Team Leader - Course Administration Management

Team Leader – Course Administration Management

UK Defence Academy, Shrivenham, SN6 8LA

Permanent, Full Time

Competitive Salary

Serco has an exciting opportunity for a Team Leader to join our team at the UK Defence Academy, a unique environment where you’ll help facilitate the Customer to deliver world-class professional defence and security education to members of the British Armed Forces, wider UK Government, UK industry, and international personnel.

As part of the Course Administration Management Department, you’ll support the planning and coordination of over 1,200 courses delivered on-site, remotely, and online. This is a dynamic and impactful role within a fast-paced and high-profile setting.

Serco provides comprehensive Facilities Management services across the Defence Academy, including Estates, Logistics, Cleaning, Catering, Waste Management, and other support services through ESS.

Duties for the role:

• Lead and manage a team of 15–20 staff across various customer-facing roles and levels of expertise.
• Oversee recruitment, work allocation, absence monitoring, and performance management.
• Support staff well-being and development, including training needs and annual performance reviews.
• Foster a collaborative and high-performing team culture.
• Actively engage with induction processes to ensure the successful completion of own and colleagues’ probationary periods, supporting colleague development.
• Operating alongside the customer, ensuring high level dedicated quality administrative support and timely delivery of administration support to any assigned departments, monitoring work progress, focusing on delivering service excellence and delivering against team objectives.
• Overseeing all administration ensuring protocols, policies and standardisation adhered to.
• Co-ordination, control, and delegation of incoming work from the customer and co-ordinating workloads across the departments.
• Provide workable solutions to resource issues/problems. Make sensible decisions and take action based on best available information in the absence of customer.
• Leadership, learning and development of the team including conducting annual and mid-year performance reviews and regular one-to-one meetings with staff.
• Responsibility for Project work as directed by and on behalf of the Head of Department.
• Deputise for other Team Leaders during periods of absence.

What you need to do the job:

• Proven leadership experience in a customer-focused or administrative environment.
• Strong organisational and communication skills at all levels
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and support a diverse team.
• A proactive approach to problem-solving and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrable organisational skills, ability to proactively manage departmental workload.
• Support innovation and continuous improvement, solve problems, generate ideas, and exercise judgement.
• Self-motivated with the ability to motivate and inspire other members of the team.
• Confident with the ability to contribute to and chair/lead/control meetings.
• PC literate, with a good level of experience in MS Office including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams.

What we offer:

Sitting within a beautiful and secure site, the Defence Academy hosts 2 lakes and is surrounded by acres of scenic woodland. The Academy trains the future commanders and staff officers of all three UK Armed Services and those from many countries around the world. 

• Free, secure onsite parking.
• Opportunity to join many sports and activity clubs (heavily subsidised subscription costs).
• Gym membership, the site boasting 2 fully equipped gymnasiums.
• 18-hole golf course (annual membership circa £375).
• Fully equipped riding stables, with the opportunity for lessons.
• Other sporting facilities include tennis courts, Astro-turf football pitches and much more.
• Pension: Up to 6% contributory pension scheme.
• Holidays: 25 days' annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Training and development: We offer a wide range of learning opportunities with over 1,100 internal courses available, funding for qualifications and apprenticeships, mentoring opportunities, and a focus on internal progression.
• Wellbeing: 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme, BUPA Anytime HealthLine, wellbeing app, Simplyhealth cash plans to claim back money towards healthcare costs, 30% off at Serco-managed leisure centres.
• Discounts: Save across around 1,000 retailers, from food and clothing to days out, entertainment and travel.
• ShareSave scheme: Helps you save regularly with the choice to buy Serco shares at a discount at the end of your savings period.
• Employee networks: Dedicated networks where colleagues can come together to find support, share challenges, discuss ideas, network and be part of a community.
• Charity: Support a charity or organisation with a paid volunteering day each year. You can also choose to donate to your favourite charity tax-free, through our Payroll Giving Scheme.

MOD Security Clearance. Due to the nature of the organisation, all employees of Serco are required to be security cleared to SC level. If successful in your application, we would support you with the SC process. As a guideline only, you would normally need to have been a UK resident for the last 5 consecutive years.

To discover more about our careers in Defence, meet our team, and to find out more about what we offer, please follow this Link. We’re also a signatory of the UK Governments Women in Defence Charter, to find out more please click here.

Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens, we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment. 

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. As a proud Disability Confident Leader and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard, disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview. 

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