Senior Student Retention Officer

Department: Retention

Location: London, Leeds, Manchester or Birmingham (On-site)

About Us: GBS is a higher education provider offering a range of sector-relevant courses across ten campuses in London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester. Working in partnership with several of the UK’s leading higher education providers, we deliver vocational, undergraduate, and postgraduate programmes in finance, accounting, business, construction, tourism, healthcare, and more.

Our Vision: Changing lives through education.

What We Do: This is an operational, customer service focused role, in which you will lead a team of Student Retention Officers who will work with students to identify and remove barriers to learning.

About the Role:

Ensure strong and effective operational processes are in place, identifying and improving them where necessary

Coaching and mentoring staff, including supporting their communication style and problem solving ability, including providing support on phone manner

Be an effective team leader, working to ensure your team deliver on their KPIs

Be their first point of contact for the operational activities, managing the workload of your team and directing workflow to ensure high levels of operational delivery

Provide weekly updates on performance, alongside plans to address areas of weakness • Build strong relationships with faculties and support teams

About you:

Educated to degree level or equivalent experience in an operational or customer service focused role

Excellent written and oral communication skills

Relevant experience and the ability to demonstrate the impact in an operational/customer service focused role

High levels of computer literacy and proficiency in Excel and an ability to learn quickly

Experience working with and learning new IT platforms

The ability to develop and lead high performing teams, and experience managing these teams

Coaching and mentoring skills

The ability to demonstrate process mapping or continuous improvement skills

The ability to generate and analyse reports, coming up with actions plans in order to impact data

What We Offer:

25 days annual leave, plus 8 public holidays

1 day extra leave per year of service, up to a maximum of 5 days

Workplace pension scheme

Tuition reimbursement for career development courses

Flexible Benefits: Cycle to Work, Workplace Nursery, Techscheme and much more

Perks@Work discounts platform, wellbeing centre and much more

Reward and recognition programme

£500 award employee referral scheme

Discretionary annual performance bonus

Employee Testimonial:

"What really stands out to me about GBS is its consistent focus on creating positive outcomes for students. Every team, even those without direct student contact, is deeply committed to this mission. Everyone understands that what they do plays a role in helping students succeed. It’s such a collaborative and inspiring place to work — it’s clear everyone genuinely cares about making a difference." (Steffi Korsah - Non-Academic Staff)

GBS is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion and providing a workplace free from discrimination or harassment. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and communities. We take our core values seriously and work hard to create an environment where everyone feels welcomed.

Please note: This role is not eligible for sponsorship