HIGHER ED PARTNERS UK Director of Transformation Role Profile & Job Description Reports to: Chief Executive Officer / Chief Operating Officer Location: London (Hybrid) Contract: Permanent, Full-Time Band: Senior Leadership Team 01 The Opportunity Higher Ed Partners UK is at a defining inflection point. As the UK's fastest-growing Online Programme Manager, serving more than 20,000 students across a growing portfolio of university partnerships, HEP UK has the scale, the ambition, and the strategic intent to transform how it operates. The contact centre is the operational heart of that ambition: the channel through which every student relationship is built, every enrolment is secured, and every retention challenge is addressed. Today, that contact centre operates largely through manual effort, fragmented point solutions, and disconnected vendor arrangements. The Director of Transformation will change that fundamentally. This is a mandate to design and execute HEP UK's end-to-end AI transformation strategy: automating the student journey from first enquiry through graduation, embedding intelligent automation across the wider organisation, and elevating the human team to focus on the high-value, high-complexity work that genuinely requires their expertise. This role is not an incremental improvement programme. It is a structural transformation of how HEP UK operates, competes, and delivers value to its university partners and to the students it serves. The Director of Transformation is a founding architect of that change, and will leave a lasting operational legacy. 02 Role Purpose The Director of Transformation is a senior leadership role responsible for defining and delivering HEP UK's AI-powered automation strategy across the full student lifecycle. The postholder will lead the design, procurement, and implementation of a unified AI contact centre platform, encompassing voice AI, WhatsApp automation, and intelligent case management integrated with Salesforce as the system of record. Beyond the contact centre, the Director of Transformation will identify and execute automation opportunities across the wider organisation, building the capability, governance, and data infrastructure that positions HEP UK as an operationally excellent OPM for the next decade. Reporting to the CEO / COO and operating as a full member of the Senior Leadership Team, the Director of Transformation will work across every function of the business. Student Success, Technology, and Operations will all be within scope, and the postholder will be expected to drive alignment, resolve competing priorities, and build genuine cross-functional ownership of the transformation programme. The ability to influence without direct authority, and to operate as a trusted partner to peers across the SLT, is as important in this role as technical expertise. This is a role for a leader who combines deep technical credibility with the commercial acumen to translate AI capability into measurable business outcomes, and the communication skill to bring a diverse organisation on the journey. 03 Key Responsibilities AI Contact Centre Transformation – Design and own HEP UK's AI automation strategy across all student lifecycle domains, from lead capture and admissions through in-study engagement, payment management, and graduate transition. – Lead the procurement process for a unified AI technology platform, managing the full RFP lifecycle, vendor evaluation, commercial negotiation, and contract award. – Oversee the implementation of voice AI, WhatsApp Business API automation, and RAG-powered knowledge management, integrated end-to-end with Salesforce. – Define and drive the target of automating 70% or more of all student and prospect contact interactions by the end of 2026, while measurably improving the student experience at every touchpoint. Organisational Automation & Innovation – Identify and prioritise automation opportunities beyond the contact centre, building a structured pipeline of transformation initiatives across Operations. – Develop HEP UK's internal AI capability: tooling, governance frameworks, training programmes, and a culture of data-driven decision-making across all functions. – Build and maintain a technology architecture that is coherent, scalable, and aligned with Salesforce as the organisation's system of record. – Lead the evaluation and integration of emerging AI technologies, ensuring HEP UK remains at the leading edge of what is operationally possible in the OPM sector. Cross-Functional Leadership – Act as the primary transformation partner to all SLT peers, embedding AI and automation thinking into the roadmap of every function rather than managing a siloed technology programme. – Lead change management across the organisation: communicating progress and rationale clearly to teams at all levels, managing resistance constructively, and maintaining confidence in the programme through inevitable complexity. – Work with the Student Success and Contact Centre leadership to manage the adviser team through the transition: involving staff in design and testing, and building the upskilling pathways that equip them for an AI-augmented role. Data, Governance & Compliance – Ensure all AI systems operating in the student environment meet the ethical and safeguarding standards expected of an organisation working with a diverse and sometimes vulnerable student population. Senior Leadership – Operate as a full and active member of the HEP UK Senior Leadership Team, contributing to strategic planning, business model development, and organisational decision-making beyond the transformation remit. – Report programme progress, financial returns, and strategic risks to the Board and shareholders, presenting with clarity and commercial rigour. – Represent HEP UK externally in vendor, partner, and sector conversations relating to AI, automation, and operational transformation. 