Operations Officer

Fair Education Alliance

About the Organisation

Fair Education Alliance (FEA) unites 300 member organisations under a shared vision that no child’s success is limited by their socioeconomic background. Our members (charities and social enterprises, think tanks, businesses and foundations, youth organisations, unions, universities and schools) are working collectively to create an inclusive system.

We exist to close the gap in educational outcomes between children from low-income households and their wealthier peers. This autumn, we’re kicking off our next strategic phase, which will take our work from neighbourhood to national, building a movement for systems change towards a fairer future for children and young people.

About the role

The Operations Officer plays a central role in ensuring that the Fair Education Alliance runs smoothly, efficiently and to a high standard across all aspects of its work. Working as part of the operations team, the postholder helps maintain the systems, processes and practical foundations that enable the organisation to function effectively. This includes supporting people operations and HR administration, coordinating governance processes, managing organisational systems and IT access, and delivering high-quality logistics for events and organisational activities.

Acting as a trusted point of support for colleagues, the Operations Officer helps create a responsive and well-organised working environment where staff, trustees and members feel enabled to do their best work. The role requires exceptional organisation, sound judgement and a genuine pride in quality. By ensuring that the practical aspects of the organisation run reliably and well, the Operations Officer helps create the conditions that allow the Fair Education Alliance to deliver its mission and drive progress towards a fairer education system.

Responsibilities

People Operations & HR Admin:

• Own the onboarding and offboarding process for all staff, ensuring a consistently smooth, warm and well-organised experience for new starters and leavers.
• Manage HR administration, including contract changes, probation letters, annual salary uplift letters, performance reviews, staff surveys and other routine HR correspondence.
• Administer BreatheHR, maintaining accurate and up-to-date employee records, and produce a regular people report covering starters and leavers, leave and absence, and other key metrics.
• Manage the employee benefits offer, including liaison with the benefits broker, supporting staff to access benefits, and coordinating annual renewals.
• Maintain the HR policy library, managing the annual review cycle and ensuring policies remain current, compliant and accessible.

IT & Systems:

• Manage organisational admin across key systems (including Microsoft 365, BreatheHR, Monday.com, Salesforce and others), ensuring access is correctly maintained.
• Coordinate new starter IT set-up and equipment, working with our IT provider (Penelope) to ensure all staff have working hardware and software from day one.
• Support the maintenance of SharePoint and other shared digital workspaces, ensuring documents and resources are well-organised and accessible to the team.
• Act as the first point of contact for IT queries and day-to-day system issues, escalating to external support where necessary.
• Keep the FEA’s office well-stocked with agreed supplies at all times.
• Monitor office IT equipment, ensuring items are working well and repaired swiftly and that staff have access to the facilities they need. 

Compliance, Finance & Governance Admin:

• Maintain the operations calendar, tracking key compliance, renewal and reporting deadlines across the year.
• Support the preparation and filing of compliance documents, including the trustees’ report, Charity Commission and Companies House updates.
• Support our Finance team with relevant operational tasks, such as collecting and collating expenses information and supporting with relevant elements of the bookkeeping process.
• Support with procurement and supplier management, including tracking contracts and coordinating renewal processes for insurance, subscriptions, grants and other organisational agreements.

Events Support & Logistics:

• Lead on logistics for the FEA’s events programme, including team meetings and away days, member events, trustee meetings and our Summits.
• Manage event logistics end-to-end: venue sourcing and booking, travel and accommodation arrangements, delegate RSVPs and communications, catering, AV requirements and on-the-day coordination.
• Be present and hands-on at events, acting as the operational lead on the day to ensure a smooth, high-quality experience for attendees.
• Maintain event management systems, management information and processes - tracking RSVPs, attendance, costs and post-event feedback - and continuously improve templates and checklists to support efficiency.

Operational Support to SLT & Trustees:

• Manage the organisational info inbox, triaging and responding to internal and external queries promptly and professionally.
• Provide operational and administrative support to colleagues, the senior leadership team and trustees, including coordination of materials, papers and logistics for board meetings, sub-committees and advisor group meetings.
• Maintain governance administration, including membership lists, mailing lists, filing of minutes and papers, and coordination of the annual governance calendar.
• Support with the scheduling and coordination of key organisational meetings and rhythms as required.

Skills, Competencies, Experience & Attributes

Experience & Knowledge: 

• Working in an operations, events or office management role.
• Managing HR administration or people processes, including onboarding, offboarding and HR correspondence.
• Planning and delivering events end-to-end, including logistics, travel, delegate management and on-the-day coordination.
• Providing administrative or operational support to senior leaders and boards.
• Working across multiple workstreams simultaneously, managing competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Knowledge:

• HR administration processes and employment documentation.
• Charity governance and trustee administration (desirable, not essential).
• GDPR and data protection requirements in an organisational setting.

Mindsets & Values:

• Commitment to FEA’s mission and a genuine belief in educational equity.
• A pride in quality - you care deeply about doing your work well and take ownership of your responsibilities.
• Discretion, reliability and sound judgement, particularly in handling sensitive information about staff, trustees and funders.
• Flexibility and resilience - comfortable adapting when plans change, and willing to be present and hands-on at events, including occasional travel across England.
• A collaborative spirit and genuine enjoyment of being the person who makes things run smoothly for others.

Compensation & Benefits

• 38 days per year, and 3-day winter shutdown and eight flexible bank holidays. 
• Comprehensive pension scheme 6% employer contribution
• Cash plan healthcare package 
• Professional development budget.

Conditions of employment

• You must have the right to work in the UK. 

Working locations

• Hybrid model, working in the London office and remotely

How to apply

• Please submit a CV and a short cover note that answers the following three questions (250 words each maximum). Your responses to these questions will be assessed without reference to your personal details or CV.
  • Question 1: Why do you want to work at the Fair Education Alliance?
  • Question 2: Tell us about an operations, events or administrative role you have held. What were your core responsibilities, and what systems or tools did you use to manage your workload?
  • Question 3: Describe a time when you planned and delivered an event or complex logistical project from start to finish.
  • What was the scale and purpose of the event, what challenges did you face, and how did you manage them?
• Please submit your application to [email protected] with the email subject title "Operations Manager Application". Please also complete our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form (see back cover for further details). If you have any questions about the role, you can email [email protected].

Interviews

• If you are shortlisted, the interview process will consist of two rounds. For the first round, you’ll be invited to an online interview, with a task to prepare beforehand. For the final round, you will be asked to prepare a presentation in advance, which will be followed by an in-depth interview discussion.
• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis from Tuesday, 10th March
• Applications close: 30th March (9 am)
• First round interviews: Rolling during the application window
• Second round interviews: Rolling during the application window

Policies

The Fair Education Alliance is committed to its equality and diversity policy. We want to do all we can to prevent discrimination in any form. We ask all candidates to complete the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form. Completion is optional. Any responses you give will assist us in our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Your responses will be kept strictly confidential and will not be used in any decisions affecting you.

The Fair Education Alliance is committed to safeguarding all the children and young people we work and interact with. We take this responsibility seriously, with the focus being on their safety and welfare. It is likely all our employees will have some interaction with children and young people we work with, whether at an event or through our youth engagement work and therefore all offers of employment are conditional on referencing and a Basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and all employees are required to take part in regular safeguarding training. For more information, please refer to our Safeguarding Policy. The offer of employment will be conditional on a Basic DBS Check. You are required to declare any criminal convictions ahead of this DBS Check.

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