Operations Manager (Area Manager Level)— Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries Cambridge Group (Regent Terrace, Grange Road, Marleigh)
Monkey Puzzle Cambridge Nurseries is a family-owned group of three well-loved
day nurseries in Cambridge: Regent Terrace, Grange Road and Marleigh. Our
Nursery Managers are long-serving, came up through the group and run their
settings with genuine ownership and pride. Children are at the heart of
everything we do, and our people are how we keep it that way.
Key facts
- Reports to: Owner and Director; three Nursery Managers (and their deputies and teams) report to you
- Works closely with: our Enquiries Lead, also PA to the Director and Operations Manager
- Settings: Regent Terrace, Grange Road and Marleigh, Cambridge, with more planned
- Where you work: in person, in all settings every week – NOT remote or desk-based
- Contract: permanent, full time, 40 hours per week
- Salary: £45,000 to £50,000 plus quarterly bonus of up to £2,000 (£8,000 a year) linked to audit quality, occupancy, outcomes for children, retention and Ofsted readiness
Purpose of the role
The Operations Manager is the Director’s right hand and the group’s quality and people lead (HR): ensuring every child receives consistently excellent care and learning, each nursery inspection-ready any day, well led, well staffed and commercially healthy.
Around all of that sits a bigger job: building our quality framework, people culture and HR foundations, and the readiness to expand beyond three settings.
You are the trailblazer who sets the standard, builds what is missing and makes it last – a coach to our managers, never running their nurseries for them.
Your responsibilities
People and HR — leading our people
This is the heart of the role.
- First port of call on performance, absence, grievance, disciplinary, recruitment, induction, supervision, wellbeing, conflict resolution; external HR advice as needed.
- Build the HR foundations: policy suite, safer recruitment, supervision and appraisal culture, training and CPD calendar. Oversee recruitment, induction and probation; plan staffing – ratios, deployment, cover, qualifications, retention.
- Champion wellbeing; keep mandatory training current; deliver training and workshops yourself; lead INSET days; help managers retain their best people and grow future leaders.
- Provide senior cover whenever a manager is away and the deputy cannot; if a nursery risks being without a leader, the Operations Manager steps in short-term.
Quality of care, learning and curriculum
- Spend most of each week in the settings, observing practice and modelling what good looks like. Run a planned cycle of quality visits, audits and observations, with written reports and agreed actions; use audit trends to set termly priorities.
- Champion a child-centred EYFS curriculum; review how children’s progress is assessed and tracked (including the key person approach); lead inclusion and SEND practice; raise learning environments; carry good practice between settings.
Safeguarding, compliance and inspection
- Provide senior oversight of safeguarding, supporting each setting’s designated safeguarding lead with concerns, allegations, complaints and incidents.
- Keep every setting compliant with the EYFS framework, Ofsted requirements, health and safety law and our policies; inspection-ready any day against Ofsted’s evaluation areas.
- Support managers during inspections and lead the response to feedback; monitor safer recruitment, staff records, ratios and deployment; ensure incidents, accidents and complaints are investigated, reported on time, learned from.
Coaching and developing leaders
- Line-manage the three Nursery Managers with regular supervision and clear objectives; coach and mentor managers and deputies; run quarterly leadership development; challenge where standards slip; keep succession plans for key
Operations and commercial performance:
- Oversee day-to-day operations so each setting runs smoothly, safely and to one standard; review key measures with the Director (occupancy, staffing, compliance, parent satisfaction) and agree improvement plans.
- Drive occupancy: second check on availability with our Enquiries Lead (also PA to the Director and Operations Manager); plan room moves; track notices and at-
- Support managers with budgets, help run the bonus scheme, protect parent partnerships, work on premises and improvements, keep records accurate in Notion and Famly.
Raising our own standards:
- Own the group’s QA framework, policies, induction, probation and training materials, keeping them current with law and guidance.
- Define our standards for what a family sees, hears and feels in every setting; build professional networks (local authority, sector bodies, other providers); build systems that outlast any post-holder.
Growth:
This role sits at the centre of the group’s growth: leading and expanding beyond three settings, ensuring new settings open to the same high standard. You will assess quality, staffing and compliance of any setting we consider acquiring or opening; lead integration of new settings, including Ofsted registration; and contribute to group strategy, shaping how this role grows with the group.
How we will measure success:
First 90 days:
time in every room in every setting, a baseline audit of each setting with an agreed improvement plan, safeguarding reviewed across all settings, and a visit and audit schedule running.
First year:
Ofsted finds safeguarding met and every evaluation area at Expected standard or above, Strong as our target; audits improve, actions close on time; occupancy at or above target; mandatory training 100% current; retention and engagement improve; parent satisfaction high; our framework, policies and training calendar in daily use; the group ready for a fourth setting.
Person specification
- A full and relevant Level 3 early years qualification or above, with substantial Nursery Manager experience including an Ofsted inspection with a strong result.
- Experience leading or supporting more than one setting, comfortable expanding a group beyond three settings, with current knowledge of the EYFS, Ofsted’s inspection framework and toolkit, and early years health and safety.
- Designated safeguarding lead training, experience handling safeguarding concerns and allegations, a track record in quality assurance, and proven experience coaching and developing managers.
- Substantial experience supporting managers with people matters (performance, absence, grievance, disciplinary, recruitment, supervision) and working knowledge of safer recruitment and HR practice.
- Commercial understanding of occupancy, staffing costs, budgets and KPIs; confidence with Notion and Famly; able to travel between settings.
- A Level 5 or 6 early years qualification, or a leadership and management qualification.
- Experience building a quality framework, policy suite or training programme from scratch.
- Experience in a growing group or multi-setting organisation, including opening, acquiring or integrating settings.
- SENCO experience or qualification; experience delivering training; experience leading people and culture in a growing organisation.
The person we are looking for:
- Child first. Every decision starts with what is right for the children.
- A visible leader. Happiest in the settings; you know what is happening on the ground and lead by example.
- A coach, not a controller. You enable and hold to account; you never take over.
- Warm and direct; you earn long-serving managers’ trust and still hold them to account.
- A builder, self-starter and collaborator who creates the systems a growing group needs, gets on with it, and brings people with you; managers bring you people problems early because you help, not judge.
- Organised, thorough, commercially aware: you prioritise well, follow actions through, and know quality and a healthy business depend on each other.
- Ambitious for the group; you want to shape a growing organisation and grow with it.
What we offer
- Bonus: quarterly bonus of up to £2,000 (£8,000 a year) linked to audit quality, occupancy, outcomes for children, retention and Ofsted readiness
- Pension: workplace pension
- Annual leave and childcare discount: to be discussed at offer
- Progression: scope for the role to grow as the group grows
Safeguarding and safer recruitment We are committed to safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare, and expect everyone who works with us to share that commitment.
This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Appointment is subject to an enhanced DBS check with barred list check, satisfactory references, proof of qualifications, right to work in the UK, a health declaration and confirmation you are not disqualified from childcare. We appoint
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