Job Description

Only applications including a CV and cover letter detailing your experience and suitability for the role will be accepted.

About Enterprise Oxfordshire

Enterprise Oxfordshire, formerly known as OxLEP, is dedicated to supporting local people and businesses in Oxfordshire. We help individuals build the skills they need to succeed in the workplace and get good, lasting jobs. At the same time, we offer advice and support to businesses across the county, helping them grow and thrive in a fair and inclusive way.

Oxfordshire Careers Hub

Oxfordshire Careers Hub improves careers education for all young people across the county by working directly with schools, colleges, apprenticeships providers and employers.

Job Purpose

Manage the strategic and operational delivery of the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) and Enterprise Oxfordshire's ambitions to improve career outcomes for all young people and achieve sustainable change in careers delivery across the county.

Manage sustainable system change in careers provision within the hub and as part of the national network for Careers Hubs across England by ensuring the hub is at the centre of local careers provision and policy making decisions.

Manage cross sector engagement and collaboration to ensure all young people can access high quality careers and enterprise education that aligns with Enterprise Oxfordshire and Oxfordshire County Councils economic and skills priorities, ensuring improved career outcomes and achieves sustainable change in careers provision at a local and national level.

Key responsibilities

On behalf of the CEC, responsible for creating the strategic vision and directing the long-term strategy for the Enterprise Oxfordshire's Careers Hub with clearly defined and measurable outcomes that evidence sustained change in careers provision for all young people.

Build and implement a Careers Hub Strategic plan that aligns local economic and skills priorities, achieves sustained chance in careers provision and meets the CEC's Grant Funding Agreement.

Responsible for operational programme management and delivery, including recruitment and line management of the Careers Hub team, associated budgets, risks and external procurement and contracts, ensuring that it meets the CEC contract and KPI outcomes.

Responsible for ensuring that all schools adopt, implement, and achieve the Gatsby benchmarks, using Compass+ to monitor progress to develop a strategic careers programme and develop employer encounters.

Responsible for working with the Skills Services Manager and Head of Business and Skills to identify and bid for new funding opportunities, which are aligned to the local needs of schools/colleges, young people and employers.

Collaborate with the teams across Enterprise Oxfordshire, in particular the Business and Skills team, to actively engage business, employers and wider education business link organisations to enable young people to explore career opportunities and expand their networks through a wide range of encounters and experiences.

Analyse progress data, identify trends and patterns including the common threats and barriers to the implementation of the Gatsby Benchmarks and apply solutions and opportunities to overcome these issues, and share this intelligence with stakeholders including Hub schools, careers providers and the CEC so that resource management can be maximised to have the greatest impact on young people.

Ensure that the team works with a clear understanding of the diversity of need of local education establishments within the Careers Hub, whether they be mainstream secondary schools, Further Education Colleges, Special Schools or Alternative Provision.

Responsible for establishing and managing a Hub Steering Group and Cornerstone Working Group of key stakeholders and employers, ensuring that there are a broad range of interests in careers education and that employer priorities and education priorities are aligned with school and college need.

Lead and manage a thriving network of Careers Leaders, building a community of practice that encourages collaboration, professional development and signposts Careers Leaders to information, opportunities, and sources of support.

Responsible for liaising with CEC and Enterprise Oxfordshire Events and Communications teams to ensure that case studies and opportunities to promote the CEC team's work and successes are identified and shared.

Collaborate with other Hub Leads nationally to support peer to peer learning, engage with action learning sets, scale best practice and be part of the movement that is driving sustained change in careers provision at a national, regional and local level.

Person specification

Experience, Knowledge and Skills

Significant experience of engaging and building relationships with leaders from education and business. Significant experience of both developing strategy and leading the delivery of programmes or projects with multiple stakeholders to time and budget and managing and mitigating risks. Significant experience of managing people and performance. Significant experience of chairing meetings, particularly external. Significant understanding of school culture and the challenges faced by schools in delivering careers and enterprise. Significant understanding of careers education and corporate social responsibility landscapes. Significant understanding of relevant local and national policies relating to skills and economic development and the issues and barriers to employment faced by young people. Significant ability to influence key senior stakeholders across a range of sectors. Significant communication and presentation skills Significant IT skills inclusive of MS Office packages and social media platforms Significant ability to disseminate key goals/objectives/strategy to a variety of audiences Significant experience in embedding quality assurance and driving sustainable change across a team and wider community.

Personal attributes

Highly organised and proactive, with the ability to work independently, prioritising a busy workload and managing relationships with many stakeholders, adapting to conflicting priorities and deadlines as needed. A strategic thinker who can plan ahead to measure and drive performance through the use of information and data that is available. Empathetic and an able leader who communicates clearly across diverse groups. Dynamic and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, ready to embrace change and meet new challenges with a solution-focused approach. Commitment to own personal and professional development and to the development of others.

Additional requirements

The successful applicant will be required to travel to venues across Oxfordshire on a regular basis. A valid driving licence and own transport, or alternative suitable methods of travel, is required. Work outside of standard hours including evenings and weekends may be required from time to time including attendance at meetings and events.
Full-time hours: 30 hours per week (Enterprise Oxfordshire have a 4 day working week).

Application deadline: Friday 28th November 2025 Interviews starting from: 9th December 2025 Expected start date: Early- mid January 2026

Please include a covering letter detailing your experience and suitability for the role.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Pay: 47,500.00-50,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Company pension Flexitime Free flu jabs Paid volunteer time Work from home
Ability to commute/relocate:

Oxford OX1: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Work authorisation:

United Kingdom (required)
Willingness to travel:

50% (preferred)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Oxford OX1

Application deadline: 28/11/2025