Job Description
Position Details
Executive Support
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £46,735 to £55,755 with potential progression once in post to £62,728
Grade: 8
Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 3rd August 2025
Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background
The College Planning Partner (CPP) team plays a crucial part in connecting perspectives across the University, working in partnership with one or more of the University’s five colleges to develop academic strategy and support institutional planning.
You will work with one of the five Colleges of the university and will be actively involved in supporting the development and delivery of College plans to deliver our 2030 ambitions. You will combine strategic thinking with an analytical mind-set to provide expert guidance and drive forward College planning and strategy.
You will also lead thematic work around one of the university’s key strategic themes, working across the Strategic Planning & Performance Insight team: developing insight, convening the right people from across the university to advance plans, creating new analysis, and helping to develop and implement strategy.
Role Summary
In this role you will work at the heart of the University to support the delivery of our Birmingham 2030 aims and ambitions.
The University of Birmingham has an ambition to be ranked as a top 50 global university. As thematic lead for Global Reputation, you will work across the Strategic Planning & Performance Insight team and with Colleges on the delivery of this key pillar of Birmingham 2030. This will involve working with the lead for the Civic and Global pillar of the Strategic Framework, with the Performance and Insight team, and with your fellow CPPs to provide expert advice and overview, ensure integration of global reputation plans into the annual academic planning process, and align delivery plans across the university. You will support this by working with the Performance & Insight team to commission data and analysis, in order to advise and support on evidence-led global reputation planning. The role covers global league tables and their metrics, including collaboration with other themes to understand and optimise metrics like citations. You will be accountable for maintaining coordination and alignment across the theme, negotiating between colleges and the central university and acting as a critical friend to both.
In the College, you will sit on College Board at the centre of decision making, and you will work closely a variety of senior colleagues to manage, support and coordinate annual institutional planning and resourcing activities. You will lead in developing, supporting and defining College level strategy and priorities, and you will manage the relationship between the College and the Planning Office.
The role is generalist in nature. Intelligence, intellectual confidence, organizational understanding, strong analytical skills, and excellent communication skills are important contributors to success in this role. You will be comfortable and confident with quantitative and qualitative data, including financial data, performance indicators, budgets, and business plans. You will have meticulous attention to detail, be highly organized and yet flexible, with exceptional time management skills and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously. You will have strong people skills and be able to liaise confidently and build productive relationships with senior members of the University Executive Board, Colleges, Schools, and Professional Services. You will be able to understand, manage and integrate multiple and competing points of view constructively.
Based with the Strategic Planning and Performance Insight, part of the Executive Support Division, you will work with senior leaders across the University. As part of the Strategic Planning and Performance Insight team you will work collaboratively to connect a range of perspectives and support and influence senior leaders in making well-informed and evidence-led decisions. You will be partner with colleagues across the University, and externally, to provide trusted advice and expertise, insightful analysis, and robust data.
Main Duties
- To provide support for the University’s annual academic, financial, and strategic planning, working within a College to lead their annual submission to the academic planning process and provide strategically focused information to support decision-making.
- To undertake environment scanning and scenario planning on behalf of, and in collaboration with, the institutional senior management, to inform the development of long-term strategies.
- To provide informed and constructive critique and challenge to the College in the process of developing and implementing their plans, acting as a conduit between the College and the centre.
- To provide advice and briefings to PVCs, task groups, and committees on planning-related matters, particularly where they cross College boundaries, such as new initiatives, programmes or collaborations; scholarship initiatives; implementation of fee policy.
- To coordinate global reputation activities across Strategic Planning and Performance Insight and convene other areas of the university as appropriate, for example working with External Relations on reputation plans.
- To convert ideas and analysis into action and implementation, playing a lead role in helping Colleges to develop concrete action plans for global reputation.
- To provide expert advice on global reputation performance to enable the delivery of the university’s strategic framework.
- To assess and advise on the level of acceptable risk in the development of Colleges’ academic plans.
- To work with a range of business partners in College, taking on a convening role within that network of professionals.
- Actively manage equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
- Taking accountability within the Executive Support Division for global reputation.
- Any other duties commensurate with the grade.
Person Specification
- A degree-level qualification, or significant professional experience in a strategic role.
- An understanding of higher education or experience of having worked in a similar environment (for example, public sector, civil service or charitable sector).
- Excellent written communication skills, with the ability to present complex analysis in a digestible fashion and harness seemingly disparate ideas in coherent papers and presentations.
- Experienced user of data, with evidence of analytical and numerical competency from previous roles or qualifications.
- Outstanding research skills and experience of producing and analysing complex source material, information and data and turning these into purposeful reports or strategic and operational plans that influence policy and assist decision making.
- Excellent IT, organisational and administrative skills.
- An ability to work simultaneously and effectively to progress several different tasks.
- A high level of intellectual curiosity combined with a ‘generalist’ approach to work.
- Experience of developing effective networks and strong relationships at all levels in a complex organisation in order to support strategic delivery.
- A level of comfort with ambiguity and a strategic toolkit that enables you to progress from ambiguous signals to defined, measurable plans and actions.
- Experience of working with a variety of stakeholders and views, including the ability to disagree well.
- A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility and a self-motivating approach. The ability to complete tasks based on only broad direction and with minimum supervision.
- Enthusiasm and willingness to meet challenging demands, working to different people and deadlines.
- A flexible approach and attitude and a willingness to respond to changing requirements of the team.
- A firm but diplomatic attitude with the ability to prioritise, negotiate and use one’s own judgement.
- A commitment to promote and adhere to the agreed values of the University and the Executive Support Division.
- Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
Informal enquiries to Duncan Smith, email:
[email protected]View our staff values and behaviours here
We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website . 
