Operations Officer - School of Social Policy and Society - 98227 - Grade 6

Birmingham, England, United Kingdom

7/29/2025

Job Description

Position Details

School of Social Policy and Society

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £32,546 to £35,116 with potential progression once in post to £39,355

Grade: 6

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to August 2027

Closing date: 19th August 2025

UK travel may be required for this role

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

Role Summary

The Operations Officer plays a key role in supporting the Head of School, Head of Operations and Deputy Head of Operations in the management of complex tasks and processes, planning and associated implementation. The post holder will work closely with the School’s Professional Services Managers to ensure that management support to the Head of School and other senior academic and professional services staff within the School is professional, well-executed and timely; compliant with University policies; and based on best practice.

This role requires the post holder to provide specialist advice and support to the Head and Deputy Head of Operations in the continuous monitoring, review and enhancement of the School’s administrative systems, communications and projects. The post holder will contribute to planning within the areas of responsibility for the role, make recommendations as appropriate, including continuous monitoring, reviewing systems and processes to ensuring they remain fit-for-purpose, effective and efficient. This will include providing clear and effective leadership to direct and develop a team of professional services support staff and proactively developing and promoting good practice and new ways of working.

This senior role will foster a collaborative and collegiate approach between academic and professional services staff.

In addition they will be expected to become familiar with the work of the Executive Officer to ensure fully integrated administrative support in the School. The post holder reports to the Deputy Head of Operations.

Main Duties

Event and Financial Management

• In conjunction with the College Accountant and Deputy Head of Operations, carry out budgetary and financial management for the School and individual departmental accounts, including year on year operational plans, long term financial planning and forecasting, and monthly reports for Senior Management Team.
• You will be responsible for leading on events and contributing to the wider management of events in the school.
• Proactively contribute to event planning meetings – providing creative ideas and event management expertise ensuring options will maximise service quality and efficiency.
• Project manage a variety of larger events, including planning and managing time and resource as appropriate.
• Support communications strategies, to inform the events portfolio and other activities in the School.
  
  

Operational Management

• To work closely and flexibly as part of a team of School Professional Services Managers to deliver the business needs of the School and the evolving operating environment.
• To proactively support the Head of Operations and Deputy Head of Operations with respect to core School projects and other activities.
• Support the School Knowledge and Exchange Committee by providing all administrative activities such as taking minutes and following up on actions, chasing up on actions to ensure they are delivered, and flagging up to the committee chair where there are issues.
• Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders, fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate.
  
  

Management and Leadership

• To line manage the school administrators and being responsible for their PDRs, professional development and training.
• To proactively manage the School Administrative team (those administrative staff with responsibility for non-teaching activity in the School) to ensure that the School’s processes and procedures for the smooth-running of the School are carried out effectively and accurately.
• To work with the Executive Officer in the on-going development of the School’s administrative team, its values, standards, service levels, and professional ethos within the overall objectives of the School and the Birmingham Professional agenda.
• Annually undertake an audit of training and development activities to identify potential areas of further training and development.
• Motivate the team, being responsible for staff engagement, ensuring staff attend regular meetings and participate in full team briefings as appropriate.
• Contribute significantly to the planning, development and enhancement of the School administrative team, highlighting best practice and suggesting and delivering appropriate changes to systems and processes where necessary.
  
  

Other Duties

• To proactively assist the Head of Operations and Deputy Head of Operations in the on-going development of the School’s administration, its values, standards, service levels and professional ethos within the overall objectives of the School and the Birmingham Professional agenda.
• To work with the Schools SMT and SLT to ensure the delivery of the School’s strategy.
• To undertake such other duties as may be reasonably required by the Head of Operations (or nominee).
• The specific areas of responsibility and/or tasks may change from time to time in accordance with the requirements of the School and the priorities of the time.
  
  

Essential

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to Degree level or equivalent relevant experience in a similar role.
• Demonstrate excellent communication skills, including establishing effective working relationships with a wide range of people, and the ability to work as part of a team.
• Proven ability to work on own initiative with minimal supervision, manage a diverse workload, anticipate problems, work under pressure and to tight deadlines, determining priorities and managing conflicting deadlines.
• Demonstrate ability to handle several demanding tasks concurrently and to prioritise own workload and that of others.
• Experience of managing a diverse team with a variety of remits.
• Experience of managing budgets and financial reporting.
• Proven ability to develop creative approaches to problem solving, to negotiate and influence others.
• Knowledge of project management approaches and ability and enthusiasm to interact with staff at all levels in promotion of the School.
• Proven ability to analyse situations, using this to formulate clear proposals/outcomes.
• Highly motivated with a flexible proactive approach to change and have proven change management skills.
• Experience of developing processes and systems to deliver customer focussed services.
• Ability to analyse data and to use the outcomes to inform action planning.
• Strong IT skills with thorough working knowledge of Microsoft Office packages including knowledge of excel including the ability to create, maintain and manipulate complex spreadsheets and to understand and interpret the information in them.
  
  

Desirable

• Experience of working within administration in a Higher Education institution.
• Team leading/management qualification.
• Experience of managing and leading change.
  
  

Informal enquiries to Guvinder Kaur Rajania, 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 .