Contract Manager Interim Adult Skills, Jubilee St

We are seeking a motivated and experienced individual to lead the Adult Skills Fund (and wider Employment&Skills commissioning activity across Brighton&Hove. This is a key role within the Employment&Skills Team, ensuring high-quality delivery of skills provision that supports residents to gain the training and opportunities they need to progress.

Fixed term: Until 31 July 2027

There is full information about the role below and attached but, if you would like an informal discussion, please contact Donna Keenan, Skills Funding Delivery Manager on 07543 303 427 or email .

About the role

We are seeking a motivated and experiencedContract Managerto lead the Adult Skills Fund (and wider Employment&Skills commissioning activity across Brighton&Hove. This is a key role within the Employment&Skills Team, ensuring high-quality delivery of skills provision that supports residents to gain the training and opportunities they need to progress.

You will act as the council's contract lead for the Adult Skills Funding, overseeing provider performance, quality assurance, compliance and continuous improvement. Working closely with colleges, independent training providers and internal colleagues, you will ensure commissioned activity aligns to local priorities and delivers value for money.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with strong contract management expertise, excellent relationship-building skills, and a passion for improving outcomes for local residents.

What you'll be doing

• Leading the work programme for the ASF and related Employment&Skills contracts.
• Acting as the technical expert on contract management, procurement routes, and compliance.
• Building and maintaining strong relationships with training providers, internal teams and stakeholders.
• Developing clear contract specifications and monitoring performance, quality and learner outcomes.
• Ensuring contract management processes, procedures and documentation remain up to date and compliant.
• Using learner feedback, data and progression information to inform contract decisions and drive improvements.
• Managing operational delivery, funding rules compliance, financial monitoring and audit arrangements.
• Completing performance reports, business cases and briefings for Programme Boards and senior leaders.
• Supporting colleagues to develop effective, value-for-money contracts that meet local skills needs.
• Providing advice, training, and guidance on procurement, quality assurance and contract management practice.

Encouraging a diverse workforceOur city is known and loved for its diversity. Not only is the mixture of people, culture and skills vital to the economic and social development of the city, it's what makes Brighton&Hove such a great place to live, work and visit. We are committed to developing and retaining a workforce that is representative of the diverse communities we serve so we welcome applications from individuals from all backgrounds. In order to achieve our aims of proportionate representation, we particularly encourage applicants from a BME or White Other background as well as those who identify as disabled, male or trans.

Find out more about our commitment to being a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone can achieve their potential by reading about our fair and inclusive actions, our anti-racism strategy and the work we are doing to encourage a diverse workforce (brighton-hove.gov.uk).

Why work for us?As a council, we want to:
• be connected
• be confident
• be innovative and creative
• be diverse and inclusive
• be healthy and psychologically safe
For more information about our values and the benefits of working at the council, visit Why work for us which gives details of our wellbeing support, our benefits including leave and pensions as well as details of our training and development.

How to applyPlease read our Apply for a job at the council pages carefully. They give you all the guidance you need to complete your application as well as information on what will happen after you've submitted your application and at interview.

As part of your application, you will need to provide your education and career history and answer some application/shortlisting questions. Your answers to the application/shortlisting questions are the most important part of your application as they will be used in the shortlisting process to assess whether you meet the essential requirements for the role that are set out in the person specification and to decide whether you should be offered an interview. Before you start your application, please read our Shortlisting questions guidance (brighton-hove.gov.uk) as this gives important advice which will increase your chance of success in the shortlisting process.

AI advice for candidates
We are interested in hearing about your experience and skills in your own words. While we value people who know how to use AI, we ask that you minimise using it in your application.

We are keen to hear how your experience and skills align to our values and the skills and experience needed to perform well in our roles with clear real examples from you. To support you in this, we have guidance on using the STAR model which can help you ensure you are telling us your whole story. We also provide clarity on the skills we are looking for in our adverts and in the job description/person specification attached to each job advert.

All the applications we receive are read by at least two hiring managers and we do not use AI in this process. Our experience of reading applications is that those that have heavily used AI contain generic paragraphs that are strikingly similar to other applicants'responses. This makes it extremely difficult to differentiate between applications, and doesn't give us enough evidence of your individual skills. There is a risk that we will therefore not be able to shortlist you. Instead, we recommend you ensure your application stands out by presenting clear examples of your actual skills and experiences in your own words.

Additional informationYour starting salary will be pro rata if the above position is less than 37 hours or term-time only.

Please note that this post is subject to a Basic Disclosure Criminal Records Check.

We are a workplace that supports flexibility and employee wellbeing in the way we work whilst providing the best service for our customers. Team and service working arrangements are designed to support both employee work life balance and team collaboration. These would be part of your individual working arrangements alongside any personal preference agreed with your manager in advance of joining. Your contractual location will be the designated council office for your team and travel to and from your contractual location would be at your own expense.