About this role
Green Giraffe Nursery Cardiff Bay
Location: Cardiff Bay, Cardiff
Salary: £39,998.40 per annum + performance-related bonus scheme
Hours: 40 hours per week
Contract: Permanent, Full-time
Schedule: Monday to Friday
Closing date: Sunday 29 November 2026
Ready to lead your next nursery?
Are you an experienced Nursery Manager, Deputy Nursery Manager or Early Years leader looking for your next opportunity in Cardiff?
We're looking for an inspiring and experienced Nursery Manager to lead Green Giraffe Nursery Cardiff Bay.
You'll be responsible for creating a nursery where children thrive, families feel confident and colleagues feel supported to do their best work, while maintaining excellent standards across safeguarding, quality, people and day-to-day nursery operations.
Why join Green Giraffe?
We want you to have more than a job. We want you to build a leadership career you enjoy.
You'll benefit from:
- £39,998.40 annual salary
- Performance-related bonus scheme
- 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday
- 33 days' holiday for full-time colleagues, including bank holidays
- An additional paid day off for your birthday
- Excellent staff childcare support from day one, subject to availability and scheme conditions
- Training and leadership development, including mentoring and learning resources
- Career progression within our growing nursery group
- Wellbeing support, with services that may include 24/7 emotional support, virtual GP/nurse access, online physiotherapy and medical, financial and legal helplines
- Stream financial wellbeing tools
- Gym and lifestyle discounts
- Cycle to Work scheme for eligible colleagues
- Recognition and rewards, including Adventurous Applause, colleague awards, referral rewards and long-service recognition
- Team events and celebrations
We're proud to be a Great Place to Work® certified organisation and recognised by The Sunday Times Best Places to Work, reflecting the supportive, inclusive culture we're building for our people.
What you'll be doing
As Nursery Manager, you'll
- Lead the day-to-day operation of the nursery
- Inspire, motivate and develop your Early Years team
- Create a positive culture where colleagues feel supported, valued and accountable
- Maintain consistently high standards of care, learning and development
- Ensure children's individual needs remain at the heart of nursery practice
- Lead on safeguarding and child protection, creating a strong safeguarding culture
- Ensure appropriate staffing, deployment and ratios are maintained
- Coach and develop your leadership team and wider nursery colleagues
- Lead effective supervisions, performance conversations and colleague development
- Build strong, trusted relationships with parents, carers and families
- Maintain high standards of health, safety and welfare
- Ensure policies, procedures and regulatory requirements are consistently followed
- Support the commercial and operational success of the nursery
- Lead by example and bring our values to life every day
What we're looking for
You'll need
- A full and relevant Level 3 Early Years / Childcare qualification or equivalent
- Strong Early Years leadership or management experience
- Experience leading and developing a nursery or Early Years team
- Excellent knowledge of safeguarding and child protection
- Strong understanding of child development and high-quality Early Years practice
- Confidence managing staffing, deployment and day-to-day nursery operations
- Strong communication, organisation and people-management skills
- Confidence building positive relationships with families and colleagues
- A positive, caring and accountable leadership style
- A strong commitment to safeguarding and promoting children's wellbeing
- An Enhanced DBS or willingness to undertake the required checks
Previous experience as a Nursery Manager, Deputy Nursery Manager, Assistant Nursery Manager or senior Early Years leader would be an advantage.
Grow your Early Years leadership career
Already working as a Deputy Nursery Manager and ready to take the step into your first Nursery Manager position?
Or are you an experienced Nursery Manager looking for a new challenge within a growing nursery group?
This is an opportunity to lead your own nursery, build a fantastic team and be rewarded for the difference you make through our performance-related bonus scheme.
Our culture is built around our ARCH values: Accountability, Reliability, Caring and Honesty, with learning, recognition