Customer Service Associate

Ambition; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 27,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Employer pension contribution 11%

Hybrid working culture

Wellbeing support line

City centre offices in Manchester, etc

Job summary

Ambition Institute in Manchester is seeking a Customer Service Associate to be the first point of contact for applicants and participants, handling calls and emails, logging cases in Salesforce, and giving clear information on programmes.

The role is hybrid, based in Manchester with possible days in Birmingham or London, reporting to the Customer Service Manager, and requires collaboration across teams to deliver a seamless service and drive improvements.

Qualifications

• Right to work in the UK
• Commitment to Ambition Institute’s mission and values
• Friendly and professional in all interactions
• Quick to respond and thorough in resolving queries
• Accurate and able to explain information simply
• Confident communicator by phone and in writing
• Comfortable using IT systems, including Salesforce
• Ability to manage a varied workload
• Collaborative, with the ability to work independently when needed

Responsibilities

• Handle calls and emails from applicants and participants
• Use Salesforce and telephony systems to log, track and resolve queries
• Provide clear and accurate information about Ambition Institute’s programmes
• Maintain up-to-date records and ensure data quality
• Escalate complex or urgent issues to relevant colleagues
• Share feedback to support continuous improvement
• Collaborate with colleagues across teams to provide a seamless service
• Carry out administrative tasks to support Front of House

Skills

Right to work in the UK

Mission alignment

Customer service principles

Friendly and professional

Quick to respond

Transparent communication

Accurate explanations

Supportive to colleagues

Confident communicator

IT systems proficiency

Workload management

Willingness to learn

Collaborative work style

Attention to detail

Tools

Salesforce

Telephony systems

CRM systems

Job description

Customer Service Associate

Application Deadline: 22 October 2026

Department: Front of House

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Manchester

Reporting To: Customer Service Manager

Compensation: £26,227.50 / year

Description

Ambition Institute is looking for a Customer Service Associate to play a vital role in delivering excellent customer service to applicants and participants engaging with our programmes.

In this role, you’ll:

• Be the first point of contact for queries, responding to calls and emails quickly and thoroughly.
• Use Salesforce and telephony systems to log, track and resolve cases, maintaining accurate records and data quality.
• Provide clear, accurate information about Ambition Institute’s programmes, processes and policies.
• Escalate complex or urgent issues to relevant colleagues or teams.
• Share feedback to support continuous improvement and help shape the customer experience.
• Collaborate across teams to deliver a seamless service for all users.

We’re looking for someone who is friendly and professional, quick to respond, accurate and able to explain information simply. If you’re committed to our mission and thrive in a fast-paced, customer-focused environment, we’d love to hear from you.

Who are Ambition Institute?

A great teacher changes the future every day. Especially for children who have had a tough start in life, a teacher can be the critical factor in their success.

At Ambition Institute we help schools tackling educational disadvantage to keep getting better and help their teachers and school leaders to become more expert over time.

That’s how we’ll make sure every child gets a great education and the best possible start in life.

• We train teachers and leaders at all levels to get better at the things that make the biggest difference: what you teach, how you teach it, and how you create the conditions for schools to thrive.
• We share what works. Everyone can benefit from evidence of how great teaching and leadership can improve schools and change lives, so we connect people to the latest research and best practice.
• We champion every teacher and school leader’s potential to develop, as the driving force for sustainable school improvement.

We would like you to:

• Handle calls and emails from applicants and participants
• Use Salesforce and telephony systems to log, track and resolve queries
• Provide clear and accurate information about Ambition Institute’s programmes, processes and policies
• Maintain up-to-date records and ensure data quality in line with Standard Operating Procedures
• Escalate complex or urgent issues to relevant colleagues or teams as needed
• Support continuous improvement by sharing feedback on processes and customer experience
• Collaborate with colleagues across teams to provide a seamless service for all users
• Carry out administrative tasks to support the smooth running of the Front of House function

