Senior Vocational Quality & Compliance Lead

Pearson; England; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus opportunities

Pension contributions

Life assurance

Private healthcare options

Job summary

Pearson is seeking an Advanced Specialist in Compliance & Operations to support vocational centres across the UK, ensuring regulatory alignment and quality assurance. The role involves leading improvement initiatives, tackling high-risk centres, and guiding internal processes in collaboration with Pearson’s Quality Standards and Centre Management teams.

The position requires strong experience in QA within education, excellent communication, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a

Qualifications

• Experience managing quality assurance within educational, vocational, assessment, or awarding organisation environments.
• Strong knowledge of vocational qualification delivery, assessment, and QA processes.
• Experience supporting compliance, audits, investigations, or centre improvement.
• Ability to influence and engage stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong project planning, organisation and workload management skills.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex requirements clearly.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work independently within a changing environment.
• Graduate level education and professional education qualifications preferred.
• Teaching, mentoring or people management experience would be advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Support vocational centres in maintaining compliance with Pearson quality standards, policies, and regulatory requirements.
• Work directly with centres identified as high-risk to address quality, operational, and compliance concerns.
• Lead and coordinate quality improvement initiatives across multiple centres and qualification areas.
• Support investigations and resolution of malpractice and maladministration cases.
• Address operational issues impacting centre performance, including late registrations, inadequate resources, delivery concerns, and quality assurance failures.
• Support actions arising from Academic Management Reviews and other quality monitoring activities.
• Provide expert guidance on internal and external quality assurance processes, vocational assessment practices, and awarding organisation requirements.
• Monitor centre activity and develop improvement plans to ensure compliance and continuous quality enhancement.
• Maintain accurate, auditable records and produce data and reports to support operational decision-making.
• Work closely with Quality Standards, Investigations, Vocational Assessment and Centre Management teams to identify trends, risks, and solutions.
• Build effective relationships with centre leadership teams and stakeholders to drive positive quality outcomes.

Skills

Quality assurance

Stakeholder engagement

Project planning

Communication

Multitasking

Problem solving

Graduate education preferred

Mentoring

Job description

Pearson is seeking an Advanced Specialist in Compliance & Operations to support vocational centres across the UK, ensuring regulatory alignment and quality assurance. The role involves leading improvement initiatives, tackling high-risk centres, and guiding internal processes in collaboration with Pearson’s Quality Standards and Centre Management teams.

The position requires strong experience in QA within education, excellent communication, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a