Partnership Experience Manager (Maternity Cover)
Salary: £38,814 - £44,581 pro-rata (depending on experience and FTE)
Contract: 12 months fixed-term contract (Maternity Cover- might be potentially extended)
Start Date: Date to be agreed (potentially August)
Location: This is currently a blended-working role with two in-office days (Tuesday-Thursday) during term time and the flexibility to work from home during school holidays. Occasional travel to schools and events will be required.
We will consider reduced office days for a successful candidate based in one of our target regions across the North and Midlands. If this might be relevant for you we are happy to explore in a conversation with you before or during the recruitment process.
We are currently based at Resource for London near Holloway Road station, however, our office will be moving to another location in London in the coming months.
Working Pattern: 37.5 hours per week. Our core hours are 09:30 - 16:00 from Monday to Friday. This role can be either full-time or part-time (0.8 FTE minimum) and we are open to flexible working requests.
Benefits of working for Challenge Partners
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Work-life balance
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Annual leave
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Employer pension contributions
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Health and wellbeing support
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Training and development
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Family-friendly policies
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Connection and celebration
About the role
You will play a key role in driving the continuous improvement and growth of our national partnership through deepening the quality and impact of our local collaboration hubs. You will also oversee the day-to-day running of hubs of our schools and trusts, which includes holding responsibility for the operations of the Partnerships Team and working closely with the Partnership Lead to ensure that all hubs, schools and trusts have an excellent experience with Challenge Partners.
You will also oversee the implementation of the organisation’s Account Management strategy, working closely with members of the Leadership Team to implement our strategy for effective partnership experience (our term for account management and customer service) for our partner schools and trusts. This includes holding some key strategic relationships, representing the organisation at external meetings and overseeing partner experience operations.
Key Responsibilities
The Partnership Experience Manager will have the following key areas of responsibility and will be expected to undertake other responsibilities commensurate with the role as requested:
Strategic Leadership and Management - Hub Quality and Impact
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Develop and lead our strategy to improve the quality and impact of Challenge Partners’ Hubs, continuing to develop high performing hubs and supporting rapid improvement in new and emerging hubs
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Deliver, grow and evaluate the impact of our hub-led programmes: Middle Leaders’ Quality Assurance Review and Leadership Residency Programme
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Oversee the continuous improvement of national Knowledge Exchange and Areas of Excellence
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Lead a Hub Quality and Impact team, including all central team hub owners and executive hub links, through providing clarity on the Hub Quality and Impact strategy and operations.
Strategic Leadership and Management - Partnership Experience and Communications
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Develop and lead the implementation of our Account Management strategy ensuring that accounts are given the attention needed to ensure a smooth experience and high satisfaction rates
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Oversee Customer Care processes across the organisation, guaranteeing that any issues are resolved in a professional and timely manner
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Oversee whole partnership communications, including half termly partnership newsletters
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Develop and maintain effective stakeholder relationships (Senior Partners, Hub Managers, trust CEOs) with your allocated key accounts to ensure that regular dialogue with them informs the strategy and continuous improvement in our support of hub quality and partner experience
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Act as an ambassador for Challenge Partners, representing the organisation externally where required
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Lead an Account Management approach through providing clarity on the account management strategy and operations.
Oversight of partner experience and hub management operations
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Line management of the Partnership Lead and one or two Partnership Co-ordinators
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Team leadership of the Hub Quality and Impact and Account Management teams, delegating tasks appropriately
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Work closely with the Partnership Lead to ensure the smooth day-to-day running of all hubs
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Act as a point of escalation for any issues across hubs
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Identify hubs at risk, and lead on creating sustainable solutions with team members
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Work closely with the Finance Team to facilitate our invoicing processes for each academic year
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Oversee hub funding processes across all hubs, proactively considering any changes needed in line with Hub Quality work
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Oversee Pricing Governance processes
Leadership Responsibilities for all Managers
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Foster a collaborative, high-performance team culture.
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Provide coaching and mentorship to develop team members’ potential.
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Drive innovation and professional development, aligning with Challenge Partners’ vision and growth strategy.
