Food and Beverage Assistant Manager - Campus Services - 51702 - Grade 4

Job Description

Position Details

Campus Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £27,166 to £28,768, with potential progression once in post to £32,145

Grade: 4

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 7th September 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 Business and Operations department offers a variety of outlets to staff, students and visitors across campus and also in student accommodation from small coffee shops to large restaurants. We also provide hospitality services for conferences and events held on campus.

Role Summary

You will be responsible for leading a team in providing excellent customer service in any one of those areas/outlets and for providing proactive managerial assistance in contributing to financial planning and target setting. Our Assistant Managers provide proactive support to our Managers and to the Food and Beverage team's success. As an Assistant Manager, you will be responsible for driving sales, promoting, and growing the unit, as well as developing and motivating your team. In order to flexibly use resource, you may be required to work elsewhere in the department or wider University.

Main Duties

• Ensure that areas within your area of responsibility are set up and operated adhering to Standard Operating Procedures or Brand Guidelines.
• Prepare for operational and standards audits, ensuring everything is in order to ensure a successful audit.
• Provide proactive assistance in supporting your manager to deliver financial targets. This will include:
• Contributing to the creation and delivery of sales plans to achieve the sales targets;
• Ensuring all costs are controlled: staffing costs, gross profit percentages, consumables, maintenance and repairs, and any other controllable costs;
• Carrying out, and acting on results of monthly stocktakes, suggest improvements to ensure gross profit percentage is met;
• Delivering all event activity on time and within budget constraints;
• Monitoring all cash handling and till / system functions to ensure accuracy and consistency, dealing with any anomalies.
• Ensure that shifts within your responsibility are managed in a safe and efficient manner.
• To ensure that the agreed standard of food and beverage service are delivered at all times, and that all food and beverage preparation by yourself and those you are managing, meets all legal requirements and is of the highest standard of quality.
• Comply with licensing law when serving alcohol and ensure that your team are compliant too.
• Audit the units on a regular basis to address any potential or developing problems as they arise and become more serious.
• Ensure that all facilities are maintained and operational. You will be expected to deal with most issues yourself, but you will be able to escalate where appropriate to your manager.
• To adhere to and ensure that the team follow all work rules and codes of practice including:
• Health & Safety codes of practice;
• Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH);
• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) hygiene and allergen recording systems;
• Ensure that all Admin and paperwork is completed in a professional & timely manner.
• You will ensure that goals and objectives are set for your staff and that you develop organisational capability by coaching the team.
• You will display a “customer comes first” attitude by ensuring excellent service, training and supporting staff to ensure they deliver the same approach. For Back of House areas this can include working relationships with front of house team members as well as customers.
• Proactively evaluate customer needs; reviews working environment and key business indicators to identify problems, concerns and opportunities for achieving operational goals.
• Provide continued training of staff, both regular and casual members, as new guidance is released as well as ensuring the level of service is maintained via effective training and regular refreshers for all staff. This will include on the job training and delivering training sessions as required by your manager.
• Carry our regular job chats and PDR’s with the team, ensuring compliance with the Universities policies and procedures.
• To deputise for the Manager as required, ensuring that your area of responsibility runs effectively and compliantly in your absence.
• Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
  
  

Operational Requirements

• Contracts are annualised and based on 36 hours per week (or pro rata) inclusive of weekdays, weekends, bank holidays and closed days on a rota basis, including evening work activities. Operational windows will vary by business unit/activity. Hours will be defined in your contract of employment.
• BOPS is an all year round service, you will be required to participate as required in the Duty Manager rota, providing management cover 7 days per week / 365 days of the year, and provide emergency response as necessary across all operations.
• To undertake works activities across all UoB campuses as requested that are commensurate with the grade and role activities to support the Division and wider UoB activities.
  
  

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Literacy and numeracy skills which may be evidenced by Mathematics and GCSE grade C or equivalent (or other equivalent level 2 qualifications).
• Experience of working at a supervisory or management level within a commercial food service and preparation environment.
• A current Food Safety level 3 certificate.
• Full, clean driving license as your role may involve driving University vehicles.
• Current Personal License holder for the sale of alcohol or be willing to obtain said license with training and support.
• Ability to contribute to the planning, organising and development of sales and service plans to grow and advance current business levels in all areas.
• Knowledge of the Health and Safety at Work Act, HACCP, COSHH, waste disposal and other regulatory guidance is essential as is knowledge of Fire procedures.
• Proficiency with Microsoft suite of programs.
• Clear and concise communication skills are essential as you will be in regular communication with managers, staff and customers, good interpersonal skills are also essential with the ability to demonstrate a friendly and courteous manner toward both internal and external customers.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to work within a team environment and to deadlines.
• Highly motivated, team player able to engage across multiple student and staff groups with the ability to work under pressure and to timelines.
• An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• The ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.
  
  

Dimensions

You will provide proactive contributions in developing and delivering sales and service plans. You will also lead a team in providing excellent customer service in one of the catering team’s areas/outlets.

Planning and Organising

You will be expected to contribute proactively to the planning of the service and also to sales plans and targets. You will be able to organise your unit to meet targets as appropriate.

Problem Solving and decision making

You will take action to ensure audits are successful and will identify any actions to be taken through your own regular audit of your unit’s performance. You will be able to deal with the majority of day to day issues that occur without referral to your manager. You will also be expected to deal with more difficult, escalated complaints from customers.

Internal and External relationships

Professional working relationships across the catering team and with your manager in particular. Leading your team members. Customers and suppliers.

Informal enquiries to Mat Larmouth , 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 .