Job Description
Position Details
College of Medicine and Health
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,130 to £45,413 with potential progression once in post to £48,149
Grade: 7
Part Time (18.75 hours per week)
Fixed Term contract up to February 2028
Closing date: 10th July 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
Research Delivery team, part of the College of Medicine & Health’s
Research & Knowledge Transfer Office, is a vibrant hub for Professional Service staff (~ 100 individuals) supporting a range of strategically important projects and programmes across the College’s research portfolio.
We work closely with both Professional Services colleagues and academics across the University and partner organisations, including the Birmingham Health Partners alliance, to maximise the impact of funded research, and ensure effective strategies for the future sustainability of large infrastructure awards.
The diverse portfolio of research supported includes many large-scale research programmes and infrastructure awards funded by charities, government and other major health research funders, including but not limited to:
- BactiVac - Bacterial Vaccines Network
- Health Data Research UK (HRD UK) Midlands
- Mental Health MTC – Birmingham University Mental Health
- NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre
- NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery
- NIHR Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration
- NIHR Research Support Service
- NIHR School for Public Health Research - Public Health RESearch for Health Consortium (PHRESH)
- Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement at University of Birmingham
- Resilience Skills - UK Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence
- Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research
- Translational Research at University of Birmingham
This role will be embedded within the Research Delivery team and benefit from established relationships with programme partners and key stakeholders including NHS Trusts, collaborating research institutions both locally, nationally and globally, as well as patient and public contributors, charities and funders.
The team are embedded across and beyond the University’s Edgbaston campus, with major footprints in locations including the Institute for Translational Medicine, co-located with NHS partners. As a large and continuously growing team, we have established 6 pillars to enable improved operational management and targeted peer networks.
- Applied Health
- Experimental Medicine
- Involvement & Engagement
- Multi Sector Networks
- Surgical Innovation
- Translational Portfolio
To further encourage sharing of best practice across pillars, there are various opportunities for individuals to engage with colleagues outside of their project – and often outside of the Research Delivery team – to develop professionally. These include administrative, project and programme forums, and cross-cutting theme lunch and learn sessions, many of which are hosted in partnership with teams across the wider University’s Colleges and research functions.
Role Summary
To manage designated projects across a School, College or professional service area, or make a contribution to larger University-wide projects as part of a project team. In order to flexibly use resource you may be offered the opportunity to work elsewhere in the department or wider University.
Specifically, this role will provide project management support for the LifeArc Centre for Acceleration of Rare Disease Trials - https://rarediseasetrials.org.uk/ . The project director is Professor Timothy Barratt ( https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/cancer-genomic/barrett-timothy ), Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health and Director of the Centre for Rare Disease Studies. This centre aims to boost the capacity and efficiency of rare disease trials across the UK – including facilitating equitable recruitment, streamlining administrative hurdles and offering a ‘one-stop shop’ for trial design and support.
The post holder will work on their own initiative and exercise a high level of judgement, skill and understanding to conceive, develop and implement long-term improvements to service delivery and effective ways of working within their areas of responsibility.
Main Duties
- Responsible for the delivery of one or more projects or for contributing to larger University projects, through the provision of significant and high-level project management support. This may include some or all of the following:
- developing project plans, identifying (as appropriate) key performance indicators and milestones
- reviewing and auditing progress on projects to identify and act on improvements to effectiveness, efficiency and delivery
- reporting on progress including the development of reporting mechanisms, writing reports (eg on project budgetary management), and presenting to appropriate meetings such as Project Board or to other key stakeholders
- providing executive support to Project Boards, work streams and working groups as required; setting agendas, collating and distributing papers and minutes and ensuring follow up action is taken
- assessing and escalating as you deem appropriate issues and risks, including monitoring risk registers
- Stakeholder management, ensuring effective liaison with project partners, funders, Project Boards as appropriate
- managing project resources efficiently and effectively, including budgets, and ensure project documentation is maintained
- Coordinate the organisation of conferences/ meetings/ workshops/ dissemination events if required.
- Develop and deliver communication strategy for the project(s), which may include developing, for example, newsletters, briefings for stakeholders and/or websites or other social media.
- Ensure that priorities are balanced, taking action to deliver agreed deliverables against timelines.
- Maintain an up to date knowledge of project management methodologies.
- Source, analyse and develop insights from the data to inform evaluation and review of projects.
- Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
- Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
- Any other duties commensurate with the grade.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Qualified to Degree level or equivalent plus practical managerial experience or significant relevant experience demonstrated through increasingly more demanding roles evidencing the experience necessary for this role.
- Knowledge of factors impacting the Higher Education Institution sector, plus an understanding of the interplay between industry, academia, government, and administration.
- Proven track record of successful project management, potentially using one or more project management tools such as Prince2.
- Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly, and to produce and analyse information and data.
- Excellent people-management skills desirable.
- Excellent budgetary management skills and experience.
- Highly proficient IT skills, including the MS Office and website editing software. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
- Excellent interpersonal, communication, relationship building and influencing skills with the ability to deal confidently with a range of internal and external stakeholders/contacts.
- Excellent organisational and multi-tasking skills with a methodical approach to work and the ability to prioritise workloads in order to meet deadlines.
- Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.
Role context
Roles at this level will require a broad understanding and practical experience of an administrative or professional field which will be used to plan the running and development of services and/or lead shorter term projects or contribute to larger projects. You will work with information which needs interpretation and analysis; you will use your judgement to identify the best solution to differing problems and issues, offering recommendations for managing more complex situations. You are likely to be responsible for managing a team of staff, being accountable for recruiting and developing them and for managing performance. You may also need to liaise and/or co-ordinate activities across a number of different sections within the department or possibly with wider department or external bodies as appropriate.
Core Competencies/transferable Skills
Working at this level you will be able to develop and successfully demonstrate the core competencies/transferable skills outlined in each of the areas shown below. As appropriate for the level, our Birmingham Professionals will take ownership for getting things done. You will be expected to be flexible as required in supporting your department and wider University.
Planning and organising
- plan the running and development of service(s), overseeing resources and inputting into resource planning as appropriate;
- develop, agree and implement standards for delivery for own area;
- manage a team of staff and review, develop and motivate them;
- plan relevant training and development;
- provide professional advice, guidance and support to others within and outside their immediate work area;
- oversee resources and make recommendations about future resource requirements.
Problem solving and decision making
- review, develop and propose solutions for problems with (for example) staff, budgets, services and/or systems;
- deal effectively with unexpected issues, such as changing priorities;
- deal with sensitive people matters/issues;
- provide specialist advice and recommendations to support decision–making of others.
Organisational understanding
- understand their own and closely-related working areas and how they contribute to the success of the University.
- has an understanding of how the University operates; actively seeks to share this knowledge with others.
- developing empathy with the academic endeavour.
Relationships and communication
- influence decision makers and win support for proposals;
- develop excellent working relationships within and outside of own area and potentially with external stakeholders;
- co-ordinate activities across a number of areas.
Informal enquiries to Laura Wyatt, 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 . 
