Head of Professional Development and Quality Assurance

Salary: £69552 per annum

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Application Closing Date: 11th January 2026

Telephone interviews: Week commencing 12th January 2026

Interviews: Week commencing 19th Jan 2026

Start date: 13th April 2026

What we’re looking for

We are looking for an inspirational leader and pedagogue to lead our strategy for raising the quality of the mentoring of Axiom Maths circles. Our mentors love running our programme, and we have maintained satisfaction levels while growing our reach rapidly. However for many of our mentors, maths circles feel very different from their teaching experience, and require different practices and pedagogy. Over the next two years, we want to empower our mentors to achieve more for their pupils and elevate their status in the eyes of leaders and peers. The Head of Professional Development and Quality Assurance will lead the way in this crucial work.

This is an exciting challenge for someone who enjoys solving complex problems. Our 2000 strong mentor pool is diverse, including teachers of all experience levels, university students and sixth form helpers across England and Wales. Our delivery models are also diverse; our core delivery model is in-school partnerships but we also run a significant number of online circles, led by our own mentors, and we collaborate with external partners to deliver additional circles. You will work across many teams to develop a programme of professional development, and deliver robust quality assurance, that caters for these differences.

We are a small team with big ambitions, who are in a phase of substantial growth. You should be excited about working in a startup environment where things can change quickly but where you have the opportunity to have a tremendous impact.

We exist to serve pupils from backgrounds that are under-represented in university mathematics, and believe that we do this better when our team includes people who are from these backgrounds themselves. If you consider yourself to be from a background where progressing to university mathematics is not the norm then we strongly encourage you to apply.

About Axiom maths

Axiom Maths is a maths education charity on a mission to help every child with the heart and head for maths realise the potential of their power. Every year 30,000 children who were top performers at the end of primary school don’t go on to get top GCSE grades in maths. We aim to change that by partnering with schools across England and Wales to run fully-funded in-school or online maths circles. Pupils tackle challenging and rewarding maths problems in a supportive social group where the subject is valued.

We're looking for team members who will bring the best of themselves to Axiom Maths, and the best of Axiom Maths to the wider system. We champion innovation and our employees are empowered to implement new ideas without barriers. We are a small team, and we place a big focus on open communication, collaboration and supporting one another.

About this role

You will develop Axiom Maths’ view of what good mentoring looks like and be the expert on the current ‘quality distribution’ of mentoring on our programme. You will develop a strategic vision for improving quality that is grounded in rich insights from the frontline, and create a shared understanding of this across the wider Axiom Maths team. You will oversee programmes that improve quality, including quality assurance processes, training and community building.

Training

• Develop a professional development offer that elevates the status of our mentors and empowers them to deliver our programme effectively

• Ensure that such training is accessible to the wide range of mentors, including teachers running circles in schools, tutors running circles online and junior mentors supporting their teachers

• Train and support other members of the Axiom Maths team and wider community to deliver such training

Quality assurance

• Assure the quality of programme delivery. In particular:

• Own the evaluation framework

• Ensure consistency in the implementation of the framework across multiple modes of delivery and teams, ensuring that well-calibrated, accurate judgements are made, and appropriate support provided

  • Work with the School Partnerships Director to oversee this work with our School Relationship Leads and Heads of Region

  • Work with the Delivery Director to oversee this work with our Lead Mentors for our online programme

  • Work with our delivery partners to oversee this work with the schools and mentors they manage

Team

• Be a leading member of the curriculum team, deputising for and supporting the Curriculum Director as necessary

• Contribute to decision making around the improvement of the curriculum resources, ensuring that they support mentors to deliver circles well

• Work closely with the school partnerships team and the delivery team, attending team meetings where necessary

Other

• Represent Axiom Maths externally, including providing training to teachers, e.g. at teacher conferences

• Keep up to date on issues of mathematics curriculum and pedagogy, and be a lead thinker in the team on these

You should apply if you:

• Align closely with the mission, culture and values of Axiom Maths. (See careers.axiommaths.com )

• Have a degree in mathematics, or in an applied subject containing a substantial amount of abstract pure mathematics

• Have proven success in teaching maths to high-attaining secondary school students.

• Have experience designing and facilitating engaging professional development to teachers

• Have substantial knowledge of research-informed mathematics pedagogy, and proven success in applying this in teaching practice

• Can lead and manage complex projects, influencing practice and priorities across teams or organisations without direct line-management authority

• Can use data and technology confidently to solve problems and improve efficiency

It is desirable that you:

• Have experience of leadership and management of a team

You must have:

• The right to work in the UK

• Willingness to undergo an enhanced DBS check

• Commitment to equality of opportunity and the safeguarding and welfare of all students

• Willingness to undertake in-person and online training and development, both of knowledge and of skills

• Willingness to travel regularly (~once per week) within England and Wales, with the practical / transport means to do so

We Offer:

• Salary: £69552 per annum

• Remote-first team: We all work remotely but meet once a week on Tuesdays at our London office

• Flexible Working: We work flexibly by default, and value outcomes not hours worked. All our team are empowered to organise their work in a way that balances their work and life

• Annual leave: 27 days (excluding bank holidays and the days between Christmas and New Year) increasing by 1 day after 2 years tenure up to 30 days (pro rata for part-time)

• Pension: 11% employer only contribution (plus Life Assurance)

• Work from Home: £500 (pro rata) working from home allowance to purchase equipment (in addition to the laptop we provide)

• Health cash plan including employee assistance programme: Employees have access to a health cash plan which provides money back towards treatment, discounted fitness and wellbeing as well as access to a confidential employee assistance programme

• Cycle to work and car salary sacrifice schemes to help with travel arrangements

• Payroll giving: Payroll giving enables employees to sacrifice part of their salary in exchange for a donation to be made to charities of choice. This means the donation comes out prior to tax and can help maximise the amount the charity will receive

• Books: Any employee can expense the purchase of any book that they believe will help make them better at their job

• Company off-sites: We organise three off-sites a year, each lasting two days (with an overnight stay). This is a chance for us to come together, do essential planning and celebrate our wins

Equal Opportunities

We don’t want potential candidates to be put off if they believe they do not meet every one of the criteria as described in the person specification. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be one who comes from a less traditional background. We would encourage you to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of our criteria.

We are especially keen to receive applications from people whose background is under-represented in the mathematics profession.

Axiom Maths is an equal opportunities employer and will not discriminate against any candidate on the basis of any characteristic protected by the Equality Act 2010. To apply for this role, please visit the Axiom Maths Careers site.

Selection process

Stage 1 – Written application questions to assess your eligibility for the role

Stage 2 – Screening interview

Stage 3 – Task

Stage 4 – Panel interview