04 What Success Looks Like By the end of Year 1, the Director of Transformation will have delivered the following outcomes: – A single, integrated AI technology platform procured and live across Phase 1 capabilities, replacing the current fragmented vendor model. – XX% or more of all student and prospect interactions automated, with lead response times below 60 seconds, around the clock. – Melt rate reduced from approximately XX% to below XX%, and in-study withdrawal rate reduced from approximately XX% to below XX%. – A clear roadmap for Phases 2 through 4, approved by the CEO and shareholders. 05 Person Specification Essential Experience – Proven track record of leading large-scale contact centre transformation programmes, with AI, automation, or digital-first delivery at their core. – Hands-on experience with AI-powered contact centre technologies, including conversational AI, voice automation, WhatsApp Business API or equivalent messaging automation, and CRM-integrated case management. – Significant Salesforce experience, including Service Cloud configuration, workflow automation, and integration with third-party AI or telephony platforms. – Demonstrated experience designing and executing RFP processes for complex technology procurement, including vendor evaluation, commercial negotiation, and contract governance. – Strong data literacy: experience building or overseeing operational dashboards, KPI frameworks, and analytics platforms, ideally including Power BI or equivalent. – Substantial experience managing cross-functional programmes at a senior level, including sustained engagement across technology, operations, finance, and executive leadership. The ability to build alignment across teams with different priorities and perspectives is essential to this role. – Background in a high-volume, customer-facing operational environment where customer or student experience outcomes are directly linked to commercial performance. Desirable Experience – Experience in the higher education, EdTech, or Online Programme Management sector. – Familiarity with UK GDPR, PECR, and the data governance considerations specific to AI systems handling personal data at scale. – Experience implementing RAG-powered AI agents or similar knowledge management automation in a customer-facing context. – Exposure to employer-sponsored or B2B2C student cohort management. Skills & Attributes – Technical depth combined with commercial credibility: able to engage with confidence at the level of engineering and vendor architecture, and with equal confidence in front of a Board or shareholder audience. – Exceptional communication and influencing skills, with the ability to translate complex AI and technology concepts into clear strategic narrative for diverse audiences including students, advisers, SLT peers, and external partners. – Demonstrably collaborative leadership style: this role succeeds through others, and requires genuine skill in building trust, creating shared ownership, and sustaining cross-functional relationships through a multi-year programme. – Structured, data-driven approach to decision-making, with the ability to build a rigorous business case and hold delivery to measurable outcomes. – Resilient and adaptive: transformation programmes rarely unfold as planned, and the postholder must be equally comfortable setting strategic direction and navigating complexity and ambiguity in execution. – Genuine commitment to the people dimension of change: understands that technology transformation is, at its core, a human programme, and leads accordingly. 06 Why HEP UK HEP UK is the UK's fastest-growing Online Programme Manager. We work in genuine partnership with our universities to build and operate programmes that change lives: enabling working professionals, career changers, and internationally based learners to access high-quality higher education on their terms. This role represents a rare opportunity to build something significant from the ground up, within a business that has the scale to make it real and the leadership appetite to invest in it properly. The Director of Transformation will shape not just how HEP UK operates today, but how the wider OPM sector thinks about AI-powered student engagement for the decade ahead. We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of the students we serve. Applications are welcome from candidates of all backgrounds, and we are happy to discuss flexible working arrangements for the right individual. CONFIDENTIAL | HIGHER ED PARTNERS UK | APRIL 2026