Team Manager (Infrastructure and Systems)

Job Description

Purpose and Values of Education Directorate

The Education Directorate is committed to Improving Life Chances for All through a wide range of direct services which support our children, young people, families and the wider Fife community. Our approach to improvement is rooted in our core values: Compassion, Ambition, Respect and Equity which reflect the ethos, culture and practice principles of all staff across the directorate.

Job Details

We’re looking for a dynamic and forward thinking leader to join our Education Directorate as a Team Manager – Infrastructure & Systems within our Directorate Operations Team. This is a unique opportunity to lead high impact work that directly supports all our Fife school settings, staff and, most importantly, every young person and learner. The post focuses on improving buildings and systems, ensuring our services are modern, efficient and fit for the future.

Whether your background is in Property, Education, local government, public sector, Project Delivery, Estates, systems, teaching or operational leadership, this role offers the chance to apply your expertise at scale and make a real difference.

As Team Manager, you will provide strategic and operational leadership across a diverse portfolio, ensuring services are well designed, compliant and continuously improving. The Team Manager is one of three within the Directorate Operations Team and will hold a strategic and operational lead role within the defined areas of responsibility, managing, developing, implementing and monitoring the range of services, supporting the Primary, Early Years, Special, Secondary, Central Support sectors and teams within the Education Directorate.

You will lead a well established and motivated team delivering key functions such as:

• School estate and infrastructure (supporting new builds, closures, capacity and catchment planning)
• Education systems and digital services (including enrolment, data and SharePoint systems)
• Statutory processes and consultations linked to education provision
• Carbon reduction and sustainability initiatives across the service
• Major programmes and change delivery, embedding new ways of working across services
• Driving transformation and continuous improvement, managing complex programmes and ensuring that change delivers measurable benefits for schools and communities

What You’ll Be Doing

• Driving continuous improvement and service/process redesign
• Working with and building on strong relationships with senior leaders, partners and stakeholders across Fife and beyond
• Leading and developing a multi disciplinary team
• Managing projects, policies and statutory processes
• Supporting the Quality Improvement Officer on major building projects
• Ensuring effective use of resources, data and systems to support decision making
• Supporting delivery of the Directorate Improvement Plan, Council Plan, Children’s Services Plan and national priorities
• Acting as a key link between strategy and operational delivery

Why join us?

• Impact at scale – your work will support every young person in Fife
• Varied and meaningful portfolio – from capital projects to digital transformation
• Leadership opportunity – shape services, influence strategy and lead change
• Collaborative environment – working across Education, council services and partners

The Person

We welcome applications from a wide range of backgrounds. You may be:

• Someone who has current or previous experience within local authority or public sector as a professional in Estates, Policy, HR, Finance, Education or Programme Management
• A school leader with experience of systems, planning or operational leadership
• An operations, infrastructure or project delivery specialist from outside Education
• A systems, data or digital lead with experience delivering organisational change

What matters most is your ability to:

• Lead people and build high performing teams
• Deliver change and improvement programmes
• Work strategically while managing operational delivery
• Build strong relationships and influence across organisations
• Analyse complex issues and develop practical, innovative solutions
• Be flexible and react to directorate and team demands

You must be

• Educated to SCQF level 9, which includes a Degree or equivalent
• Having experience of operational delivery within public sector, successful business change, resource management, performance management and quality management
• Having experience of driving, managing and supporting organisational change and service improvement
• Having consultancy, facilitation and influencing skills

You will be able to

• Work with the Head of Service, Service Manager, the Directorate Operations Team, Education Managers, Quality Improvement Officers, School Leaders and practitioners to develop, plan and take forward the Directorate’s strategies relating to Systems and Infrastructure
• Identify, plan and assess progress of projects and manage their interdependencies in support of specific outcomes
• Report on progress to various Education forums, Councillors, Fife Council Committees and to Scottish Government as required
• Chair meetings/represent the service in cross service working groups and projects
• Consistently model positive behaviours in dealings with others
• Undertake research and benchmarking
• Analyse complex issues and determine creative and practical solutions
• Reconcile competing priorities and deal with ambiguity and complexity
• Respond to customer needs, aligned with strong organisational and business awareness and provide constructive challenge where appropriate
• Manage performance

Benefits

• Employees have access to a benefits package that offers discounts on a wide range of products and services

Working arrangement

As a progressive employer, we offer the opportunity to work in this role as a blended working arrangement with home working opportunities and occasional office working as required. While the significant part of the role can and will be carried out remotely, candidates should be able to travel to and attend office locations in Fife as required.

Contact

For further information please contact Kevin Funnell –