Location
Battersea, London / Hybrid

Hours
Full-time (part-time may be considered at a minimum of 0.6 FTE)

Salary
£64,753 per annum

About the Role
The Royal College of Art, the world’s leading university of art and design, is seeking a dynamic and commercially astute Interim Head of Executive Education to lead and grow our Open and Custom Executive Education and Short Courses portfolio. This is an exciting opportunity to build on strong foundations and drive the next phase of growth, innovation and impact in lifelong learning.

Reporting to senior leadership, you will lead the operational delivery and commercial development of Executive Education at the RCA. Working closely with academic leads, commercial partners and professional services teams, you will oversee end-to-end programme delivery — from client engagement and proposal development through to costing, pricing, contract negotiation and course delivery (both in-person and online).

Key responsibilities include embedding Executive Education within the College’s portfolio of revenue-generating activities, leading business development activities to build relationships with UK and international clients, overseeing recruitment, sales and strategic marketing of open programmes, ensuring all programmes are costed in line with full economic costing principles and generate appropriate surplus, monitoring KPIs including financial performance and client and participant satisfaction, and providing strong leadership to the Executive Education team to foster a culture of inclusion, collaboration, innovation and service excellence.

This is a highly visible, business-facing leadership role requiring strong commercial judgement and the ability to navigate effectively between academic and corporate environments.

Experience
- Demonstrable knowledge of the Executive Education marketplace and current trends.
- Significant experience in a comparable Executive Education or senior business engagement role within higher education or a relevant sector.
- Proven track record of developing high-quality proposals, negotiating contracts and managing financial performance.
- Experience managing multiple complex projects and competing priorities.
- Proven leadership and people management capability.

About you
- Credibility and interpersonal skills to engage senior stakeholders within academia and industry.
- Solution-focused, entrepreneurial mindset with sound analytical and commercial judgement.
- Interest in creative education, innovation and contemporary art and design.

Qualifications
- An undergraduate degree (essential).
- Postgraduate qualification (desirable).
- Knowledge of the UK and international higher education landscape, particularly within short course and Executive Education markets, would be advantageous.