Operations Manager

Horizon Town Square is seeking to appoint an outstanding Operations Manager to join the team.

About Cognita:

Cognita is a global leader in independent education. Founded in 2004, we are a growing community of 100+ schools in 16 countries - in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East - serving more than 85,000 students. Each of our schools are proudly unique, however our collective purpose is to create an environment where everyone can, Thrive in a rapidly evolving world.

As Operations Manager, you will lead and manage school teams, facilities, and day-to-day operations to ensure smooth, cost‑efficient delivery and full compliance with group and local regulatory policies. A core responsibility is leading on Health & Safety — developing and enforcing H&S strategy, risk management, incident response, and staff training — while also leading campus expansion and facility improvements, event management, and ESG initiatives.

• Key Accountabilities:
• Facility Management
• Provide operational oversight of all facility and maintenance services
• Manage maintenance budgets & delivery in collaboration with the relevant third party contractors & school teams
• Effective management of day-to-day operations, including events & functions ensuring compliance with all regulations & policies

Supervise the quality of work for all other employees to ensure that all tasks are performed correctly, efficiently and effectively; (custodians, technician, groundskeepers etc) and external contractors.

• Support in the development of long term strategic planning for asset replacement
• Work with internal and external stakeholder to improve efficiency in operational efficiency and reduce environmental impact
• Stakeholder Management
• Advise school leadership in driving efficiencies and operational effectiveness
• Build and maintain positive working relationships with staff, senior leaders, Head of Operations and the Principal.
• Manage vendor relationships, including setting,measuring and enforcing SLAs
• Implementation & management of policies & procedures across all services
• Contract Management
• Participate and support in POQ & tender processes
• Contract administration & third-party document control
• Oversee external vendor performance, changes, and communication to relevant stakeholders.
• Support the groups service & contracts manager with commission tracking for all other income
• Compliance
• Oversee onboarding documentation for third party contractors
• Compliance with all group & relevant governing body; Health & Safety, Data Protection, KHDA and Safeguarding policies & procedures
• Projects & Campus improvement
• Support with the planning and delivery of strategic campus improvement and expansion projects
• Ensure project modifications receive required approvals and meet specification, budegt & timleine requirements
• ESG
• Support the ESG team in implementing sustainability initiatives across the schools
• Promote environmental and social responsibility within school operations
• Person Specification
• Qualifications: Bachelor's degree or relevant operational qualification; NEBOSH and IOSH preferred
• Experience: 3+ years in operational roles, ideally in education, facilities, or service-driven environments
• Key Relationships
• Internal:
• Senior Leadership team
• School employees
• External:
• Government bodies
• Third party contractors
• Parents
• Capabilities and Qualities:
• Health, safety, and compliance leadership
• Budget awareness and procurement control
• Cross-functional problem-solving and crisis response
• Strong administration skills (accurate and attention to detail)
• A high level of confidentiality (tact and diplomacy)
• Strong communication skills; written, verbal and non-verbal
• Excellent interpersonal and customer-facing skills
• Self starter with a strong sense of logic, analytical and organisational skills
• A flexible team player
• To support your application, please include your current, up-to-date CV.

The school reserves the right to interview and appoint strong candidates before the official closing date, and therefore we would encourage candidates to apply early in the process.

Cognita is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and young people and expects the same from its employees. All new staff will be subject to detailed and enhanced pre-employment clearance, including identity checks, criminal background checks for all countries lived in, qualification checks, employment checks to include an exploration of any gaps in employment, and satisfactory reference checks for all employment in the last 5 years.