Chief Operating Officer

AD Education UK is a growing network of leading creative education institutes in the UK. The group’s institutions are united around strong values and sharing a vision for creativity and innovation within creative media education. With over 40 years of pioneering and sector-leading experience, our graduates can be found throughout the music, film, games and wider creative media sectors, winning prestigious awards and employed within the highest echelons of their respective creative fields. Our market-leading portfolio of schools includes The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) and SAE Institute UK. 

Requirements

Chief Operating Officer

AD Education UK | SAE Institute UK | ICMP 

Executive Committee role | Reporting to the CEO 
📍 Location: ADE UK (Multi-campus role)
📄 Contract Type: Full-time - 37 hours per week
💰 Salary: Circa £100,000
📅 Closing Date: 26/04/2026

Build the operating model. Lead the transformation. Enable what comes next. 

About Us

SAE Institute was founded in 1976 and is a globally operating higher education provider focused on creating a talent pipeline for the creative media industries. Our network of campuses spans over 28 countries on six continents with more than 40 campuses. SAE Institute in Europe is Part of the AD Education group of companies, delivering industry-focused creative education to more than 30,000 students. SAE offers industry-focused Creative Media Degrees across eight subject areas – Audio, Content Creation & Online Marketing, Film, Game Art Animation, Games Programming, Music Business, Visual Effects, and Web Development.  

ICMP (The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance) is a leading UK music school with campuses in London and in 2025 opening in Liverpool and Leeds. For over 35 years, ICMP has been at the forefront of contemporary music education, offering personalised, industry-focused training to help students thrive in the competitive music industry. ICMP delivers innovative undergraduate and postgraduate courses, including specialisations in Electronic Music Production, Live Event Management, and Music Marketing. 

AD Education UK is at a pivotal point in its evolution. As the UK home of SAE Institute and ICMP, we operate across multiple campuses, disciplines, and brands, educating future creators and technologists at a time of rapid change in education, technology, and the creative industries. We unite creative and critical thinkers to harness technology and succeed in a rapidly changing world. 

Following a period of transformation and integration, we are seeking a Chief Operating Officer to join the Executive Team to lead the next phase of our evolution: strengthening our operating model, embedding process discipline, and ensuring our organisation is equipped to scale, adapt, and perform. 

This is a role for an experienced operational and strategic leader, someone who thrives in complexity, leads through systems and structure, and brings clarity where others see environments that are evolving or fragmented. 

The Role 

The Chief Operating Officer (“COO”) is a senior C-suite executive responsible for leading and optimising the organisation’s operational performance across a complex, multi-site and multi-departmental environment. Working in close partnership with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Executive Committee, the COO develops and delivers operational strategies, enterprise processes, and enabling systems that provide the structures, resources, and conditions required for academic delivery to thrive, while supporting effective delivery, scalability, and sustainable organisational performance. 

This is not a maintenance role. You will: 

• Lead and evolve the organisation’s operating model, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and accountability across campuses and functions. 

• Act as the executive lead for core operational processes, embedding standardisation, performance discipline, and continuous improvement. 

• Shape and deliver the estates and campus strategy, ensuring physical environments actively enable academic delivery, collaboration, and future growth. 

• Lead IT, digital and systems strategy as a primary enabler of operational effectiveness and change, not a support function. 

• Act as senior responsible owner for major transformation, systems, and change programmes, delivering results in live operational environments. 

• Play a core role in shaping organisational culture—modelling values, embedding collaborative behaviours, and creating the conditions for high performance. 

• Ensure that operational delivery, systems, and campus environments consistently support and enhance student experience, service quality, and academic outcomes. 

• Set the tone for how the organisation plans, governs, and executes at scale. 

You will sit on the Executive Committee, work in close partnership with the CEO and academic leadership, and have real authority to shape how the organisation operates. 

Who We’re Looking For 

You are an experienced COO or equivalent senior operational leader who brings rigour, structure, and delivery focus. You are known for being highly process-driven, systems-oriented, and calm in complexity. You bring: 

• Proven experience operating at executive level in complex, multi-site, multi-departmental organisations 

• A strong track record of designing, standardising, and scaling enterprise-wide processes 

• Significant experience leading IT, systems, and technology-enabled change 

• Credibility delivering large-scale transformation while maintaining operational continuity 

• The confidence to lead through complexity, ambiguity, and delivery 

• An understanding of how operational excellence enables student success and institutional performance. 

• Experience in education or regulated environments is welcome, but not essential as we recognise that strong candidates may bring transferable leadership experience from other sectors and encourage applications from those who meet most, but not necessarily all, of the criteria. 

Why This Role? 

• A genuine COO mandate, with clear ownership and CEO partnership. 

• A complex, multi-campus organisation where operational excellence really matters. 

• The chance to shape culture, sustainability priorities, and operational practices that directly influence student experience and organisational resilience. 

• A role with real scope, challenge, and long-term impact. 

AD Education UK is committed to building a diverse leadership team and fostering an inclusive environment where colleagues and students can thrive. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and particularly encourage applications from individuals who are currently underrepresented in senior leadership within higher education and the creative industries. 

If you are a disciplined, systems-minded leader who wants to build an operating model that enables people, performance, and progress; we’d like to hear from you. 

Please see full job description here. The deadline for applications is 26 April 2026

Note: ADE is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. ADE is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and vulnerable adults. Successful candidates will be required to obtain a satisfactory enhanced DBS disclosure.

Benefits

Employee Assistance Programme

Auto-Enrolment Pension Scheme with Royal London Pension

Cycle to Work Scheme

Enhanced Maternity and Adoption Pay

Enhanced Paternity Pay

Occupational Sick Pay

Healthcare Cash Plan

Employee Assistance Programme (Legal & General)

Group Income Protection (Legal & General)

Life Assurance (Legal & General)

Season Ticket Loans 

Ride to Work Scheme

Staff Discounts – Short Courses 2025-2026

50% off ICMP courses