At AQA, we’re committed to advancing education and we’re committed to our people. As the largest provider of academic qualifications in the UK, we mark over 10 million exam papers each year and it’s our people who make this happen. Science Assessment Lead Permanent Location – Manchester, Milton Keynes, London or Guildford Salary: North - £65,000-£73,000 & South - £68,000-£75,000 Closing date – 11:59pm on the 15th May 2025 Would you like to work with the leading Awarding Organisation in Science, where you will have a high level of influence? Are you a dynamic and inspiring leader looking for a key role in Science Assessment Design? You will work closely with the assessment development, quality and production teams to create high quality, error free assessment materials for our range of Science qualifications. Do you want to be involved in a number of exciting projects, as we expand our offerings both nationally and internationally? AQA is the UKs largest awarding organisation, with nearly 1.4 million students sitting our exams each year. We are passionate about shape the future of education. Join us as we look to continually improve General Qualifications for AQA and OxfordAQA through innovation and excellence in assessment. What’s in it for me? A 35-hour working week with 25 days annual leave, rising with service, with bank holidays and extra closure days around Christmas on top An excellent contributory pension which could see up to 18.5% combined contribution Private Medical Insurance and a Health Care Cash Reward Plan A new Electric Vehicle Leasing Scheme Up to 5 days for volunteering Newly refurbished offices with a variety of individual and collaborative workspaces What will I be doing? Lead and influence: Take charge of a major subject specification, guiding its development and acting as the expert voice during reform and review processes. Set the standard: Define how the subject is assessed, ensuring fairness, clarity, and consistency across qualifications. Drive quality: Lead assessment strategy and quality assurance to deliver assessments that meet both regulatory standards and customer expectations. Be the expert: Bring your deep subject knowledge to support colleagues, resolve escalated issues, and maintain the integrity of our assessments. Collaborate and innovate: Work cross-functionally with product, assessment, and customer teams to create assessments that reflect real classroom learning and teaching practices. Own the outcomes: Sign off assessments, contribute to awarding, lead assessment performance reviews, and continuously improve based on data and insight. What will I need to succeed? Classroom credibility: Real-world teaching experience at KS4 or KS5, with insight into how assessment supports learning. Assessment know-how: A solid understanding of assessment design and delivery in England, especially within AQA's framework. Regulatory awareness: You get how the regulator shapes what we do—and you can anticipate its impact on products and assessment design. Process-savvy thinking: Familiarity with AQA systems and continuous improvement principles means you can navigate complexity and suggest better ways forward. Sharp communication skills: Whether it’s simplifying complex issues or engaging with stakeholders at all levels, you’re clear, persuasive, and collaborative. Resilience and pace: You stay focused under pressure, hit deadlines, and make pragmatic decisions—even when things get tricky. Collaboration mindset: You work across teams, listen to stakeholders, and build solutions that work for everyone. Accountability and growth: You own your development, learn from feedback, and step up with confidence when it counts. How do I apply? Please upload your CV and ideally a cover letter. Interviews will be over 2 stages, one on Teams and one face to face. AQA is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes people unique. PRO22 Recruitment Agencies We have a preferred supplier list (PSL) in place. Unsolicited CVs will be treated as a gift. We will not be subject to or liable under your terms and conditions for agency fees. Full Job Description Summary Purpose: This senior role ensures that AQA’s qualifications in a subject suite comply with all regulatory requirements, adhere to the principles of good assessment, and allow students the opportunity to be fairly rewarded for the knowledge and understanding they demonstrate in any assessment. The postholder is accountable for the quality of the entire subject suite of assessments, including any new assessments developed in the future. The postholder is accountable for the work delivered by other internal staff and external contractors relating to the subject suite of assessments and will be a point of escalation for any issues that might impact the quality of an assessment or our ability to deliver accurate results to students. Additionally, the postholder will act as Chief Examiner for one, or more, qualifications in the suite. At AQA, we aim never to let a learner down, and this role is designed to ensure this never happens in our assessments.Landscape:Each year over 2000 question papers, assessment artefacts, mark schemes and modified large print papers are created, quality assured and sent to press for domestic and international qualifications by teams across Assessment. These materials are sat by 100,000s of students across three examination series and are a pivotal part of their next step in education. Working with senior associates, this role ensure assessments are error-free, valid, reliable and comply to strict regulatory conditions and implement improvements from robust analytical reviews. The team provide subject-assessment expertise on GQ qualifications to AQA to support work on redevelopment and reform as well as any external regulatory work. They work closely with internal teams across Assessment and COO as well as the wider business to champion assessment quality and best practice. The postholder will have strong links to customer-facing teams and will use their subject expertise alongside considerable assessment knowledge to ensure AQAʼs assessments are fit-for-purpose and appealing to customers. AQA Education (AQA) is a registered charity (number 1073334) and a company limited by guarantee registered in 1 of 4 Activities:Be the Chief Examiner for a major specification in the subject suite. Act as Lead Developer for that specification at a time of qualification reform and sit on review panels for other specifications when they are reformed to ensure that assessment quality is at the heart of any redevelopment. Be accountable for ensuring that all assessments in the suite