Head of High School English

Who We Are Contour was founded in 2020 by students who saw that the quality of your education was basically a lottery. Teachers stretched thin by the system, learning materials that varied from school to school, and support that stopped the moment you left the classroom. We began with 5 students in a room. Today 20,000+ students have trusted Contour as their academic partners, and we've grown to 500+ team members across 10 campuses in Australia. In 2025 we ranked #8 on the AFR Fast 100 of fastest-growing companies. We've produced hundreds of 99+ ATARs, tutored the world-record UCAT scorer, and placed 850+ students into medical and dental schools across Australia. Contour is made up of three brands: Contour Education → academic performance in high school Contour MedPrep → entry into medical and dental schools Contour TestPrep → entry into selective and scholarship schools Contour is built by students, for students. What You'll Do You set the direction for High School English, build how it runs, and lead the people who deliver it. Vision: Set a clear vision for High School English: what it should feel like to be a student in it, what standard it holds, and where it's going over the next few years. Get your leads bought into it early. Program: Set the direction for each year level, including the balance between skills taught across every text and support for the specific texts and assessments a student's school sets. Quality: Be the final quality gate for the subject. Sign off material before it reaches students, set how each lesson is taught, and make sure every student gets the same quality whichever English Tutor they have and whichever campus or state they're in. Feedback on writing: Set one standard for feedback on student writing, and make sure every English Tutor marks to it and returns work on time. Readiness for senior school: Build the skills senior English needs into every year level, including analytical, persuasive and creative writing, close reading and analysing argument, so Year 11 isn't the first time students meet them. Building the systems: Build how every role in the subject runs week to week, including what good output looks like, the training each lead needs and the documentation that lets the next person pick it up. The Curriculum Lead and Team Leader roles are new, so this is the largest piece of work in the first year. Leading leaders: Lead and coach the Curriculum Lead and Team Leaders directly, own English Tutor quality and capacity, and approve hiring, pay and promotion decisions they raise. Growth: Own enrolments, retention and results across the subject, including how many Year 10 students continue into senior English with Contour. Lead growth into new campuses and, as Contour expands, new states. One academics team: Work with our Head of VCE English and the other high school subject leads so students get one Contour across their subjects, and own an academics-wide piece of work on behalf of all the faculties. Teaching: Teach at least one class yourself, so you stay close to students, tutors and the material. What You'll Bring A clear, original view of how Year 7 to 10 English should be taught, built from first principles rather than copied from other providers, and the reasoning and evidence to back it up. You get things done. We want someone who does the work themselves, not someone who can only say what should happen in theory. A proven track record as an academic leader in junior secondary English, with strong results for students and high standards for resources and teaching. Strong knowledge of Year 7 to 10 English, and a clear understanding of what senior English (VCE, QCE or HSC) asks of students. A strong teacher of writing, with clear views on what good feedback looks like and how to get a team marking to the same standard. Experience designing or redesigning a program, course or way of teaching, not only running one that already existed, and documenting it so others can run it. Experience leading people, including leading other leaders. You'd rather develop your leads than do their jobs for them, and you can make a call when two of them disagree. Proficiency with AI tools in your own work, and the judgement to tell genuinely useful AI output from generic, low-quality output, and to set that standard for others. Comfort with numbers: you notice capacity and cost problems early and make sensible trade-offs. Energy for working with a young team. Our English Tutors are recent high school graduates, so you'll need to enjoy working with and leading young people, and fit well with that culture. Confidence representing the subject across the business, externally and with parents. Comfort with a fast pace and real ambiguity. The subject is new, a lot is changing at the same time and many things haven't been decided yet, so you'll need to work things out yourself and keep everything moving without waiting for instructions. Why You'll Love It Ownership: High School English is yours to shape, run and grow. You decide what the program becomes. Impact: For many students, High School English is the first Contour subject they take, years before Year 11. What you build shapes how they learn English through high school and how ready they are for senior school. Growth: The role grows with the subject, across more campuses, more states and a larger team. Culture: Join a founder-led group that's grown to 500+ team members and 20,000+ students since 2020. Benefits: $140,000 to $170,000 AUD + super, plus bonuses. You also get hybrid flexibility, extra leave, EAP access, and lifestyle perks. Application Process Application: Submit your CV and a short questionnaire. Assessment: Shortlisted candidates complete a video interview and a written assessment. Final interview: An in-person interview. Ready to join us in reshaping education? Apply today. Decide how High School English is taught. You'll be the person who decides how Contour teaches High School English: what students learn at each year level, how each lesson runs, how writing is taught and given feedback, and how a student who starts with us in Year 7 arrives at Year 11 ready for senior English. You'll set the standard, build the program and the team around it, and own the results. This role is for someone who wants to reshape how high school English is taught, not keep an existing program running. Too often, students reach Year 11 without the writing and analysis skills senior English expects, and the feedback they get on their writing along the way is too general to help them improve. We think it can be taught significantly better, and we want the person who will show how and then build it. High School English is Year 7 to 10 English, run as one subject. It launches in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales for 2027 and is built once for all three states, with more states to follow. We've made a start on the curriculum, the materials and the team, and we now need a leader to take the subject through the rest of the build and own it from here: its quality, its results, the people who deliver it and how it grows. This is a senior role on our Academics leadership team. The remuneration reflects how big this role is. The salary is $140,000 to $170,000 plus super, and on top of that you can earn bonuses.