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 £46,735 to £55,755 with potential progression once in post to £62,728
Grade: 8
Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 5th August 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
Centre for Evidence and Implementation Science (CEIS) is a leading interdisciplinary research centre that aims to improve health and social care decision-making through applied evaluation, evidence synthesis and evidence-based policy.
CEIS is home to more than forty staff across four research groups, who provide
Health Technology Assessment ,
Evidence Synthesis , policy & methods (including the
Applied Research Centre ), and evidence-based surgery. We conduct research on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Education, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the UK National Screening Committee amongst others. The Senior Programme Manager is a key role for CEIS and is responsible for managing the research projects for the institute.
Role Summary
To manage large or multiple projects across a School, College or professional service area, or make a significant contribution to larger University-wide projects as part of a project team.
Main Duties
Project Delivery
Responsible for managing large or multiple projects that may have contributors from multiple areas. This will include some or all of the following:
- leading on the management of the project, including influencing and developing complex project plans;
- creating and maintaining an overall project management plan for the whole project or projects using project management principles and using appropriate software;
- identifying objectives and indicators of success;
- planning, organising and maintaining a regular schedule of project meetings and ensuring sufficient engagement by all relevant parties to the project;
- establish effective networking relationships with all stakeholders;
- managing the budget for the project as required;
- delivering project outputs agreed with senior management, on time, to budget and to the agreed quality standard.
Monitoring, evaluation and communication
- Develop and implement a comprehensive evaluation strategy for the project.
- Establish and implement reporting procedures which meet requirements, and ensure all necessary data is gathered in a timely and efficient manner.
- Analyse data to determine if it is fit for purpose, and take appropriate action to ensure data quality where necessary.
- Develop reporting mechanisms for the project then report on project progress to the project board or equivalent and highlight any risks.
- Maintain a risk register as appropriate, and communicate risks in a timely manner, proactively proposing solutions.
- Engage and communicate with a variety of stakeholders to ensure progress but also to disseminate outputs of the project as appropriate.
People management
- Manage diverse groups of staff ensuring relevant targets and goals are achieved within resource constraints.
- Create a motivating environment where staff are challenged, developed, encouraged and supported to achieve outstanding results.
- Responsible for ensuring all annual review processes, including Performance and Development Reviews are conducted in the service area.
- Identify appropriate opportunities for development and change and encourage other team members to do the same.
- Guide staff through periods of change, communicating a clear and positive vision.
General
- Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
- Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
- Any other duties commensurate with the grade.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Relevant degree or relevant equivalent professional qualification, plus significant project management experience (in increasingly large and/or complex projects) or substantial relevant experience evidencing the experience required in this role.
- Formal Project Management qualifications such as APMP, Prince2 or MSP.
- Authoritative knowledge of the work practices, processes and procedures relevant to the role, including broader sector/commercial awareness.
- Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly for a variety of audiences, and to produce and analyse source material, information and data.
- Proven ability to meet targets, with minimal supervision to deadlines.
- Substantial experience of engaging, and collaborating, with internal and external stakeholders.
- Proven analytical and problem solving skills that will help to identify and implement improvements and efficiencies across the project or projects you work on.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.
- Experience of managing large financial budgets along with experience of budget planning and forecasting.
- Highly proficient IT skills, including the MS Office suite. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
- Excellent people management skills, with proven experience of leading, motivating and managing teams.
- High level of self-motivation and personal accountability with ability to plan and deliver goals to deadlines under pressure.
- Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
- Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.
- Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
Informal enquiries to Susan Davies, 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 . 