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Collaborate with Managers across teams to align efforts, ensuring a seamless experience for our school and trust partners.
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Contribute to organisational strategy, future planning, and priorities as part of the middle leadership team.
General Responsibilities
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Champion Challenge Partners’ vision, values, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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Take ownership of personal development and actively contribute to team learning.
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Work flexibly, undertaking additional duties as required.
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Maintain high standards of health, safety, and welfare for yourself and others.
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Attend events and external meetings, which may require travel and occasional overnight stays.
Person Specification
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Strong commitment to Challenge Partners vision and mission.
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Proven track record in strategic leadership and managing key external relationships.
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Knowledge and experience of the education sector.
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Excellent interpersonal skills used to build positive relationships with diverse stakeholders.
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Strong written and verbal communication skills.
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Experience in leading teams and developing others (formal line management experience is not required if transferable people management skills can be demonstrated).
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Proactive in improving processes, identifying risks and solving problems.
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Exceptional organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise and adapt to changing needs
How to apply
Please submit your application on Applied by 10am on Monday 19th May 2025. You will be asked to upload your CV and answer five competency and scenario-based application questions.
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First round of interviews (remote)- wlc 26th May 2025 (Specific dates TBC)
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Second round of interviews (face-to-face)- wlc 2nd June 2025 (Specific dates TBC)
A note on AI
At Challenge Partners, we are committed to a fair and inclusive recruitment process. We don’t use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for recruitment - applications are reviewed by members of the team and we use blind shortlisting to mitigate potential bias and ensure all candidates are considered on merit.
Whilst we recognise that AI can be a useful tool for tasks like proofreading, we encourage you to share genuine examples from your own experience so we can better understand your unique skills and perspective. Authenticity is important to us and we want to hear your voice throughout the application process.
DEI Statement
Challenge Partners is committed to further enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion within our team and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, gender, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.
Safeguarding Statement
Challenge Partners is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, beneficiaries and staff. We expect all employees, consultants and volunteers to share this commitment. All offers of employment or contracts with us are subject to a satisfactory DBS check and references.
No agencies please.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
This is an exciting opportunity for an engaging and organised trainer to join our growing charity, supporting our mission to transform children's health through school food and the delivery of an empowering and one-of-a-kind School Chef Educator Training Programme.
Who we are:
Chefs in Schools is a young, ambitious charity that’s rapidly growing. Our mission is to improve kids' health, through improving school food & food education. Working in areas of high deprivation, we support and train schools and their kitchen teams to serve the best, freshest and tastiest food possible, alongside meaningful food education. We share our learning and resources freely, aiming to inspire and enable others to follow our lead.
We’re backed by some of the biggest names in food and have ambitious targets to ensure every child has access to incredible school food and food education, setting them up for life with the skills and knowledge to feed themselves well.
About you and the role:
This role is an integral part of an ambitious programme to empower and train up the country’s school kitchen workforce through our School Chef Educator Programme, a hybrid course set over 10 weeks, including in-person sessions, webinars and self-guided e-learning on our learning platform. The programme has successfully trained over 130 school chefs nationwide, from London to Yorkshire, the West Midlands to Cornwall.
Our ultimate goal is that every school in the country has a person leading their kitchen who is a recognised food educator, playing a crucial role in shaping kids’ eating habits for life.
Your role will be to deliver the School Chef Educator Programme both in-person and online to school kitchen workforces across the country, helping to inspire them to achieve higher levels of knowledge and standards of food quality.
Supported by the Programme Manager, you will maintain and develop the online learning platform, design new and exciting training materials and learner experiences in order to maintain relevance and attract new customer bases across the school food sector.
The responsibilities, skills and experience listed below are intended to give you an idea of what we need for this role. If you don’t meet every requirement but feel you would be able to work with us to deliver the majority of them, we urge you to apply anyway. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and for us the most important ‘experience’ is passion for our mission. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented communities, to apply.
