Position: Course Operations Manager
Department: Course Operations
Reports To: Customer Service Manager
Location: Bexley Office (role is based on site)
Number of direct reports - 10 (3 on site and 7 remote)
Hours - 8:00am - 5:00pm Mon-Fri with occasional weekend mgt cover
About us
CST Training is one of the UK’s leading training providers, delivering accredited construction, health & safety, management, and business qualifications to individuals and organisations nationwide. With over 9,000 5-star reviews and a reputation for high-quality training, we provide flexible online and classroom-based courses designed to help learners gain recognised qualifications and progress in their careers. Our expert tutors, dedicated support team, and commitment to customer service ensure a professional and supportive learning experience from enquiry through to certification.
Job Purpose
The Course Operations Manager is responsible for leading the Course Operations team, ensuring the smooth delivery of courses and exceptional support to learners, tutors and internal stakeholders. The role combines hands-on team leadership with operational ownership: optimising processes, maintaining service standards, and driving team performance to meet organisational goals.
A primary focus of this role is performance management and coaching. The post-holder will develop a team that is not only operationally excellent, but also commercially aware — confident in understanding how their day-to-day decisions affect revenue, cost, margin and the customer relationships that underpin the success of the business.
Key Responsibilities
Leading the Team
- Lead and develop the Course Operations team across both on-site and remote staff, setting clear objectives and holding the team to high standards of accuracy, efficiency and attention to detail.
- Manage day-to-day team activity, including task allocation, prioritisation, and quality assurance of work delivered.
- Own capacity planning, including rotas, holiday cover, absence management, and ensuring sufficient cover during peak periods across the split between Bexley-based and remote team members.
- Recruit and onboard new team members in collaboration with the Customer Service Manager and HR.
- Foster a positive, collaborative working culture that supports continuous improvement and connects the on-site and remote elements of the team.
- Support a professional and well-organised working environment in Bexley, ensuring the team takes shared responsibility for the upkeep of the office and any other spaces used by the team.
Performance Management and Coaching
- Run a structured performance management cycle for every team member: clear objectives, regular one-to-ones, mid-year and annual reviews, individual development plans, and consistent, constructive feedback.
- Coach individuals to raise standards, build confidence and develop their careers, identifying training needs and arranging the right support to address them.
- Develop the commercial awareness of the team as an explicit, ongoing priority — helping each team member understand CST’s business model, the revenue and cost drivers behind their work, and how their decisions affect profitability, customer lifetime value, tutor relationships and the wider performance of the business.
- Embed commercial thinking into routine activity: coach the team to weigh cost against benefit when handling refunds, complaints, escalations and operational trade-offs, and to actively spot opportunities to improve margin, retention or efficiency.
Operational Excellence
- Ensure seamless execution of course delivery, including scheduling, resource allocation, and learner support.
- Identify, propose and implement process improvements in collaboration with the Customer Service Manager to enhance operational efficiency and customer experience.
- Monitor and maintain the quality of course materials, instructor communications, and learner interactions.
- Monitor stock levels of physical and digital course resources, ensuring orders are placed in good time.
- Monitor the collections and deliveries of physical resources, and deal with any resultant issues, on a daily basis.
- Oversee administrative tasks critical to course operations, including record-keeping, reporting, and compliance.
- Execute ad hoc projects or tasks as directed by the Customer Service Manager to support broader organizational objectives.
- Working with automation teams to develop systems to support more efficient workflows.
Cross-Functional Working
- Work closely with Sales, Tutors, Finance, Marketing, Product/Curriculum and IT to ensure operational alignment across the business.
- Lead or contribute to cross-functional projects that improve the customer or tutor experience.
- Support broader organisational objectives through ad hoc projects as directed by the Customer Service Manager.
- Liaise with the Office Manager on stationery and office-supply ordering as needed.
Person Specification
Essential Skills & Experience
- Proven experience in a leadership or supervisory role within operations, customer service, or training delivery.
- Demonstrable track record of performance management, including one-to-ones, appraisals, recruitment, and addressing performance or conduct issues fairly and effectively.
- Strong commercial awareness, with the ability to understand and explain how operational decisions affect revenue, cost, margin and customer lifetime value.
- Strong organizational and leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and guide a team.
- Excellent problem-solving abilities and a proactive approach to addressing challenges.
- Capacity to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
- Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with tutors, learners, and cross-functional teams.
- Exceptional communication skills, with a professional and empathetic approach to stakeholder interactions.
- Experience in managing workloads, delegating tasks, and ensuring team productivity.
Desirable Skills & Experience
- Experience in education, training, professional qualifications or EdTech.
- Experience leading process improvement, change or automation initiatives.
- Familiarity with learning management systems (LMS), CRM platforms, or course-booking and scheduling tools.
Salary Range
[Dependent on experience and qualifications.]
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
