Programme Delivery Manager, The Scholars Programme

The Brilliant Club

Recruitment Pack

Programme Delivery Manager,

The Scholars Programme

February 2026

Registered Limited Company: 07986971

Registered Charity: 1147771 (England and Wales), SC048774 (Scotland)

Registered Office: Fivefields, 8-10 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0DH

Programme Delivery Manager, The Scholars Programme
Start Date: March/April 2026
Salary: £39,423 (plus £2,000 London weighting for those living in London and within the
M25)
Contract Type: Permanent

About the role

We are excited to be recruiting a Programme Delivery Manager to join The Scholars Programme
team. This role will lead on the central Delivery Cycle, including creating correspondence and
guidance for schools and PhD Tutors, and collaborating with other teams to ensure
communication is streamlined and consistent. This is a key role within the Programme
Management team, ensuring high quality pupil impact by tracking data returns, and providing
team briefings as well as ongoing training and support. They will support with the development,
testing and embedding of new processes and projects, including IT developments, and will be the
first point of contact in the Programmes team for troubleshooting delivery and data issues. They
will line manage a small team of Coordinators, who will support Programme Officers and
Programme Managers to meet programme delivery targets.

The role requires an accomplished professional, with proven experience of high-quality
programme delivery and excellent communication skills.  They will champion the charity’s values
and embody them in interactions with colleagues and partners, establishing themselves as
someone who can be relied upon, supporting the whole team and proactively finding ways to
improve what we do.

While this role can be based in our London or Leeds offices or be fully remote; it will involve some
travel to deliver programme events at our different university partners.

About you
The role will best suit someone who:

•  Has knowledge and experience of the school and university sectors
•  Has knowledge of educational interventions, including impact management
•  Has proven experience in leading the delivery of a project or programme across a locality
•  Has excellent knowledge and confidence using Office 365 applications (Word and Excel)

and different IT platforms such as virtual learning environments and CRM systems
Is capable of adapting quickly to new systems and interfaces

•
•  Has experience of line management and/or leading and delivering through others
Is a qualified teacher (QTS or above), has academic research experience or has
•
substantial experience of delivering a university access programme

•  Adheres to information security policies included in the charity’s ISO 27001 manual and

completes information security training

•  Has a demonstrable passion for furthering The Brilliant Club’s mission

About The Brilliant Club
What we do
Access to higher education and the life-changing opportunities that come from attending the
most competitive universities is not equal. 28 in 100 of the most advantaged students progress to
the most competitive universities. In contrast, only 2 in 100 of the least advantaged young people
access these universities.

We think this is fundamentally unfair. We work across the UK to support less advantaged students
to access the most competitive universities, and to succeed when they get there.

Between 2021 and 2026, we will work with 100,000 students across the UK to help them to develop
the knowledge, skills and confidence to access the most competitive universities. We will also
support 10,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed once they enter
universities.

We hope that you’ll consider joining us, as we work to create a fairer society where no child’s
education is limited by their background.

Working for us

•  Hours: 37.5 hours per week Monday to Friday, flexible working with 10am – 3pm core hours,

some evenings and weekends required.

•  Benefits include: 36 days’ holiday (inclusive of bank holidays) increasing by 1 day per year
up to a maximum of 41 days, employer contribution to pension, interest-free season ticket
loan, five professional development day allowance, BUPA health cover cash plan.

•  We’re happy to talk flexible working. We have offices in Leeds and London.
•  After your first month in this role, we expect you to be connecting face-to-face with

colleagues on at least one day per week. In your first month, we’ll ask you to be in offices a
little more regularly than this to make sure you’re getting to know your key colleagues and
feeling connected to the organisation.

Our values
The Brilliant Club has three core values that underpin how we work. We look for people who share
these values:

•  We get to a solution
•  We seek and act on the best data available
•  We understand that little things go a long way

“As the first in my family to go to university and having worked as a teacher in a

state school, I applied to join The Brilliant Club with a real passion for the
charity’s mission. I am grateful every day that I work at a charity that is
supportive of both professional development and flexible working, as well as
being full of kind and passionate colleagues.”

   Leanne, Chief Operating Officer

Diversity at The Brilliant Club
We mobilise the PhD community to support students who are less advantaged to access the most
competitive universities and succeed when they get there. We think it is important that our charity
reflects the lived experience of the communities we work with, and we want to be an
organisation where employees from any background can thrive. We particularly welcome
applications from disabled, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic, Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Non-binary
(LGBTQ+) candidates, and candidates from low-income families.

