A little bit about us Ascent Flight Training is an established, fast growing aerospace and training company which operates across the UK, delivering flying training services to the UK Government and UK industry partners. We want to attract and work with innovative, adaptable, and proactive people to help us achieve Our passion for training, helping our customers to realise their potential and deliver their Mission We offer the opportunity to work in a flexible, dynamic, and diverse environment within our Training Support Hub and on our operations sites. You will bring expertise and fresh ideas to an environment where your contribution is really valued. At Ascent, our values are rooted in respect – for our employees, our partners and our customer. That’s why championing diversity and inclusion is so important to us; when we embrace different perspectives and give everyone the chance to be the best they can be, we can think in new, creative ways that grow and enhance our business. We are committed to equal opportunities for all. We pride ourselves on being a Disability Confident Committed Employer. We actively practice inclusivity for all people with disabilities where we provide work place opportunities and experiences. As a supportive employer we endeavour to accommodate all disabilities and will always work with our employees to make provisions for their disability needs. We encourage all people with disabilities to apply for relevant skilled job roles within the business. As an inclusive company we welcome all disability applications which will be processed fairly, in line with our recruitment policy. At Ascent, we also provide work place schemes for all students including those with disabilities, this includes Apprenticeships, Work Experience and Job Shadowing for a day. Ascent will continue to work towards maintaining our commitment to those with disabilities A day in the life of an Ascent Chief Pilot - Elementary Flying Training As the EFT Chief Pilot for Ascent Flight Training, you will be responsible to the RAF Cranwell General Manager for the recruitment, training and management of our team of EFT Instructors across multiple sites to ensure delivery of safe, high quality airborne, synthetic and classroom-based instruction. In addition, you will deliver high quality instruction yourself alongside monitoring standards and safety whilst driving continuous improvement and supporting business development opportunities. You will: · Safety – Promote a strong safety-first culture across all instructor teams, including air safety, health and safety and environmental policies and responsibilities. Encourage an open and honest reporting culture on site, linking to the Safety and Assurance team when required and play your part in delivering training output safely. · People – Manage your pan-site instructional team to deliver the flying training plan to quality, time and cost. This includes instructor recruitment, individual and team development and talent management. Role model instructional performance and Ascent values, and champion diversity and inclusion. · Customer – Be customer facing and develop and maintain productive relationships with all appropriate stakeholders on site and wider. Act on customer feedback to resolve issues early. Ensure close liaison with key stakeholders to enable safe, efficient, and effective delivery of the daily flying programme. · Performance – Be responsible for, but not limited to: Managing all aspects the EFT instructor pilot team in order to deliver the flying training plan within agreed time, cost and quality parameters. Motivating your team to take safe, legal, and appropriate actions to maximise training opportunities where they arise. Providing technical, aviation specific and training delivery subject matter expertise to the General Manager, wider Ascent departments and external stakeholders as required. Identifying initiatives to improve performance across all training courses within your AOR. Supporting action to streamline, increase efficiency and build customer satisfaction. Maintaining your own professional development and modelling high standards of instructional delivery at all times. What will make you successful? You will already be a medical fit, qualified flying instructor delivering high quality instruction and holding a Central Flying School B1 instructional category or higher. You will have proven senior level supervisory skills and be willing to complete any mandatory supervisor courses commensurate with the chief role. You will have experience of managing risk in a safety critical environment, understand critical incident response actions and demonstrate the integrity and strength of character to identify and report poor safety practice. You will be business minded with experience of working within a customer focussed operation and understand the role of Ascent as the training service partner within a civil/military construct. You will be a proven line manager with strong people skills and will thrive under pressure, with the ability to build strong relationships with stakeholders across all levels. You will also certainly have strong communication skills and a ‘one team’ ethos. You will love working in an environment where you are challenged daily and are comfortable driving high performance and output whilst understanding intuitively the importance of safety in all you do. You will understand the importance of delivering and being able to work accurately and efficiently in situations that can be pressured in both time and resource. And you will also: Have experience in managing change in a dynamic environment. Have strong communications skills and experience working alongside customers and diverse stakeholders. Exhibit good analytical, investigation, mathematical and problem-solving skills. Have financial understanding with experience of managing costs and resource to within a defined budget and understand contractor financial performance expectations. Be a competent user of IT, including the Microsoft Office suite of applications and SharePoint, and possess the acumen to use specialist software with training. Embrace our collective values and demonstrate these in all you do. What can we offer you in return? Competitive salary Equivalent to 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays (Extra days with length of service) Private AXA health care for you and your family Pension plan (Up to 6% matched) Life Assurance (Up to 3 times your annual salary) Flexible benefits (Buying and selling of holiday, BUPA dental, cycle2work scheme, retail discounts) Enhanced maternity and paternity leave and pay Enhanced company sick pay which increases with length of service Employee Assistance Programme (24/7 free and confidential legal and wellbeing advice) Annual reviews of your salary and individual learning and development plan Mental Health Support and subscription to the Unmind platform for you and a plus one Free eye tests for DSE users and money towards any subsequent corrective glasses.