Job Description
Permanent Full-time
Location: Remote, UK
Reports to: Qualifications Manager
Salary: £37,000 - £39,000 per annum
Line management responsibilities: Yes
Overview
Training Qualifications UK is the fastest-growing Awarding Organisation in the UK, and a market leading End-Point Assessment Organisation. We work with over 500 schools, colleges, universities, and training providers across the world to provide qualification certificates, endorsements, and apprenticeships to over 150,000 learners.
What’s the secret to our success? Simply put, we do things differently here!
The qualifications that we offer, and the assessments that we design and deliver, are the core of what we do. It is important that we are constantly delivering world-class service to our learners and Apprentices to ensure that assessments are valid and as stress-free as possible.
The Stakeholder Engagement Lead is responsible for leading a structured, transparent, and evidence-based approach to stakeholder and Subject Matter Expert (SME) engagement across the qualification lifecycle. The role ensures that external insight meaningfully informs qualification design, development, review, and maintenance, while meeting regulatory expectations and supporting qualification validity, relevance, and public confidence.
The post holder will act as the lead for stakeholder and SME engagement within the Qualifications Team, ensuring engagement activity is proportionate, representative, well-managed, and linked to qualification purpose and decision-making.
Key Responsibilities
- Support and implement a stakeholder and SME engagement strategy aligned to the organisation’s qualifications portfolio and regulatory obligations.
- Establish clear principles, processes, and standards for stakeholder and SME engagement across qualification development and review
- Act as the organisational lead for stakeholder and SME engagement within qualification-related activity.
- Lead engagement activity at all stages of the qualification lifecycle, including:
- early market intelligence and needs analysis
- qualification design and redevelopment
- qualification review and maintenance decisions
- Ensure engagement activity is targeted, proportionate, and appropriate to the qualification purpose, level, and intended learner cohort.
- Lead the identification and recruitment of SMEs to inform qualification development and review.
- Establish and apply clear criteria for SME selection, ensuring appropriate sector expertise, credibility, currency, and representativeness.
- Ensure SME involvement is structured and purposeful, with clear expectations, scope, and timescales for contribution.
- Maintain a central SME register, including areas of expertise, engagement history, declarations of interest, and review cycles.
- Lead structured engagement with approved centres, tutors, and learners to gather feedback on qualification relevance, clarity, and usability.
- Seek endorsement of qualification from employers where appropriate, ensuring endorsement activity is transparent, voluntary, and evidence-based.
- Manage conflicts of interest and ensure SME engagement remains independent, transparent, and defensible.
- Build and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including:
- centres and delivery partners
- employers and employer representative bodies
- professional bodies, sector organisations, and technical experts
- Act as a senior point of contact for stakeholder engagement activity within the Qualifications Team.
Other Responsibilities
- Line manage Stakeholder Engagement Coordinators and oversee external contributors where applicable.
- Provide professional leadership, mentoring, and oversight to ensure consistent and high-quality engagement practice.
- Contribute to wider Qualifications Team leadership activity and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Review and refine stakeholder and SME engagement approaches to ensure they remain effective, proportionate, and aligned to organisational priorities.
- Share learning and good practice across the Qualifications Team to strengthen qualification development processes.
Key Requirements
Essential Criteria
Qualifications and Experience
- 3 years’ experience of stakeholder engagement within an awarding organisation, education, training, or regulated environment.
- Demonstrable experience identifying, recruiting, and managing Subject Matter Experts.
- Experience coordinating structured engagement activity to inform qualification or standards development.
- Experience translating external feedback into evidence-based recommendations.
Knowledge
- Understanding of regulated qualifications and the qualification lifecycle.
- Knowledge of good practice in SME governance, including independence, representativeness, and conflict management.
Skills and Competencies
- Excellent communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to engage confidently with senior stakeholders and technical experts.
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to synthesise qualitative and quantitative feedback.
- Ability to assess SME credibility and suitability against defined criteria.
Personal Attributes
- Credible, professional, and confident when operating at a senior level.
- Strategic thinker with a pragmatic, proportionate approach.
- Collaborative, with the ability to influence and challenge constructively.
- High level of integrity and commitment to transparency and evidence-based decision-making.
Desirable Criteria
- Knowledge of Ofqual’s General Conditions of Recognition and their implications for stakeholder and SME engagement.
- Line management experience within stakeholder engagement or qualifications contexts.
- Experience engaging employers and sector bodies to inform qualification design.
- Experience contributing to regulatory submissions or responding to regulatory feedback.
Key Benefits
- Training, Qualifications & Apprenticeships. It’s what we do!
- Company sick pay upon completion of probation.
- 25 days annual leave plus 8 days Bank Holiday (33 in total).
- Additional annual leave day each year, after 2 years of continuous service (up to 28 days).
- An extra day off to celebrate your birthday.
- Annual Loyalty Bonus.
- Annual salary review.
- Bupa healthcare benefits.
- Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
- NEST pension.
- Cycle-to-work scheme.
- A positive and supportive working environment.
- Comprehensive onboarding.
- A workplace that supports a healthy work/life balance.
*We are an equal opportunities employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Should you require any additional support during the recruitment process due to a disability, please contact us so we can assist you.