appropriately balance regulatory requirements with customer expectations. Keep up to date with latest thinking and policy on the way the subject is taught in the classroom across KS3, KS4 and KS5. Ensure that AQA’s assessment of the subject is fair to students and achieves appropriate consistency across specifications. Work with the product management and customer-facing teams to understand what customer expectations are, and with the assessment staff to produce assessments that meet these expectations whilst still complying with all regulatory conditions. Set expectations for the quality of future assessments across qualifications in the suite, set direction, and evaluate the work of contractors charged with delivering high quality assessments. Curate, own, and be accountable for a set of principles which define how subject content is assessed across the suite of qualifications. Be available as a point of escalation for issues related to the quality of marking in the suite, ensuring we act to never let a learner down. Act as a point of internal escalation for issues related to assessments, using knowledge and expertise to provide the right outcomes. Accountable for how we assess the subject across our qualifications, and the quality of those assessments. Provide expertise and advice to AQA on matters that have a bearing on the specification, by supporting customer-facing colleagues to respond to customer queries. Provide clear, accurate expertise support other teams in the creation of assessments that are unambiguous when the assessment tests content that reflects the expertise of the postholder. Act as a bridge to the senior associate community, influencing them on AQA preferred policies and practices as appropriate. Build and maintain collaborative relationships with other senior associates involved in writing and quality assuring assessments. Monitor and take lead on continuously improving assessments in the suite across AQA; providing quality assurance throughout. Sign off assessments for operational use, ensuring that the content and demand is appropriate for the level being tested, and that contexts used are appropriate for the audience. Contribute to the creation and development of key documents to support good assessment delivery in line with any assessment strategy. Accountable for assessment blueprints and provide advice to assessment writers on the question development process to ensure alignment with the specification handbook. Contribute to the awarding process to ensure that the specification standards are maintained at the appropriate level from one year to the next. Participate in the assessment materials production process for a specification including review, planning and sign off of assessment materials and attendance at the planning and content review meetings. Author items and mark schemes for use in future assessments. Monitor the effectiveness of the standardisation and marking processes to ensure that the mark scheme is applied consistently and accurately. Ensure AQA is safe and legally compliant by applying AQA’s policies and other legislative requirements including but not limited to HSE, equal opportunities and ISMS Use subject expertise to support colleagues across AQA to ensure that specifications and supporting materials comply with Ofqual requirements and will deliver valid and reliable education and assessment outcomes. Support the management of and incidents that arise and the qualification change process when alterations to the assessment are needed. Lead the assessment performance review. Analyse data and create, with key stakeholders, a shared understanding of strengths and weaknesses of our assessments and recommend and implement improvements where needed. Analyse and synthesise diverse data and information, including statistical data and qualitative information, to help assessment colleagues make recommendations to associates in the face of complex and/or incomplete evidence. Collaborate with other colleagues to determine best practice and to facilitate further learning and development from peers and managers. Support project work as appropriate. Ensure all relevant documents and data are comprehensive, consistent and accessible and are appropriate in order for the intended operational benefits to be achieved. Support the work of assessment colleagues and Chief Examiners in their contribution to the review of assessment performance. Collaborate with the senior colleagues across assessment in dealing with cross-subject issues and project work. Build and foster strong working relationships with colleagues and key business stakeholders and throughout AQA. Support, in time of business change, other responsibilities which are of a commensurate level outside the terms of this job description. Model AQA’s values and behaviours. Comply with all AQA’s policies and other legislative requirements. Need to know (to be successful in this role, you will need to know/have):The nature of teaching and assessment in England, with experience and expertise in successful delivery of the teaching of the subject in a KS4 or KS5 environment. A strong understanding of AQA's business and/or processes. An understanding of assessment practice in England. An understanding of the regulatory environment in which AQA operates and likely impact of the regulator on assessment and product design. Knowledge of assessment design and delivery best practice. An understanding of assessment products and practice in AQA and limitations and advantages of different systems of assessment delivery. An understanding of continuous improvement and quality management principles and practice. Good communications skills to create and explain a succinct and coherent view of complex assessment issues. Good interpersonal skills in a variety of situations. Proven aural, oral and written communication skills to explain issues to the relevant business stakeholder with different levels of expertise. Demonstrates resilience and calmness under pressure to meet tight deadlines in complex contexts. Demonstrates proactive collaborative working across functional areas to deliver shared goals Experience of delivering tasks at a high level of quality, at different stages of the project lifecycle. Ability to receive feedback and learn from mistakes for continuous self-development. Experience of working with a variety of stakeholders to understand their needs and identifying solutions to take forward. A results-focused mindset and the ability to make pragmatic decisions and deliver at pace. A “step up” mindset, to use sound judgement when analysing the data and take accountability for actions.