Job Description

Location: Hybrid/Field-Based (Across Kent)

Salary: £42,883 per annum

Contract type: 12-month Fixed term contract (with potential extension)

Hours: Full time, 37 hours per week

At The Education People, we are committed to improving life chances for young people through high-quality careers and enterprise support. As part of our work with The Careers & Enterprise Company, we are looking for an experienced and driven Operational Careers Hub Lead to play a key role in delivering impactful careers education across Kent and Medway.

This is a strategic leadership opportunity for someone passionate about system-wide change. You will lead a dedicated team and work in partnership with education providers, employers and stakeholders to ensure young people receive the support they need to take confident next steps into employment or further learning.

In this role, you will oversee the delivery of the Careers Hub Strategic Plan, ensuring high-quality provision aligned with national standards and local economic priorities. You will drive performance, strengthen partnerships and lead continuous improvement across the network, helping to remove barriers and improve outcomes for young people.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of Enterprise Coordinators and volunteers, supporting them to deliver effective careers education across the hub.

• Developing team capability through coaching, mentoring and targeted learning to ensure consistent, high-quality delivery.

• Oversee performance of education institutions across Kent and Medway, using data and insight to identify gaps, address barriers and drive improvement against key conditions for success including Gatsby Benchmarks, the Careers Impact System and other strategic priorities.

• Work closely with the Strategic Hub Lead and key stakeholders to ensure delivery of the Careers Hub Strategic Plan, embedding strong systems for performance management, contract and financial oversight, and risk management.

• Develop and manage operational delivery plan based on key priorities, areas of strength and development.

• Build and maintain strong partnerships with key stakeholders such as careers providers, employers and national organisations, ensuring provision is well coordinated and targeted to achieve the greatest impact.

• Ensure robust processes are in place to monitor impact, support evaluation activity and establish the hub as a centre of best practice.

What we need from you

• An experienced leader with a strong track record of managing people and driving performance to achieve ambitious targets.

• Confident in setting objectives, supporting development and addressing performance to deliver results.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with experience engaging education providers, businesses and partners to achieve shared goals.

• Experience leading multi-stakeholder programmes or projects is essential.

• Strong understanding of the careers and education landscape, including the challenges young people face when progressing into employment and the local economic context.

• Highly organised and resilient, able to manage competing priorities while maintaining a strategic focus.

• Strong communication skills, the ability to influence others and confidence using data to drive decisions are key to success in this role.

In return we will offer you

• Salary of £42,883 per annum

• 25 days annual leave plus your birthday off

• Life assurance cover at four times salary

• Pension scheme

• Additional benefits including retail and gym discounts, health cash plan and cycle to work scheme

• Volunteer days and access to a comprehensive wellbeing programme

• Tailored learning and development support with real opportunities to progress

About Commercial Services Group

Commercial Services Group is the largest, local authority owned trading company in the UK, wholly owned by Kent County Council. The group generates over £800m in revenue each year and supports thousands of education and public sector organisations globally.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

Inclusion & Accessibility

We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. We encourage applications from suitably qualified people of all backgrounds.

We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout our application and interview process; please let us know if you require any