Assessment Standards Manager - Maths

Location: Cambridge or Coventry with Hybrid working

Contract: Permanent

We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a world-leading academic publisher and assessment organisation and a proud part of the University of Cambridge.

The Assessment Standards Manager plays a key role in assuring appropriate standards for assessment processes and qualifications throughout the assessment cycle in line with regulatory requirements. We are currently looking for an Assessment Standards Manager to join our friendly team.

About the role

You will look after a designated portfolio including one of our A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics suites where you will be responsible for managing all aspects of the assessment cycle for your portfolio, including grading, verification and standardisation, you will ensure that qualification outcomes are fair, consistent, and maintain OCR's credibility. 

This role requires the ability to engage and build strong collaborative relationships with Assessment Specialists and with internal stakeholders across OCR and Cambridge Assessment. 

A busy role throughout any twelve-month period, but the workload is particularly demanding during major examination and awarding periods as relevant to the qualifications in your portfolio. The main focus is mid-May to July but your portfolio could include qualifications examined in January/February or November.

During all of the above, some weekend working may be required. During the examination and awarding periods for your portfolio it is possible that leave will not be available to the job holder.

Other key aspects of the role include:

• Provide clear direction and leadership to ensure assessment processes are conducted in line with OCR and regulatory requirements.
• Involvement in the recruitment of senior assessors as required.
• Conduct reviews of assessment materials and qualifications and once approved, implement their recommendations.
• Provide assessment expertise to the development and piloting of new qualifications and develop assessment strategies that align with their corresponding assessment strategy blueprints.
• Intervene as necessary in standardisation, marking, and marking review activities to ensure quality of assessment is maintained.
• Collaborate with colleagues as they draft improvement to delivery models, performance-related data analysis, tasks for assessor recruitment, and public facing communications.
• QA assessment material to ensure they are fit for purpose, align with the assessment strategy and are error free.

About you

A competent mathematician, you may have a Degree in Mathematics and strong, broad subject knowledge covering aspects of the A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics curriculum. You may have experience of teaching A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics and/or related assessment experience that you could bring to the role.

Competent in statistical analyses you will also have strong IT skills. Able to display an understanding of assessment principles and methodologies in relation to general and vocational/occupational qualifications you will also have an awareness of the strategies and methods employed to maintain standards in qualifications.

To be successful in this role we are looking for someone with strong inter-personal skills and an appreciation of the challenges of producing and running both general and vocational qualifications. 

The behaviours you demonstrate are equally as important as your knowledge and experience. We would like our new colleagues to be open to new ideas and new approaches and be able to receive feedback from colleagues or their manager to improve their own performance. Open to learning from their own and others' experience, you will be supportive of other team members who are under pressure. Flexible and willing to help out to get the job done you will be able to form effective collaborative relationships with colleagues and other departments in OCR and Cambridge Assessment.

We would welcome applications from those with a strong background in Mathematics education and/or assessment and a passion for the work of Assessment Standards. 

Rewards and benefits

We will support you to be at your best in work and to live well outside of it. In addition to competitive salaries, we offer a world-class, flexible rewards package, featuring family-friendly and planet-friendly benefits including:

• Group personal pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Life assurance up to 4 x annual salary
• Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
• Green travel schemes
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays

We also offer flexible and hybrid working options from day one which will allow you to do the job remotely, but occasional travel to Coventry or Cambridge may be required. We will consider any work arrangements if you wish to work flexibly or require adjustments due to a disability.

Ready to pursue your potential? Apply now.

The closing date for applications is Sunday 19 February , however, this is a rolling campaign, and therefore we will conduct interviews as and when candidates apply. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once we have received sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested in this exciting opportunity, we encourage you to submit your application as early as possible.

Please note that successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry.

Why join us

Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You'll belong to a collaborative team that's exploring new and better ways to serve students, teachers and researchers across the globe – for the benefit of individuals, society and the world. Sharing our mission will inspire your own growth, development and progress, in an environment which embraces difference, change and aspiration.

Cambridge University Press & Assessment is committed to being a place where anyone can enjoy a successful career, where everyone has a voice, and where we learn continuously to improve together. Ensuring that everyone feels they belong is essential to who we are, and to the contribution we make to society and our planet.

We believe better outcomes come through diversity of thought, background and approach. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and communities, actively seeking to employ people from a wide range of different communities.