Assistant Director of Certification and Assurance (3352)

At RSPCA Assured, our mission is to ensure higher farmed animal welfare through a robust assurance scheme and trusted supply chain. Together, we're creating a better future for farmed animals and our ambition is that by 2050, more than half of the UK's farmed animals will be reared to RSPCA welfare standards. 

To help us reach our 2050 ambition, we need an exceptional leader to champion our certification and assurance strategy, safeguarding the integrity of our scheme while driving operational excellence.

Therefore, we are now looking for an Assistant Director of Certification and Assurance to join our dedicated team. 

This is a pivotal role where your analytical prowess will directly support our mission to improve the lives of farmed animals.

• Contract: Permanent
• Working hours: 35 hours per week.
• Location Home based / Hybrid role: You will spend your time working from home or from our London (Blackfriars) office or our West Sussex (Horsham) office. This role also involves extensive travel to our farms and centres. 

As the Assistant Director of Certification and Assurance, you will head up our Certification and Assurance team, ensuring the RSPCA Assured scheme assessment plan is delivered with absolute precision.

You will hold strategic oversight of a £2.5M – £3.5M budget and will lead the team responsible for keeping our standards robust, trusted, and compliant.

We will look for you to lead our dedicated team of assessors to maximise our visits and assessments with our members.

Team leadership is a key part of this role; you will line manage the Regional Assessment Managers and the Head of Scheme Operations; fostering a high performance culture and supporting their professional development.

You will create, develop and maintain a comprehensive assessment capability and resource plan and will ensure robust reporting processes are in place to monitor compliance with quality procedures. 

You will review, draft and update quality procedures (such as the application process) to ensure they remain compliant with SCI / UKAS standards.

Financial & KPI Management will be a key element of this role; you will deliver detailed monthly KPI reporting for certification and actively contribute to the overall RSPCA Assured strategic plan and budget setting.

As Assistant Director of Certification and Assurance, you will create and develop robust processes to cover scheme membership, assessment recording and membership controlled documentation, all designed to protect the reputation and integrity of both the RSPCA and the RSPCA Assured brand.

This high profile role requires a highly capable, resilient leader who is deeply supportive of farm animal welfare and possesses a proven track record in high-level certification.

To succeed within this role, you must have:

• A demonstrable track record in certification at a senior level.
• A successful track record of leading high profile teams through significant change.
• Proven experience of managing a diverse, geographically spread workgroup.
• Experience of building and maintaining relationships with key external and internal stakeholders.
• Direct experience of managing large-scale budgets (£2.5M+).
• Extensive experience of working to SCI / UKAS standards. 
• Farm animal or agricultural experience is highly beneficial.

You must also be able to demonstrate that you:

• Are calm under pressure and that you demonstrate sound judgment at both strategic and operational levels.
• Are a quick thinker, who is comfortable working with high levels of autonomy.
• Are a confident communicator and negotiator, with a proven ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.

This really is a fantastic opportunity and now is a great time to join us, as we embark on our journey to increase the number of animals on the scheme, improve our member and partner experience and increase our organisational engagement and impact. 

If you want to play a key role in us achieving these ambitious targets, please apply today!

Successful candidates for certain RSPCA roles will need to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK - We are unable to sponsor visas at RSPCA

The recruitment process for this role will include a 2 stage interview process. 

First stage interviews will be held remotely during the week commencing the 31st of August and second stage interviews will be held in person on the 7th of September.

We want to ensure we do all we can to give you a positive candidate experience through our recruitment. Whilst we do try to give feedback where we can, sometimes due to receiving high levels of applications, this may not always be possible

We are building the future of a diverse Society, and our priority is to support animal welfare by finding people from all backgrounds who are committed  to our mission.  For this reason we actively encourage a wide diversity of applications - in particular from members of minority ethnic groups, and people with disabilities - as these candidates are currently under-represented at the RSPCA. Your transferable skills & lived experiences could make you a valuable addition to our RSPCA Family! 

Should you need any support with your application or interview process please contact resourcingteam@rspca.org.uk / 0300 123 0685.

Our mission is to ensure animals have a good life by rescuing and caring for those in need, by advocating on behalf of all animals and by inspiring everyone to treat them with compassion and respect