Working in a hybrid way, you’ll be attached to either our Birmingham, London or Manchester office and will report to Customer Service Manager. In line with our current ways of working, you’ll be expected to be in the office at least 1 day a month, in addition to team days and this may be reviewed by Ambition.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Right to work in the UK
• Commitment to Ambition Institute’s mission and values, with a passion for supporting educators and improving outcomes for children
• Demonstrates our customer service principles by being:
• Friendly and professional in all interactions
• Quick to respond and thorough in resolving queries
• Transparent and positive when communicating
• Accurate and able to explain information simply
• Supportive to colleagues and customers, and accountable for their work
• Confident communicator, able to convey information clearly by phone and in writing
• Comfortable using IT systems, including Salesforce (or similar CRM) and telephony platforms
• Ability to manage a varied workload and prioritise competing demands
• Willingness to learn, take feedback and adapt to new processes
• Collaborative approach, with the ability to work independently when required
• Attention to detail and commitment to maintaining accurate records

Desirable

• Strong customer service skills, with experience in a customer-facing or administrative role
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment

What’s in it for you….?

• Competitive annual salary
• Professional development for all staff
• 25 days' annual leave, plus bank holidays and 'winter shut down' at the end of December/beginning of January
• Employer pension contribution of 11%
• Agile, hybrid working culture, so you can manage when and where you work
• Staff affinity networks that help keep equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
• Blind recruitment process to ensure equality and fairness in our hiring
• Enhanced maternity pay after a year’s service
• Shared parental leave package
• Access to free, confidential 24/7 wellbeing and support line
• Comfortable and collaborative workspaces in the city centres of Manchester, Birmingham and London
• Work-from-home technology package to support hybrid working
• Interest free season ticket / bike loans

We don’t expect the person we hire to have all of the following, but this should give you a sense of what would enable you to thrive in this role and in our organisation:

• You care deeply about educational disadvantage and being part of an organisation that challenges inequality
• You have a good work ethic and strive to make a difference in the job you do

• You always give maximum effort to understand and meet the needs of our partners and participants
• You always have a great attitude so we "can do" for all our colleagues, partners and participants
• You are open to feedback and learning because we want to keep getting better
• You work with your initiative to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective
• You are well organised and can prioritise work that will have the greatest impact

• You want a career with a person-centred organisation with a cause at its heart.
• You have a collaborative work ethos, bring warmth and good humour to work and constructive outlook to every situation
• You enjoy working in a fast-moving workplace, with a great support structure around you
• You would like to grow with an ambitious organisation as it progresses over time
• Want flexibility in how you work – splitting your time between one of our offices and remote working and managing your own working patterns to get the job done.

Applications will be accepted for all office locations.

All applications must be received by the closing date 11:59pm on 22 October 2026. Interviews are expected to take place on w/c 26 October 2026.

We recognise that AI function tools (such as ChatGPT or other generative AI tools) are here to stay and can be helpful for applications including to assist in researching for application responses and to shorten your first draft. However, we are observing a growing trend in the use of AI, and we would caution applicants against relying too heavily on such tools when drafting responses. The pitfall of such tools is that they produce generic responses that don’t showcase individuality, specific experiences or real-life examples. This usually results in applications being unsuccessful. We want to evaluate your response, and we will be looking for answers that use examples and experiences that are clearly specific to you. You are more likely to successfully demonstrate your soft skills like communication and teamwork when preparing answers to application questions yourself and this helps mitigate the unintended consequences of AI-generated responses.

If we suspect you have used AI inappropriately, the panel reviewing your application may adjust how your response is rated. For more details of what we consider to be acceptable use of AI function tools in our application process, please review our FAQs on our careers page.

Ambition Institute is proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. We welcome applications from disabled people and, as part of our commitment, offer an interview to applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for the role (although where we receive a particularly high number of applications through the scheme, we may not be able to interview everyone who meets the criteria). We are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process and encourage you to let us know if there are any adjustments that would help you participate fully.

We are committed to the safeguarding of children and the most vulnerable in our society and, as such, we are unable to employ individuals with relevant convictions, including the following: a conviction for an offence involving violence or dishonesty, of a sexual nature or against minors, or for any other offence that is relevant to the nature of the services provided by our organisation.

For any questions or queries please review our FAQs | Ambition Institute Careers (pinpointhq.com). If we've not addressed your question in this section, please email us at [e-mail].

As an employer, we have a responsibility to prevent illegal working in the UK by ensuring that our employees have the right to work in the UK. Therefore, as part of the recruitment process to verify your eligibility you will be required to produce relevant documentation.