Operations Excellence Lead

Salary:

- £43,800 - £55,600- Location:

- Papworth, Whittlesford- Country:

- UK- Business Unit:

- Operations- Vacancy Type:

- Permanent- Closing Date:

- 18 September 2025

**Meet the recruiter**:
Emma Barrett

**Salary**: £43,800 - £55,600

Location: Whittlesford, Cambridge or Papworth, UK/Hybrid

Contract: Permanent - Full time, 35 hours per week

Are you skilled in business processes and enjoy connecting different business areas? We are seeking an experienced Operational Excellence Lead to join our team at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. You will support Continuous Improvement initiatives and Lean Six Sigma projects, making a real difference in the educational sector.

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

**About the role**

As an Operational Excellence Lead, you will report to the Operations Excellence Manager and utilise Continuous Improvement (CI) Methodology, project, Lean tools and program management to deliver significant projects and cultural changes. Your goal is to drive, maintain, and develop a well-established Operations Excellence culture for our operations, learners, and the wider organisation.

**Key Responsibilities**:

- **Execute Operations Excellence Program**: Manage existing processes for engagement and effectiveness and develop future innovations.
- **Data-Driven Performance Monitoring**: Identify and solve issues proactively, and advance processes as needed.
- **Foster Business Partnerships**: Collaborate with Operations Excellence enthusiasts and Lean Six Sigma Belts, acting as a change agent for sustainable change.
- **Promote Continuous Improvement**: Develop a culture of continuous improvement, support stakeholders in using Lean Six Sigma methodologies, and embed a Continuous Improvement mindset through training and adoption.

This role involves working closely with all levels of the organisation, including Senior Management and cross-functional teams, to align processes and capabilities with overall strategic goals. This may involve implementing new technology, re-engineering processes, design of new processes and changing the way we work.

**About you**

You will have Lean Six Sigma and other Operations Excellence knowledge and have an intuitive understanding / extensive experience of how to use these practically to deliver successful outcomes for all stakeholders. You will also use this knowledge to bring others on the journey with you, sharing it through mentoring, coaching, collaboration, workshops, and training.

You will most likely be from an operations or supply chain background and be a highly motivated self-starter with a desire to achieve success and make a difference. You will have a track record of identifying, delivering, and sustaining improvements, efficiencies and projects in a busy and demanding environment.

You will have proven project/change management experience, along with advanced problem-solving, strong communication, influencing and time management skills.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity and what will make you successful, please see the full job description attached to the bottom of this vacancy on our careers site.

**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:

- 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 x annual salary
- Green travel schemes

We are a hybrid working organisation, and we offer a range of flexible working options from day one. We expect most hybrid-working colleagues to spend 40-60% of their time at their dedicated office or location. We will also consider other work arrangements if you wish to work more flexibly or require adjustments due to a disability.

**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._