We want to get to know you at the interview and understand we can do this best if you’re at ease. We’re an inclusive employer and work hard to create a welcoming working environment for everyone, including appointing a neurodiversity champion to help us identify how we can make our work environment work for everyone. If you need adjustments to the interview process, please let us know.
Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
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Lead on the organisation and delivery of in-person and online training sessions to enrolled participants of the School Chef Educator Programme at a variety of locations
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Assist in the maintenance of the online database of participants, schools and funder information
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Manage, monitor and report learner progress to the Programme Manager
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Maintain, update and develop relevant training materials to keep our programme up to date
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Work with our evaluation team to monitor and survey the effectiveness of the training programme
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Design and refine the delivery of the core modules within our training programme as well as additional resources to support organisational objectives
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Lead on planning, scheduling and delivering programmes, in a time efficient and cost effective manor
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Work with our Fundraising Team to keep them up to date with the latest progress on our training programmes, providing qualitative and quantitative evidence to share with charity funders
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Attend monthly ‘Innovation’ days to develop recipes and other resources, and support the Transformation team with delivery when required
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Support and work with the School Engagement Manager to ensure School Chef Educator Programme cohorts are filled
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Assist in the delivery of events outside of the SCE programme, including membership meetings, fundraising events, networking and wider organisational events
Essential skills & experience include:
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Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to create clear, engaging, and accessible online learning resources
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Great people skills to quickly build rapport with learners from a wide variety of backgrounds and skill levels - striking a balance between being supportive and challenging
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Excellent digital skills in order to manage participants' online progress and records
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Excellent presentation skills to deliver engaging in-person and live online training sessions
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Excellent organisation, scheduling and time management skills
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Some experience working in a catering or kitchen environment, ability to assist or lead the culinary training elements of the training programme
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Food Hygiene level 2 or 3
Desirable skills and experience include:
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Experience in delivering well-structured and impactful in-person and online training sessions to a kitchen workforce or adult learners
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An understanding of the challenges and opportunities to working in school food and school catering work environments
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An understanding of hospitality, especially on how to deliver quality food and service within a budget
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Experience delivering multiple online training programmes across different geographical areas
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A full UK driving licence
Benefits:
You would be joining a friendly, supportive team that works hard but believes in a healthy work/life balance. We seek a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge. Joining a small, collaborative team means you’ll be able to contribute to and draw on various projects and strategic insights.
We offer 33 days of holiday per year, including bank holidays, with 3 additional office closure days over the Christmas period, a Cycle to Work scheme, hybrid working, enhanced parental leave, and free access to the CODE app for discounted restaurants & hospitality venues. We are committed to developing our team and will support you with relevant training opportunities including £250 towards elective training and development of your choice.
We also offer Bupa Dental Insurance, Income Protection Insurance, as well as access to the Aviva Health Platform, which offers health benefits including free rapid access online GP appointments, free counselling and wellbeing support.
Application process:
In line with our commitment to ensuring a fair and unbiased recruitment process, we will invite candidates to interview based on their answers to a series of questions that are related to their day-to-day job. Please follow the Redirect to Recruiter link to answer the questions and submit your application along with your CV.
We recommend that you develop your answers offline and then copy them in when you’re ready to ensure you don’t lose your work if you’re interrupted.
Your answers will go through our sift process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers. A long list of candidates will then additionally have their CVs reviewed. Successful candidates will be invited to interview. Candidates getting through to a second interview will be asked to complete a task as below.
Expected duration of this application process: 4-6 weeks
Interview Dates:
1st Stage Interviews (30 minutes online): Interviews will take place on 16th May 2025 and will last 30 minutes.
2nd Stage Interview (in-person): Interviews will take place on 30th May 2025 and will include a 45-minute interview and a 15-minute presentation or training exercise on the topic of ‘Good School Food Culture’ or ‘Expanding Tastebuds’.
Location: Chefs in Schools Offices, International House, 3Space, 6 Canterbury Cres, London SW9 7QD
As we work with children & young people, an offer of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and DBS clearance, in line with our safeguarding policy.
Registered Charity
11 - 20
We’re on a mission to transform kids’ health through food – plate by plate, class by class, school by school.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.