Job Description
Position Details
School of Metallurgy and Materials, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £33,002 to £35,608 with potential progression once in post to £39,906
Grade: 6
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to September 2028
Closing date: 4th January 2026
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
You will assist in the management, coordination and reporting of the Formation and Ageing for Sustainable Battery Technologies (FAST) project led by Principal Investigator (PI) Prof. Emma Kendrick.
The University of Birmingham has built a significant battery research effort over the last 8 years and leads two flagship Faraday Institution funded basic research grants – ReLiB and FAST.
You will work with the Project Lead of the ReLiB project, colleagues from the Faraday Institution, university collaborators (Warwick, Oxford, Cambridge & Nottingham), academic teams from Birmingham and other appropriate professional services staff from Birmingham to ensure timely management reports, grant claims and the management of project risks.
Main Duties
As Project Officer you will be expected to work proactively, to high professional standards and use your initiative and planning skills to set your own priorities to ensure progress is maintained as expected by the Faraday Institution and the Principal Investigator (PI). Further you will ensure that all project related activity conforms to the University’s policy and procedures – including financial regulations.
- Coordinate FAST project activities, information, data, reporting, events, enquiries and meetings that will underpin the successful delivery of a high-profile research project in terms of key milestones, outputs and outcomes.
- Working with the Project Lead and Principal Investigator, University central systems and project collaborators to prepare materials for reports on project progress, e.g. financial forecast, funding claims or other regular progress reports to internal and external stakeholders and presenting to Project Boards and other key stakeholders.
- Provide executive coordination 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.
- Working with the Project Leader and Principal Investigator to assess and escalate issues and risks, including monitoring the risk registers.
- Where appropriate support stakeholder management, ensuring effective liaison with project partners, funders and Project Boards.
- Manage project resources efficiently and effectively, and ensure project documentation is maintained.
- The funding agency actively manages the project. This means that in addition to preparing accurate quarterly claims for the project (the funder expects realistic forecasts to be made for the remaining quarters in each financial year). The funding agency will require information for their annual audit. The Project Coordinator will also need to liaise closely with the Project Lead and other University colleagues to support the development of further budget proposals for the funder to review and approve.
- Work with FAST colleagues and where appropriate external organisations to ensure that the project’s website is up-to-date, accurate and reflects the current status of the project.
- Coordinate the training programme for the PDRAs across the project and ensure that claims for PhD studentships and summer school internships are costed to and claimed from the relevant grant budgets.
- Promote equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture and undertake any other reasonable duties as directed by the project leadership team.
- Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
- Promotes equality and values diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
- Any other duties commensurate with the grade.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications). Where no equivalent qualification is held, significant practical relevant experience and expertise in a similar role will be required.
- Significant practical experience in a similar role, experience of using project management tools.
- Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly, and to analyse information and data.
- Highly proficient IT skills, including the wider MS Office suite of programmes including Excel and PowerPoint.
- Ability to understand policy, processes and procedures, but also to recommend improvements and implement changes.
- Excellent analytical skills used to produce reports, identify issues and resolve them decisively.
- Excellent interpersonal skills. The post holder must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues and provide excellent customer service at all times.
- A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
- A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach.
- Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
- 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.
Dimensions
The role supports the management of a large project across a College and with external partners.
The role collects, coordinates and analyses the information required to manage the budget and other activities for the project.
Planning and Organising
The role co-ordinates a large project multi-partner project that is actively managed by the funder and runs for 2 years. There is a need to forward plan, create project delivery plans, evaluate and review progress, reporting to internal and possibly external stakeholders, and manage self and as appropriate others to deliver project outcomes.
Problem Solving and decision making
The focus of the role is on the coordination of delivery of the project(s) and any related R&D activities. The role will be likely to operate within constraints set by project leads/project boards and will require good political skills.
The role will coordinate and support the academic Project Lead and Principal Investigator with the project financial details that will enable the day-to-day operational decisions relating to the project expenditure to be controlled i.e. eligible.
Internal and External relationships
The role is a key liaison and co-ordination role on the FAST project(s), so will have a range of internal and potentially external stakeholders.
- Internal members of the Project Board
- External stakeholders such as funders and industrial collaborators
- Team members at the UoB and external partners (Warwick, Oxford, Cambridge & Nottingham)
- Other Professional Services colleagues, such as Finance, HR etc.
Informal enquiries to Paul Cornick, email: p.a.cornick@bham.ac.uk
View our staff values and behaviours here
Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.
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 . 
