Responsible Officer (RO)

Company: Tyrogen Limited (16884876)
Function: Regulator liaison and senior compliance coordination
Reports to: Governing Body
Accountable to: Governing Body
Role type: Senior leadership / governance role
Engagement model: Board-backed senior retained role
Remuneration basis: Monthly retainer / fractional leadership basis, as set out centrally in Role Profiles section 4.4
Review cycle: At least annual, and on any material governance, regulatory, or scope change

Role purpose

The Responsible Officer is the authoritative point of contact with Ofqual and the senior internal owner of regulator-facing compliance coordination. The role ensures that regulatory communication, notifications, evidence production, escalation, and control ownership are coordinated effectively and are visible to the Governing Body.

Role scope

The Responsible Officer has organisation-wide scope across Tyrogen's regulated awarding model. The role covers:

• regulator liaison and formal communication,
• coordination of notifications, responses, and evidence requests,
• oversight of ownership for key regulatory controls,
• escalation of material compliance, operational, standards, and risk matters,
• and support for governance readiness, continuity, and defensible decision-making.

Key responsibilities

The Responsible Officer will:

• act as Tyrogen's authoritative regulator-facing contact,
• coordinate communication with Ofqual and other relevant oversight bodies where applicable,
• ensure regulatory notifications, returns, responses, and evidence submissions are handled in a timely and controlled way,
• oversee the internal coordination of compliance actions, open issues, and regulatory dependencies,
• ensure material issues are escalated through the appropriate governance route,
• maintain visibility over ownership of key regulatory controls and readiness actions,
• coordinate cross-functional input from compliance, operations, standards, security, finance, and privacy leads where required,
• support the production of accurate, retrievable, and defensible governance and compliance evidence,
• ensure that significant incidents, risks, or control failures with regulatory relevance are surfaced promptly,
• support the Governing Body with clear summaries of regulatory position, dependencies, and implications,
• promote consistent interpretation and implementation of regulatory expectations across the organisation,
• and ensure that regulatory credibility is not weakened by unclear accountability, unmanaged conflicts, or unsupported control routes.

Decision-making and authority

The Responsible Officer has authority to:

• coordinate and direct regulator-facing communication within approved governance arrangements,
• require timely internal input to support notifications, submissions, and responses,
• escalate material issues to the Governing Body or relevant oversight route,
• request clarification, evidence, or remedial action from control owners,
• require visibility of coverage, continuity, and open dependencies affecting Tyrogen's ability to maintain an effective regulator-facing route,
• and require visibility of status on readiness-critical actions and dependencies.

The Responsible Officer does not replace Board accountability and must not act as the sole independent adjudicator in appeals, malpractice decisions, or independent technical review.

Regulatory and control context

The Responsible Officer is the named senior route through which Tyrogen satisfies its requirement to maintain an authoritative point of contact with Ofqual and a controlled regulator-liaison function. In particular, the role supports:

• role clarity, seniority, and governance visibility under Ofqual Criteria A.4 and A.6,
• the expectations in Ofqual Handbook Condition B1 that the Responsible Officer is appointed at all times, is authoritative in dealings with Ofqual, and has sufficient authority to perform the role effectively,
• controlled notification, information-response, cooperation, and undertakings handling through Ofqual Regulator Liaison,
• escalation of governance-significant change, incidents, or control weaknesses where formal regulator contact or Board visibility may be required,
• and the production of accurate, retrievable, and defensible evidence through the correct governance and audit-access routes.

The Responsible Officer must not rely on informal personal knowledge or ad hoc communications as a substitute for the controlled liaison route. Where continuity, authority, or internal responsiveness is insufficient, the matter must be escalated through governance rather than allowed to weaken the integrity of Tyrogen's regulator-facing control environment.

Working relationships

The Responsible Officer works closely with:

• the Governing Body,
• the Compliance Lead,
• the Operations Lead,
• the Security / Technology Lead,
• the Finance Lead,
• the DPO / Data Protection Lead,
• the Head of Assessment & Standards,
• independent reviewers and panel routes where relevant,
• and any external advisers supporting regulatory readiness or response activity.

Person specification

The role-holder is expected to demonstrate:

Essential

• strong understanding of Ofqual-facing regulatory expectations relevant to Tyrogen's activities,
• ability to coordinate evidence, escalation, and cross-functional compliance activity,
• ability to identify material issues and route them through the correct governance path,
• strong judgement, discretion, and organisational awareness,
• confidence engaging with regulatory, governance, and assurance matters,
• clear written and verbal communication,
• ability to maintain accurate records and traceable decision support,
• and ability to operate calmly and credibly under scrutiny or time-sensitive regulatory deadlines.

Desirable

• experience of regulator liaison, awarding, compliance, governance, or audit environments,
• experience coordinating complex cross-functional responses,
• and experience operating in a controlled-document or formal evidence environment.

Independence and conflicts requirements

• The role-holder must declare actual, potential, and perceived conflicts of interest.
• Where a conflict or independence limitation affects the integrity of a route, the issue must be escalated.
• The Responsible Officer must not act as the sole independent adjudicator in appeals, malpractice, or independent technical review.
• The role-holder must ensure that independence-critical routes are not represented as sufficient where the necessary separation is absent.
• Any remuneration or commercial arrangement that could distort regulatory judgement or escalation must be declared and managed.

Measures of success / KPIs

The effectiveness of the Responsible Officer may be evidenced through:

• regulator-facing communications issued accurately and on time,
• notifications and responses coordinated within required or agreed timescales,
• readiness and compliance actions assigned and tracked clearly,
• material issues being escalated promptly and through the correct route,
• evidence requests being met with accurate and retrievable information,
• visible ownership of key control areas across the organisation,
• reduction in unresolved ambiguity around control ownership or regulatory dependencies,
• and clear reporting to the Governing Body on regulatory position, risk, and required action.

Outputs and records

The role is expected to contribute to or oversee:

• regulatory correspondence,
• notification records,
• evidence packs and response coordination records,
• governance escalations,
• readiness and action-tracking records,
• Board reporting on regulatory matters,
• and linked compliance or assurance records where relevant.

Appointment, induction, and review

Appointment to the role should be supported by:

• formal Board-backed role designation,
• role clarity and authority boundaries,
• access to current governance, compliance, and regulator-liaison documents,
• conflicts declarations,
• induction to Tyrogen's control framework and evidence architecture,
• coverage and continuity arrangements sufficient to avoid unsupported regulator-contact dependency,
• and periodic review of capability, capacity, and continuity arrangements for the role.

Linked documents

• Role Profiles
• Ofqual Criteria
• Ofqual Handbook
• Ofqual Regulator Liaison
• Ofqual Audit Access and Evidence Production
• Governance Change and Incident Management
• Delegation of Authority
• Board Terms of Reference
• Organisation Structure
• Resourcing Plan for Regulated Awarding