers to clarify, agree, and re-negotiate (as necessary) local targets to deliver improvements in margin.
  • Implements, reviews and re-prioritise the work plans of multiple teams working across a range of business strands (systems, processes, change initiatives) in the light of revised corporate requirements, operational changes and local social/economic or political events.
  • Ensure the effective and efficient management of logistics (timetabling, stock management etc.).
  • Drives innovation of the teaching delivery model identifying opportunities to improve delivery efficiencies and effectiveness to best meet customer needs.
  • Responsible for safeguarding practices, policies, risk management for young learners within the country.
Relationship and Stakeholder management
  • Develops and maintains excellent relationships and communication with internal stakeholders across a range of business and geographical areas, to inform and enable medium-term innovation and improvements in the quality of teaching delivery.
  • Leads and manages relationships with major corporate stakeholders including Tax, Legal, Corporate risk and Information Governance.
Analysis and Reporting
  • Accountable for business process improvement, drives improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery across products based on historic, current and projected operational performance data.
  • Undertakes market scanning to identify potential partners to support the improvement of the delivery model and utilise new delivery channels.
  • Reviews current management information and reporting protocols, recommending and/or implementing improvements, as necessary, to enable more effective and robust operational planning and decision-making.
  • Inputs into monthly forecasting for month-end commentary and teacher utilization.
Risk and compliance
  • In collaboration with Country/Branch Operations Managers, reviews agreed corporate risk management protocols to determine whether they adequately protect the interests of the British Council in the local operating context. Recommends revision and reform where necessary, basing proposals on evidence-based analysis of current/future risks and research into wider best practice and/or legislative requirements.
  • Ensures Teaching Centres are compliant and monitors performance.
  • Leads on internal and external audits from planning to follow up.
  • Serves as a point of escalation for Branch Operation Managers on significant issues.
Commercial and/or financial management
  • Leads the annual resource planning for operational delivery to ensure capacity to deliver demand for products & services. Monitors, analyses and reports variances to plan to enable in-year and medium-term improvements to operational efficiency and business effectiveness.
  • Sets utilisation targets for teachers & classroom space, monitoring performance & ensuring country Operations Managers are putting in place plans to tackle.
  • Undertakes a range of financial, productivity and cost/benefit analyses of operational activity in teaching delivery to enable the development of robust medium-term investment decisions.
  • Actively contributes to premise management decision making and planning.
  • Assures expenditure, deferred income and cashflow through monthly reporting cycle on behalf of the large country / cluster / region.
  • Actively seeks to maximise value for money when acquiring resources, goods or services for the country/cluster operations.
Leadership & management
  • Embeds Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in the work of the teaching operations function through agreeing regional priorities and workplans and holding cluster and LC leads accountable for delivery.
  • Working with the Regional Head of Operations, sets the vision, direction and annual business plan for their teaching operations, to ensure defined business objectives are realised in accordance with the Global English strategy. Time horizons are largely annual, with an awareness of medium-term developments.
  • Actively contributes to the development of regional and SBU operations strategies and plans.
  • Supports workforce planning and contributes to the development and delivery of training, support and knowledge-sharing activities to build operational skills and capability in product/service development within the region.

Role specific knowledge and experience
  • Business Process Improvement.
  • Managing Finance and Resources.
  • Managing Risk.
  • Operational Management.
  • Communicating and influencing
Essentials
  • Experience of business process improvement.
  • Experience of cost and resource management at a global scale.
  • Experience of successfully delivery of significant business process improvement.
  • Experience of operational management in line with business strategy.
  • English at CEFR C1 level or higher

Further Information
Pay Band ? Pay band F Contract Type ? Fix Term Contract ? 24 Months Location ? Lisbon. Applicants must have the right to work in Portugal. Closing Date ? 20th February 2022
A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.
Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement
The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.
The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.
We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.
Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council?s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.
If you have any problems with your application please email [email protected]
Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our ?ASK HR? email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.