 “I am the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Engagement Lead at The
Brilliant Club. My role is to help make the charity an inclusive working
environment for all of our colleagues.  I work with our amazing Staff Networks
and colleagues in HR to ensure everyone at the charity has a sense of
belonging.”

Emily - Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Staff Engagement Lead

Safeguarding
The Brilliant Club is committed to proactively safeguarding children, beneficiaries and staff and to
taking reasonable steps to protect all those who come into contact with the charity from harm.
The safety and welfare of everyone affected by the charity’s activities, especially children, is a key
governance priority.

As part of our recruitment and selection process and commitment to safeguarding, we will
undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check of all individuals in this role. Any offer of
employment will be subject to a satisfactory disclosure report.

Responsibilities
The following areas of responsibility are the core of the role. However, the role is flexible and will
vary according to the needs of the team, and the background and experience of the successful
applicant.

Programme Delivery

•  Manage all central programme delivery resources, including continually editing

correspondence and internal/external guidance documents to support high quality
communication with schools and tutors

•  Actively deliver aspects of The Scholars Programme including staffing university events and

delivering tutor training

•  Continually support and upskill Programme Officers to improve their placement

management skills, sharing best practice

•  Collaborate with colleagues in Teaching and Learning, Tutor Engagement, School

Partnerships and University Events to ensure that the Programme Management team are
continually updated about processes, emerging issues and any necessary adjustments to
programme management

•  Continually evaluate and improve the efficiency of programme delivery by suggesting,

trialling and implementing changes to the Delivery Cycle

Impact and Reporting

•  Collaborate with colleagues in RAID (Research and Impact Department) to prepare for,

and roll out, termly school impact reports

•  Lead on ensuring high data return rates; this will include setting up central tracking methods

and systems for following up on outstanding data, and collaborating with RAID and
Technology to trial new approaches to data collection

•  Work with RAID and the Director of The Scholars Programme to analyse pupil outcomes

data to inform continual improvements to programme delivery

Programme Technology

•  Collaborate with colleagues in Technology to develop existing platforms used within The
Scholars Programme; this will include collating feedback and leading on developments
and testing

•  Support the development of IT systems and processes by suggesting continual

improvements linked to the Delivery Cycle to ensure they meet the needs of our
stakeholders and delivery team

•  Lead on troubleshooting IT issues raised by the delivery team

Management and Support

•  Line manage the small team of Scholars Programme Coordinators, ensuring sufficient

•

capacity is allocated to processes and workstreams to support the Programme
Management and University Events teams with the delivery of The Scholars Programme
Identify pinch points in the year when further admin support will be required by the
Programme Management team and coordinate this with other Line Managers across the
charity

•  Support the Programme Managers to identify opportunities for team efficiencies
•  Provide direct reports with pastoral support and development opportunities
•  Lead the design and delivery of Delivery Cycle induction and training sessions

Wider Support

•

Identify when programmatic or technological developments and efficiencies implemented
within The Scholars Programme could be applied to the work of other teams, e.g. Access
Projects, working with them to pilot and embed them as needed

•  Support the charity’s wider activities, including data collection, reporting, and

communications

Person specification

Time and Resource Management:

•  Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise and manage time effectively
•  Ability to be flexible and adapt to changing priorities
•  Helps others to develop the skills and behaviours to build good time and resource

management

External Stakeholder Knowledge and Management:

•  Knowledge of the school and university sectors
•  Coaches the team to proactively identify issues and opportunities to better manage

external stakeholder relationships

Communication:

•  Excellent written and verbal communication skills
•  Confidence communicating with, and delivering to, a range of stakeholders
•  Makes sound, nuanced judgments about how, when and whether to communicate

difficult or complex messages

•  Leads improvements in the way we communicate with stakeholders

Initiative and Problem-solving:

•  Proactively seeks to enhance processes and identify emerging risks, solving problems and

suggesting solutions as they arise
•  Encourages a culture of innovation
•  Ability to spot inefficiencies in systems and suggest/ implement improvements

Developing Self and Others

•  Self-reflective and committed to own professional development
•  Committed to sharing best practice and developing team members
•  Stretches self, team members and colleagues to develop

What comes next
To apply: Please submit your application by clicking here. As part of your application, you will be
asked to submit your CV and complete the answers to some application questions.
Deadline: 9am on Friday 27 February 2026
Interviews: First round: Thursday 5 March 2026. Second round: Tuesday 10 March 2026. Interviews
will take place virtually on Microsoft Teams.
For more information: Visit our website or email recruitment@thebrilliantclub.org.