Head of Assessment & Standards (HoA&S)

Company: Tyrogen Limited (16884876)
Function: Assessment standards, qualification governance, and technical quality assurance
Reports to: Governing Body through the Assessment & Standards governance route
Accountable to: Governing Body and the relevant assessment and standards oversight route
Role type: Technical standards / assessment leadership role
Engagement model: Contracted specialist and/or employed specialist
Remuneration basis: Monthly retainer or day-rate specialist basis, as set out centrally in Role Profiles section 4.4
Review cycle: At least annual, and on any material qualification, assessment, or scope change

Role purpose

The Head of Assessment & Standards provides technical ownership of qualification and assessment standards within Tyrogen's regulated awarding model. The role ensures that assessment design, technical quality, standard setting, validity, reliability, comparability, manageability, and bias minimisation are governed through a controlled and defensible standards framework.

Role scope

The role has responsibility across Tyrogen's qualification and assessment standards environment. The role covers:

• qualification and assessment lifecycle control,
• technical quality of assessment materials and methods,
• validity, reliability, comparability, and manageability,
• accessibility and bias minimisation considerations,
• standard setting and quality-assurance arrangements,
• and technical governance visibility through the appropriate oversight route.

Key responsibilities

The Head of Assessment & Standards will:

• own the technical standards framework for Tyrogen's qualifications and assessments,
• oversee the controlled qualification and assessment lifecycle,
• ensure assessment materials and methods are fit for purpose and aligned to intended outcomes,
• maintain standards relating to validity, reliability, comparability, manageability, and fairness,
• oversee or coordinate standard-setting, marking, moderation, and quality-assurance arrangements where relevant,
• ensure assessment changes are subject to appropriate technical review and change control,
• support the design and maintenance of assessment specifications, methods, and governance records,
• identify technical risks, weaknesses, or comparability concerns and escalate them appropriately,
• work with operational, compliance, and governance colleagues to ensure standards controls are reflected in practice,
• support technical assurance, review, and evidence production for governance or regulatory purposes,
• maintain visibility of technical governance through the Assessment & Standards oversight route,
• and promote defensible, fair, and evidence-based assessment standards across Tyrogen's regulated model.

Decision-making and authority

The Head of Assessment & Standards has authority to:

• set or recommend technical standards and quality requirements for assessments,
• require technical review, change control, or corrective action where standards concerns arise,
• recommend approval, revision, pause, or withdrawal of materials or methods where technical sufficiency is in doubt,
• escalate material technical, standards, comparability, or fairness issues through the appropriate governance route,
• require visibility of lifecycle, review, item-bank, and operational dependencies that affect assessment validity, reliability, comparability, manageability, or accessibility,
• and coordinate specialist standards activity within approved governance arrangements.

The role must not self-supply the independent technical review required for materials needing separate challenge and must not allow technical ownership to collapse into unsupported self-approval.

Regulatory and control context

The Head of Assessment & Standards sits within Tyrogen's regulated control framework as the technical owner for qualification and assessment fitness for purpose. In particular, the role supports:

• the competence expectations under Ofqual Criteria D.1,
• the requirement that qualifications and assessments are, as far as possible, valid, reliable, comparable, manageable, and minimising bias,
• controlled lifecycle governance through Qualification and Assessment Lifecycle and qualification-administration controls through Qualification Administration Controls,
• technical linkage to live delivery, standard setting, results handling, and correction through Assessment Operations, Results and Certification,
• and preservation of independent challenge, accessibility review, and technical evidence through the correct governance and review routes rather than through self-approval.

Where technical concerns affect fairness, comparability, accessibility, assessment integrity, live delivery, or confidence in results, the role must escalate through the Assessment & Standards governance path and any connected incident, malpractice, appeals, or regulator-facing route as appropriate.

Working relationships

The Head of Assessment & Standards works closely with:

• the Governing Body and Assessment & Standards governance route,
• the Responsible Officer,
• the Compliance Lead,
• the Operations Lead,
• the Security / Technology Lead where delivery controls affect standards integrity,
• the DPO / Data Protection Lead where assessment records or methods create privacy implications,
• independent technical reviewers,
• assessors, markers, moderators, and subject specialists,
• and any external technical advisers or panel participants relevant to standards assurance.

Person specification

The role-holder is expected to demonstrate:

Essential

• ability to design, review, and quality assure assessments proportionate to Tyrogen's qualification types,
• strong understanding of validity, reliability, comparability, manageability, and fairness,
• understanding of standard setting, marking controls, moderation, and quality assurance,
• ability to identify technical risk and make defensible standards judgements,
• ability to work within formal change control and governance arrangements,
• clear technical communication and record-keeping,
• sound judgement on the limits of self-approval and the need for independent challenge,
• and ability to support a credible and evidence-based technical governance framework.

Desirable

• experience in awarding, assessment design, standards setting, moderation, or technical quality assurance,
• experience across multiple assessment methods or qualification types,
• and experience supporting technical governance in a controlled or regulated environment.

Independence and conflicts requirements

• The role-holder must declare actual, potential, and perceived conflicts of interest.
• Conflicts relating to authoring, review, centre links, commercial interests, or subject relationships affecting standards decisions must be identified and managed.
• The role-holder must not act as the independent technical reviewer for materials they authored, directed, or approved in the primary chain.
• Any remuneration or commercial arrangement that could distort objective standards judgement must be declared and managed.

Measures of success / KPIs

The effectiveness of the Head of Assessment & Standards may be evidenced through:

• assessment materials and methods meeting technical quality expectations,
• standards issues, comparability concerns, or technical weaknesses identified and addressed promptly,
• standard-setting, marking, or moderation arrangements operating in a controlled way where relevant,
• technical review and change control records maintained clearly,
• reduction in avoidable technical defects, ambiguity, or fairness concerns,
• technical governance matters escalated appropriately,
• clear evidence that independent technical challenge is being preserved where required,
• and governance or regulatory scrutiny supported by defensible technical records and rationale.

Outputs and records

The role is expected to contribute to or oversee:

• qualification and assessment design records,
• technical review and quality-assurance records,
• standard-setting and marking-control records,
• change-control records,
• technical risk or escalation records,
• and Assessment & Standards governance papers or summaries.

Appointment, induction, and review

Appointment to the role should be supported by:

• clear role definition and technical authority boundaries,
• evidence of subject and assessment competence proportionate to scope,
• conflicts declarations,
• induction to Tyrogen's standards governance and control framework,
• and periodic review of capability, capacity, and independence-preserving arrangements.

Linked documents

• Role Profiles
• Qualification and Assessment Lifecycle
• Qualification Administration Controls
• Assessment Operations, Results and Certification
• Item Bank Governance
• Assessment & Standards Committee ToR
• Delegation of Authority
• Resourcing Plan for Regulated Awarding
• Reasonable Adjustments Policy
• Special Consideration Policy