We are seeking a highly accomplished risk and compliance professional to help shape the future of IELTS. You will play a pivotal role in maintaining and enhancing the standards that protect the integrity of the test, ensuring that we continue to deliver a test that is valued, respected and trusted by millions of people worldwide every year.
About the role
As the Cambridge lead for IELTS operational risk and compliance, you will drive improvements to how risk and compliance are managed across our global operations. You will help embed best practice frameworks, build risk capability, and offer expert guidance to senior and executive teams. You will lead our end‑to‑end risk management framework, ensuring risks are identified, understood, and effectively mitigated across operational, regulatory, and reputational domains. As the organisation's most senior expert in Ofqual conditions and IELTS Standards, you will ensure the test is delivered consistently and compliantly worldwide. Working across a diverse international ecosystem of partners and centres, you will play a central role in ensuring safe, consistent, compliant delivery of IELTS to millions of test takers in more than 140 countries.
Responsibilities
* Advising on emerging risks, regulatory changes, and strategic decisions impacting global operations.
* Producing high quality risk and compliance reporting for the IELTS partnership, Cambridge leadership, and regulatory bodies.
* Delivering training and capability building programmes that embed a consistent and mature risk culture across teams.
* Leading serious risk escalations, providing accurate, decision‑ready insights to senior stakeholders and regulatory bodies.
* Ensuring teams understand Ofqual conditions and IELTS Standards, and that compliance is maintained across all aspects of global test delivery.
* Leading IELTS responses to regulatory audits, investigations, and compliance notifications, ensuring the integrity of evidence and corrective actions.
* Strengthening compliance monitoring systems, knowledge repositories and governance platforms, ensuring they support global consistency and regulatory assurance.
* Overseeing the architecture and quality of knowledge‑base content and workflows, ensuring alignment with compliance and audit best practice.
* Leading, mentoring and developing a team of Senior Managers and Risk & Compliance Leads.
This position is hybrid, requiring 40‑60% of your time on‑site in Cambridge for collaboration and face‑to‑face connection. Flexible working requests will be considered from day one, including adjustments for candidates with disabilities or long‑term health conditions.
Qualifications and Experience
* Deep understanding of English language assessment, regulatory frameworks and global migration/recognition contexts, including a strong grasp of UK and international regulatory requirements (including Ofqual).
* Significant senior leadership experience in risk, compliance, governance, or regulatory roles within global or highly regulated environments.
* Extensive experience leading risk, compliance, incident, and change management in complex, multi‑partner ecosystems.
* Expert knowledge of operational risk frameworks, threat modelling, control design, root cause analysis, and audit methodologies.
* An understanding of test integrity, quality assurance, and continuous improvement practices.
* Proven ability to design and optimise systems, processes, and operating models for global scalability and resilience.
* High‑level analytical, communication, and judgement skills, with the ability to make decisions under pressure and within a complex environment.
* Strong interpersonal, negotiation, and stakeholder management capabilities across cultures and organisations, including the ability to influence and collaborate at senior and executive levels.
* Familiarity with data analytics and platforms and tools to support risk identification, monitoring, and reporting.
* Understanding of partnership and stakeholder dynamics, particularly in multi‑agency or cross‑border collaborations, to ensure aligned practices.
* Knowledge of quality assurance and continuous improvement practices in operational contexts.
* Experience in high stakes test delivery or regulated education sectors.
* Familiarity with Zendesk or equivalent knowledge‑base platforms.
* Excellent resource planning, prioritisation and decision‑making skills.
We are Cambridge University Press & Assessment, part of the University of Cambridge. We are a world leading academic publisher and assessment organisation, and a proud co‑owner of IELTS, the world's most trusted English language test.
Second stage in‑person interview at our offices in Cambridge: Dates to be agreed in April. In addition to the interview, you will be provided with a task to complete which will be returned by email in advance of your interview.
If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process due to a disability or a long‑term health condition, there will be an opportunity for you to inform us via the online application form. We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Successful applicants will be subject to satisfactory background checks including DBS due to working in a regulated industry. We are committed to an equitable recruitment process. As such, applications must be submitted via our official online application procedure. Please refrain from sending your CV directly to our recruiters. If you experience technical difficulties or require additional support with submitting your online application, contact the Recruiter.
Why join us
Joining us is your opportunity to pursue potential. You will belong to a collaborative team that is 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 it is safe to speak up, and where we learn continuously to improve together. We welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of demographic characteristics (age, disability, educational attainment, ethnicity, gender, marital status, neurodiversity, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual identity), cultural, or social class/background. 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.
Benefits
* 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
* Private medical and Permanent Health Insurance
* Discretionary annual bonus
* Group personal pension scheme
* Life assurance up to 4 × annual salary
* Green travel schemes
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