Training Operations Manager (RTO)

Paradise First Aid; Gold Coast City; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Autonomy in scheduling

Leadership role

Annualised salary with super

Coomera training centre location

Job summary

Paradise First Aid on the Gold Coast is seeking a Training Operations Manager to take full accountability for the RTO. You’ll sit on the leadership team and run the training business with commercial focus and autonomy.

You’ll own the budget, delivery plan, course calendar, and compliance program across SE Queensland, lead casual trainers, manage student records and invoicing, and drive the technology roadmap including aXcelerate and AI tools to reduce manual work.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in an RTO or training organisation with management accountability.
• Strong knowledge of the Standards for RTOs, ASQA requirements, USI, AVETMISS and audits.
• Hands-on experience with a student management system (aXcelerate strongly preferred).
• Proven experience leading a casual or contingent workforce, including recruitment, rostering and performance management.
• Experience managing a budget or P&L, setting and achieving revenue and margin targets, and managing pricing, quoting and receivables.

Responsibilities

• Own the training business budget, revenue and margin targets, and the annual delivery plan that meets them.
• Oversee the public and onsite course calendar across all our delivery locations.
• Lead casual Trainer/Assessor team: recruitment, allocation, performance and culture.
• RTO compliance as operational compliance lead, including the compliance calendar, internal audits, AVETMISS and USI reporting.
• The student lifecycle from enquiry to certificate, with routine processing handled by reception and automated systems under your direction.

Skills

Leadership

Budget management

Compliance

Stakeholder management

Education

TAE40122 (bonus)

Diploma in VET, business or management

Tools

aXcelerate

Job description

You already know what it takes to run training operations: the course calendar, the trainer roster, the compliance file, the audits, the invoicing, the thousand small things that have to go right every week. What you may not have had is the authority to make the calls yourself.

Paradise First Aid (RTO 32268) delivers nationally recognised first aid, CPR and related training to workplaces, schools, sporting clubs and the public across South East Queensland. We're part of The First Aid Group, a small family of businesses on the Gold Coast that also includes The First Aid Shop and NIFAT, the National Institute of First Aid Trainers.

We're looking for a Training Operations Manager to take full accountability for the RTO. You'll sit on a leadership team of three business-unit managers reporting to the Head of Operations, and the training business will be yours to run.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

The training business budget, revenue and margin targets, and the annual delivery plan that meets them

The public and onsite course calendar across all our delivery locations

Leadership of our casual Trainer/Assessor team: recruitment, allocation, performance and culture

RTO compliance as our operational compliance lead, including the compliance calendar, internal audits, AVETMISS and USI reporting, and audit preparation with ASQA

The student lifecycle from enquiry to certificate, with routine processing handled by reception and automated systems under your direction

Quoting, invoicing and receivables for workplace, school and group training, and the client relationships behind them

The training centre and its equipment, consumables, WHS and presentation

Our training operations technology roadmap, including aXcelerate, automation and AI-assisted tools, so that manual tasks keep disappearing

Weekly operational and quarterly management reporting to the Head of Operations

WHY THIS ROLE IS DIFFERENT

We've spent the past year rebuilding how this business works. Online enrolment and payment, trainers marking attendance and assessments through an app, automated certificate issuance, and an AI assistant integrated across aXcelerate, Front and our other systems that handles bookings, confirmations, certificate copies and routine enquiries. The data entry is gone. What's left is the work that needs judgement, leadership and a commercial head, and that's what we're hiring for.

ABOUT YOU

Three or more years in an RTO or training organisation, including at least two in a management or leadership role with accountability for operational and financial performance

Strong working knowledge of the Standards for RTOs, ASQA requirements, USI, AVETMISS, certificate issuance and student records, and experience leading or coordinating compliance activity and audits

Hands‑on experience with a student management system (aXcelerate strongly preferred)

Proven experience leading a casual or contingent workforce, including recruitment, rostering and performance management

Experience managing a budget or P&L, setting and achieving revenue and margin targets, and managing pricing, quoting and receivables

Practical experience managing equipment or a facility, with a sound understanding of WHS

A track record of implementing and improving business systems, and confidence with technology including AI‑assisted tools

Excellent organisation, attention to detail, and the communication skills to handle clients, trainers and difficult conversations with warmth and authority

Current open driver's licence and willingness to travel to onsite venues across South East Queensland

It would be a bonus if you hold a TAE40122 (or TAE40116 with upgrade units) and can deliver HLTAID units in a pinch, have led ASQA audit preparation, hold a diploma in VET, business or management, have responded to tenders or managed corporate training contracts, or are already using Claude or similar AI platforms in your work.

WHAT WE OFFER

$100,000 per annum plus superannuation, paid as an annualised salary

Permanent full‑time role based at our Coomera training centre, with the Gold Coast at the door

Genuine autonomy and delegated authority: scheduling, rostering, quoting, purchasing and credit decisions are yours within agreed limits

A seat at the leadership table in a business small enough that your decisions take effect the same week

Modern systems and a boss who would rather you built the process than worked around it

THE PRACTICAL DETAILS

Six‑month probationary period. Appointment is subject to a National Police Check, a Queensland Blue Card (or evidence of application), a current open driver's licence and the right to work in Australia. The role involves occasional early starts, evenings or weekends to support courses and events, and some lifting of training equipment and course kits.

Paradise First Aid is part of The First Aid Group Pty Ltd. RTO 32268.