Illustration Operations Lead: Drive Efficiency & Quality

Twinkl Educational Publishing; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working from home

Westfield Health

33 days annual leave (pro‑rata)

Job summary

Twinkl Educational Publishing is seeking an Illustration Operations Manager to drive measurable business impact through performance improvement, quality output and team capability across illustration cohorts.

You will own data collection and analysis, identify opportunities for improvements, and collaborate with leaders to implement changes while line managing key roles in the illustration stream to support country and international teams.

Qualifications

• Understanding of the illustration process.
• An analytical mindset to interpret large data sets.
• Strong communication with senior leaders.
• Persuasion skills to drive changes and improvements.
• Ability to see projects through ideation to completion.
• Capability to multitask and prioritise effectively.
• Holistic view to improve department and collaboration across teams.
• Proactive in identifying cross‑department opportunities for impact.

Responsibilities

• WoW/MoM collection and analysis of Illustration Production Data to identify high value opportunities.
• Collaborate with leaders across teams to surface blockers and actions needed.
• Lead Illustration TLs to shorten end‑to‑end lead times and optimize allocations.
• Guide Illustration Operations team in delivering high impact efficiency and quality projects.

Skills

Google Sheets

Tableau

Data analysis

Project management

Team leadership

Job description

Line Manager: Senior Production Operations Manager

We are recruiting an Illustration Operations Manager to drive measurable business impact through continuous performance improvement, quality output and illustration team capability.

Description

If you are a proactive, data-focused individual who has a strong interest in efficiency and problem-solving, we would love to hear from you. The role sits within the Production Operations team. This team is focused on making continuous improvements to the production processes and practices that will help drive the business forward, by getting resources and products out to customers as quickly as possible, while maintaining Twinkl’s high quality standards that our users need.

As the Illustration Operations Manager, you will take ownership of collecting and analysing production data, to spot opportunities for improvements. You will suggest and follow through with regular process improvements for Illustrators working across all territories. As such, you will work closely with leaders across different departments to understand where they require support, and to understand the impact of changes being implemented.

Alongside this, you will line manage and support the Illustration Development Manager, the Illustration Training Coordinator, and the AI Illustration Coordinator, to ensure that operational improvements are being implemented across the board. The team will also be key to supporting Country Managers, Production Managers and Team Leaders across any teams working on Production, who may need support with the technicalities of developing their illustrator skills.

You will work on a wide variety of projects, all with a focus on continuous improvement of the team, content lines and customer experience. This role will give you the opportunity to develop your skills across many different areas, working on widescale impactful improvements to individual teams, as well as implementing high level changes that will deliver results for our customer. You will work closely with the Teaching and Design Operations Managers to ensure that key improvements are adding value across the whole department.

Ongoing projects/how you’ll spend your day:

• WoW/MoM collection and analysis of Illustration Production Data, identifying opportunities to create high value impact for the business.
• Working closely with leaders across to get on the ground information about blockers that are occurring within their teams.
• Leading Illustration TLs to enable shorter E2E lead times, supporting team allocation, identifying process improvements and reviewing existing systems and tracking.
• Leading Illustration Operations team to identify high impact projects for efficiency and quality improvements and improving existing systems, tracking and reporting.

To succeed in the role, you will:

• Have an understanding of the digital illustration process.
• Have an analytical mindset, with the ability to collect and understand large data sets.
• Be a strong communicator, and be confident when speaking with leaders and SLT.
• Have strong persuasion skills, with the ability to influence leaders into making key changes and improvements. You will also have a good understanding of change management techniques.
• Have the ability to see projects through from ideation to completion, as well as measuring and understanding the impact of projects worked on.
• Be able to multitask and prioritise to meet the needs of the business.
• Have the ability to take a holistic approach to the improvement of the department.
• Be proactive, and good at identifying where collaboration across the department would result in higher impact improvements.

You’ll work with:

• Laurel Wilkinson, Head of Content Development
• Helen Sushams, Senior Production Operations Manager
• The Production Operations team, and Teaching and Design Operations Managers.
• A variety of leaders within UKI and International.

We're interested in anyone who meets one of, or a combination of, the following:

• Experience in leading a team.
• Has a strong understanding of the illustration process.
• Has a strong understanding of project management.
• Has a strong understanding of process improvement.
• Intermediate or advanced level ability to use Google Sheets and Tableau.
• Experienced and/or keen interest in learning about automations, operational tooling and AI.

How to Apply…

Please apply with your CV and a covering letter including your current title, any previous experience that would be relevant and how you meet the requirements of the role.

Our Recruitment Process

Apply with CV and Cover Letter > Meeting with recruiter > Task > Interview with team > Leadership interview

In return for everything you can bring, we can offer you an exciting role in a fast-growing and dynamic business, with plenty of career opportunities.

Here’s a couple of the things that make Twinkl a great place to be:

• A friendly, welcoming and supportive culture. We believe work should be fun and always put people before the process
• Diversity, inclusion and belonging - our Employee Network Program includes working groups for LGBTQ+, People of Colour, Disabilities (visible and invisible), Women in Tech and Working Parents.
• From day 1 - Westfield Health, 33 annual leave days per year (pro-rata) inclusive bank holidays, a "Me" day each year, a charity day each year, flexible working policy with opportunities to work from home and Twinkl subscriptions.
• Quarterly company awards programme
• Seasonal events
• Cervical and Prostate screening
• Company sick pay after 3 months of service
• After probation - cycle-to-work scheme
• Long-term service reward - Life insurance, enhanced pension contribution, enhanced maternity pay, enhanced adoption pay and enhanced paternity pay, long service award, long service annual leave