Westminster School requires an experienced and capable IT Operations Manager for a 12 month fixed-term contract. The primary purpose of this role is to provide effective day-to-day leadership and management of the School's IT department and its operational workload.
This is a hands-on management role requiring strong leadership, technical understanding, and excellent organisational skills within a busy educational environment. Bringing this role at this critical time will enable the Deputy Director of Digital Strategy to dedicate focused time to a mission critical project.
The successful candidate will combine technical acumen with strong leadership, communication, and organisational skills, ensuring Westminster School’s IT operations continue to run smoothly and securely during a critical period of change and development.
Main Responsibilities: The IT Operations Manager will be responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the IT department, managing the IT team, prioritising support requests and ongoing tasks, and overseeing operational IT service delivery during this focused documentation period.
The role is to provide support to allow the Deputy Director of IT to focus on a mission critical project involving the comprehensive documentation of current IT systems, network infrastructure, processes, and configurations; and ensure the current bespoke architecture is ready for the next academic year (and as a direct response to a recent cyber review).
The School is also embarking on the delivery of a new building at Chapter House in Vincent Square, as we expand to include our new Pre-prep at Westminster Under School and plan to be fully co-ed by 2030, and the roll out of iPad controls.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead, manage, mentor, and support the existing Westminster School IT team.
- Oversee the management of the IT helpdesk queue and workload, in consultation with the Helpdesk Manager, ensuring timely and effective resolution of support requests from staff and pupils.
- Prioritise incoming IT issues and projects based on urgency and impact, in consultation with the Director and Deputy Director of Digital Strategy.
- Oversee the operational maintenance and monitoring of the School's IT infrastructure, including servers, network equipment, and end-user devices.
- Ensure IT systems are stable, secure, and performing optimally.
- Manage relationships with key IT vendors and external support providers as necessary for operational issues.
- Oversee the implementation of routine IT tasks (e.g., backups, user account management, system checks).
- Serve as a point of escalation for complex technical issues.
- Facilitate communication within the IT team and between the IT department and the wider school community.
- Provide regular updates to the Director of Digital Strategy on team activities, workload status, and any critical operational issues.
- Champion adherence to existing IT policies and procedures.
- Assist with minor IT project management tasks that require immediate attention, without impacting the Deputy Director's documentation focus.
- Enable smooth roll out of Chapter House infrastructure in conjunction with the contractors.
Ideal Candidate: Please refer to the below (attached) person specification.
Equal Opportunities
We are an equal opportunities employer. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex or sexual orientation.
Safeguarding and Child Protection
Westminster School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Package Description: Required for: as soon as possible
Location: Deans Yard - Westminster School
Contract: full-time, temporary - 12 month fixed-term contract
Salary: £65,000 - £70,000 per annum, dependent on experience
Benefits include:
- Free school meals when on-site
- Generous School pension scheme
- Free access to the School’s leisure facilities, including a fitness gym (restricted hours).
- Cycle to Work Scheme and season ticket loans following completion of our standard probation period
- Private medical insurance (opt in).
- Discretionary Christmas shutdown period.
The deadline for applications is 09:00 on Friday 12th September 2025. Interviews will take place, in-person, shortly after the closing date.