Job Title: Service Improvement and Performance Lead
Location: Oxford Road, Manchester
Salary: Grade 8 £59,966 to £71,566 per annum, depending on relevant experience
Job type: Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 19/01/2026
About the Role:
As our Service Improvement & Performance Lead, you'll guide the University towards a future where improvement is part of everyday work, not a special project or a one-off initiative. You'll be making a meaningful difference to the way the University operates, by influencing how thousands of colleagues' experience, deliver and improve services every day.
The Service Improvement & Performance Lead is a connector, catalyst and enabler helping to bring clarity where there is complexity, shared purpose where there are silos, and momentum where change needs unlocking.
Imagine yourself walking into a leadership meeting and helping them translate broad ambitions into clear, measurable, user-focused service improvements that genuinely change staff and student experiences.
Co-designing a service improvement framework that becomes the foundation for how Professional Services continuously enhance the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the services they deliver for users.
You might be building a community of practice, bringing together cross-functional teams and individuals from across the University who look to you for guidance, coaching and tools to make their services better.
Through your ability to tell stories with data, you will enable senior leaders to make informed decisions with confidence because they can see performance clearly for the first time.
You'll support teams as they adopt new practices around user experience, continuous improvement, automation, and AI helping them build confidence and capability.
By delivering smoother processes, clearer accountability, better user experiences, and a stronger sense of 'One University' working towards shared goals, your work will resonate with users and be felt across the University.
Who We're Looking For:
You know what it feels like to work in a large, complex organisation where nothing changes unless people believe in the direction of travel.
You've learned that progress comes from conversations, trust and clarity of purpose not from process maps alone, and you're at your best when you're helping people make sense of complexity and see a way forward they didn't see before.
You've spent time improving services or shaping performance in a way that genuinely made things better for users: smoother processes, clearer journeys, more meaningful outcomes.
You know the tools, methods and frameworks for service improvement. More importantly, you know how to use them in a way that fits the context, the people and the culture.
Data doesn't intimidate you - you're data-driven. You can look at a set of metrics and quickly spot what they're really saying.
You're also someone who brings value in rooms where decisions get made.
You can brief senior leaders with confidence, frame a problem so that the path becomes clearer, and help groups with different perspectives find common ground.
You connect dots across teams, disciplines and priorities helping people move from 'this is complicated' to 'this is possible.'
Most importantly, you bring:
Curiosity and an openness to new ways of working
Confidence navigating ambiguity
A coaching mindset
A commitment to user-centred, people-centred improvement
The ability to make complexity understandable
A collaborative spirit rooted in our values of inclusion, respect, integrity, compassion and cooperation
If you meet some of these qualities and feel energised by our mission, we encourage you to apply. We don't expect perfection, just potential and purpose. You may come from higher education, public sector, industry or consultancy, but what matters is your ability to lead improvement through influence, credibility and connection.
Benefits?
Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers
As an equal opportunity employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit. Our university is positive about flexible working.
Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.
Please click APPLY to be redirected to our website to complete an application form.
Candidates with experience of: Continuous Improvement Manager / Lead, Service Design Lead / Specialist, Business Change Manager / Lead, Senior Performance Analyst / Manager, Internal Consultant, Business Process Improvement (BPI) Lead, Education Service Improvement and Performance Lead may also be considered for this role.
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