Head of Operations

Tidal Recruitment Partners; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Tidal Recruitment Partners is seeking a Head of Operations for a progressive education provider, based in Sydney. You will own national operations across campuses, facilities, admissions and student services, ensuring scalable processes and exceptional student experience.

Reporting to the CEO, you will lead multi-site operational teams, drive continuous improvement, manage budgets, WHS and risk, and help shape the organisation's growth trajectory through strategic execution and change leadership.

Qualifications

• Significant senior operational leadership experience, ideally within education.
• Experience leading across multiple campuses, sites or locations.
• Strong experience across campus operations, facilities and admissions.
• A strategic mindset with the ability to turn strategy into action.
• Experience leading change, growth and improvements.

Responsibilities

• Providing strategic leadership and oversight of national operations across campuses.
• Developing an operational strategy to support growth plans.
• Overseeing facilities management, campus infrastructure and expansion projects.
• Leading admissions, enrolment and student administration functions.
• Driving improvements across admissions processes, systems and service delivery.
• Identifying opportunities to improve efficiency and organisational effectiveness.
• Leading operational change and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Overseeing WHS, business continuity and operational risk.
• Managing budgets, resources and cost efficiencies.
• Developing and leading high-performing operational teams across multiple locations.

Skills

Strategic Leadership

Education Sector

Campus Operations

Stakeholder Mgmt

People Leadership

Education

Education/Management degree

Job description

An exciting opportunity has become available to join an incredibly progressive education provider at a significant point in its growth journey.

Currently operating across five campuses nationally, the organisation has ambitious plans to expand its footprint, with a further two campuses planned.

With a new CEO and leadership team in place, there is a real appetite for growth, innovation and doing things differently. This is an opportunity for someone who wants to come into a business where they can genuinely have an impact, help shape the operational strategy and build the frameworks needed to support the organisation through its next stage of growth.

We are looking for a Head of Operations who can think strategically but is equally comfortable getting across the detail. You will take national responsibility for key operational functions, with a particular focus on campus operations, facilities and admissions, while also overseeing broader areas including student services, WHS, business continuity and operational performance.

The role:

Reporting into the CEO and sitting as part of the Executive Leadership Team, you will provide strategic leadership across the organisation’s national operations.

This is not simply about maintaining what is already in place. You will be looking at how operations need to evolve as the organisation grows, identifying opportunities to improve systems and processes, creating greater consistency across campuses and ensuring the operational model is scalable for future expansion.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Providing strategic leadership and oversight of campus operations nationally
• Developing an operational strategy that supports the organisation’s broader growth plans
• Overseeing facilities management, campus infrastructure, utilisation and future expansion projects
• Leading admissions, enrolment and student administration functions
• Driving improvements across admissions processes, turnaround times, systems and service delivery
• Identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, service delivery and organisational effectiveness
• Leading operational change and continuous improvement initiatives
• Overseeing WHS, emergency preparedness, business continuity and operational risk
• Managing operational budgets, resource allocation and cost efficiencies
• Developing and leading high-performing operational teams across multiple locations

About you:

We are looking for someone who is strategic, progressive and genuinely excited by growth and change.

Ideally, you will come from the education sector, with experience across higher education, vocational education, international education or another complex education environment. You will understand the importance of balancing operational excellence with the student experience and the regulatory requirements of the sector.

You will bring:

• Significant senior operational leadership experience, ideally within education
• Experience leading across multiple campuses, sites or locations
• Strong experience across campus operations, facilities and admissions
• A strategic mindset with the ability to turn strategy into action
• Experience leading change, improvement and growth
• Strong people leadership and stakeholder management skills

Most importantly, we are looking for someone who wants to grow with an organisation and is excited by the opportunity to help shape what its operations look like into the future.

There is significant opportunity ahead and this role will suit someone who is excited by the prospect of joining a progressive leadership team, challenging how things have traditionally been done and helping build an operational function that can support a much larger organisation into the future.

This role is based in Sydney and will have responsibility for operations across campuses nationally.