Leadership Development Officer Scheme

Help shape the future of higher education with the Office for Students

Do you want to build a career in regulation and policy development? Are you passionate about ensuring students from all backgrounds thrive in a high-quality, innovative higher education system? If so, the Office for Students (OfS) has the perfect opportunity for you.

We’re the independent regulator for higher education in England. Our role is to ensure a diverse, sustainable, and continuously improving sector that delivers real value to students across the country.

We are looking for aspiring leaders who are looking for a career in policy development and regulation. We need creative, curious, ambitious, problem solvers who want to learn quickly and work hard in a fast-paced environment to join our Leadership Development Scheme and develop the skills required to make a difference for higher education students.

Join the Leadership Development Scheme

This two-year fast-track programme is your gateway to becoming a future leader at the OfS.

Over three dynamic placements across the organisation, you’ll:

• Take on challenging and impactful projects that help deliver higher education policy.
• Gain in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience in regulation, strategy, and policy-making.
• Develop the leadership skills and technical capabilities to make a difference in the lives of thousands of students.

Why choose the OfS

• Purpose-driven work: You can help shape the future of higher education and make a difference for students. Our mission is to ensure that students from all backgrounds benefit from high quality higher education, delivered by a diverse and sustainable sector that continues to improve.
• Supportive environment: You will be working collaboratively alongside colleagues at all levels. You will be encouraged to stretch yourself and develop a broad range of skills. We will assign a mentor to help you with this.
• Career progression: You will build the skills and experience to become a leader whether at the OfS or elsewhere. As you become a key player in our teams, you’ll also find we value your input, ideas and fresh perspectives on how and where we can improve.

What we are looking for

Are you a curious, creative, ambitious, problem solver with a drive to make a difference for higher education students? We’re looking for hard working, creative thinkers with a commitment to ensuring students from all backgrounds benefit from excellent higher education that meets their needs.

You’ll appreciate how your work fits into our organisational priorities, and have the aptitude for analysis, problem-solving and detail that enables you to make well-reasoned decisions.

And as a natural communicator both in writing and in person, you’ll enjoy the challenge of collaborating with people at all levels and balancing different perspectives in everything you do.

Additional job details

Location: Bristol

Generous Civil Service defined benefit pension

How to apply

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.

Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that this can enable people to work more effectively. To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants we have a flexible and hybrid working approach which applies to this role. In practice, this typically means working an average of two to three days in the office each week.

This is more than a job—it’s your chance to drive positive change in a sector that impacts millions of futures. Join the Office for Students.

Click Apply to start your application now. This job will be available on Prospects until 10 March 2025.