Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Education)

Salary: £125,000
Job type: Full time, permanent
Apply by: Monday 15^th June 9.00am
Interviews: Tuesday 7^th and Wednesday 8^th July
Start date: 1 January 2027

Community Academies Trust

Warwickshire, Staffordshire & Shropshire

Community Academies Trust (CAT) is seeking an exceptional Deputy Chief Executive Officer to join the Trust Executive Team at a pivotal moment in the trust’s development. This is a new opportunity for a collaborative, strategic and community minded leader to oversee school improvement and educational performance across our Trust schools.

Working closely with our newly appointed Chief Executive, you will provide strategic leadership for education across our Trust - helping to drive school improvement, strengthen leadership and ensure consistently high outcomes for all pupils.

For an ambitious leader with their sights set on a CEO role, this is a rare opportunity to influence trust wide strategy, shape the next generation of leaders, and play a central role in delivering our ambition for excellent 2-18 community education.

Community Academies Trust is a values-driven organisation with a clear mission: to ensure excellent community education. We serve 17 schools and over 7,600 pupils across the Midlands, many in areas of significant disadvantage. Our schools are deeply rooted in their communities, and we are proud of our commitment to preserving local identity and ethos while driving educational excellence.

Across CAT, you’ll find schools that are:

•  Relentless about excellent academic, personal and social outcomes for every child.
• Driven by the moral purpose of community-based improvement and shared system leadership. 
• Supportive, outward-looking and genuinely committed to one another's success. 
• Built on true partnership - valuing every school equally, whatever its phase, size or context. 
• Proudly Trust-minded: we celebrate success, share learning and own outcomes together.
• Financially disciplined, with strong governance and clear delegated accountability.

At CAT we hold a simple belief: children and young people thrive when they are known well, their needs are met, and adults stay ambitious for them. That’s our everyday mindset—doing the right work, for the right child, every day.

We are seeking a credible and inspirational leader who:

• Has significant senior leadership experience, ideally across multiple secondary schools
• Demonstrates a strong track record of school improvement at scale
• Can lead and influence through collaboration, credibility and clarity of vision
• Is committed to inclusion, wellbeing and high standards for all
• Has the ability to develop others and build sustainable leadership capacity

This appointment is supported by Stuart Reeves from ASCL's Leadership Appointment Service. Interested candidates who wish to have an informal conversation about the post should contact Stuart at Stuart.Reeves@ascl.org.uk

Candidates who would like to arrange a visit or to have a conversation about the role before making a formal application, can arrange this with Allyson Brown, CEO Designate, by emailing Rebecca Shakespeare rshakespeare@catschools.uk

Community Academies Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment; the successful candidate will be required to undergo appropriate vetting checks, including DBS, online checks and references.

The closing date for applications is Monday 15th June 9.00am