POSITION DETAILS

School of Physics and Astronomy
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388
As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 5, salary £29,647
Part Time (18 hours per week)
Fixed Term contract up to June 2026
Closing date: 13th May 2025

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE

• Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Minimum of grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent.
• Assisting the Head of Group in monitoring expenditure and liaising with Research Finance to ensure that funds on grants are utilised. This will also involve assisting with cases for staff extensions, and organising financial transactions with CERN.
• Highly proficient IT skills, in particular the ability to handle complex electronic diaries and emails, the wider MS Office suite of programmes including Excel and PowerPoint, and some experience of using an enterprise resource planning package. The post holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
• Proven ability to plan ahead and anticipate requirements, proactively planning own (and sometimes others’ workloads) to manage time effectively, progress tasks concurrently and work to deadlines.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal skills. The post holder must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues and provide excellent customer service at all times.
• A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

ROLE SUMMARY

As a Senior Administrator within the Group and wider School, you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You will be responsible for supporting colleagues and sharing knowledge. You will be able to use your wide range of skills, both technical and administrative, and have the opportunity to lead on specific tasks. You will also have the opportunity to work in different areas of the School and also to help support the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, which the School is part of.

MAIN DUTIES

• You will be able to deal with complex systems and procedures and will be expected to offer advice on these, including deciding on the response to more complex queries.
• You will be expected to exercise your judgment on the answer to queries or on the direction of work within parameters set by your manager. On a day-to-day basis you will be expected to resolve more complex queries without necessarily referring to your manager.
• If you have a supervisory role, you will line manage your staff taking responsibility for co-ordinating and prioritising the work of others. If not in a supervisory role you will still be expected to act as a role model and coach members of the team.
• Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders on your own initiative, fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate.
• You may be involved in organising events including booking a venue, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers, manage bookings, co-ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back.
• Will manage some smaller projects on own initiative, but will also carry out desk research and source data from internal and external sources in order to contribute to wider projects.
• You will be expected to use a variety of complex University systems and processes to research, analyst and interpret complex data, producing bespoke reports as required. This may include identifying and resolving issues with the data.
• Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems.
• Process more complex data (which may be financial, HR, student-related or other), monitoring accuracy, chasing up missing information, and resolving any issues as appropriate.
• Provide specialist advice and training to colleagues on area of activity.
• As required, provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings.
• You may be required to be responsible for one or more of the following:
• monitoring budgets including processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget,
• procuring goods and services through the University system,
• updating and writing contents for the department’s communications e.g. intranet pages,
• dealing with health and safety and facilities issues,
• HR-related tasks such as managing staff absence, induction, or dealing with leavers,
• dealing with arrangements for international visitors,
• monitoring internal procedures/compliance and ensuring these are followed and disseminated as appropriate.
• Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.