Job Description
Position Details
School of Chemical Engineering
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
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to November 2025
Closing date: 10th August 2025
UK and International 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
Background
The School of Chemical Engineering is one of the oldest and largest Schools of Chemical Engineering in the United Kingdom with over 100 members of staff and over £10 million per annum in research income. Many of our research projects involve collaboration with industrial and government organisations and the quality of our research is reflected by our rating in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) . In the most recent assessment, 96% of our research was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent (REF, 2021). The School’s three main research themes are: Formulation Engineering, Healthcare Technologies and Energy.
The Clean Cooling Network is a global initiative “born in Rwanda” with a mission to make sustainable, resilient and equitable cooling and cold-chain a cornerstone of development. CCN promotes cooling infrastructure as critical national infrastructure, providing essential tools, knowledge, training, and support to implement inclusive, equitable, and future-proofed solutions with minimal environmental impact. As part of this, the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) in Kigali, Rwanda, serves as the flagship hub for CCN in Africa. Established in 2020 by the Government of Rwanda, in partnership with the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency, and a consortium of international and Rwandan universities, ACES is the first-of-its-kind centre dedicated to sustainable, resilient and equitable cooling.
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.
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
- Proven track record of successful project management, preferably using one or more project management tools such as Prince2, Microsoft Project, Gantt chart and critical path analysis
- Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly, and to produce and analyse information and data
- Excellent people-management skills
- 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.
Informal enquiries to Sehar Amer, 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 . 
