Communications & Events Assistant in Sheffield

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement, a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Overview

The Campaigns and Alumni Relations (CAR) department sustains and grows the relationship between the University and our global community of alumni, donors and friends. Our teams are responsible for enhancing the quality of engagement activities across varied communities in ways that benefit alumni, supporters, staff and students at the University.

In this role, you will provide administrative support across the Alumni Relations team, working with our communications and events, volunteering and international sections. You will provide excellent customer care to our alumni and friends as well as internal departments requiring our support.

This is a highly collaborative, busy and varied role, which will see you liaising directly with alumni from all walks of life. You will gain a good understanding of the different communities that we engage with to support the preparation of email communications, attend in-person and virtual events and ensure our activities and processes run smoothly.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Provide effective administrative support for the Alumni Relations Team to help our objectives of increasing University engagement and affinity across our alumni communities.
• Be a point of contact for queries from alumni and University departments on the phone, via email and in person.
• Support alumni who wish to organise their own individual reunions and attend on-campus reunions where necessary.
• Make regular updates to the CAR event webpages ensuring they’re showing the most up-to-date information.
• Assist our digital communications to alumni by preparing and sending emails on behalf of CAR and University departments, and scheduling social media posts.
• Provide effective administrative support for our range of virtual and in-person events, including sending invitations, responding to enquiries, creating and monitoring registration documents and event attendance lists.
• Moderate international online groups by verifying the identity and alumni status of new members.
• Undertake the requisitioning and/or ordering of goods for the Alumni Relations Team as required.
• Collaboratively work with other members of CAR to ensure that all aspects of CAR are working smoothly and make suggestions to improve working processes.
• Provide back-up support during periods of leave or heavy workload, including cover for reception.
• Support the work of the department by recording data accurately on the supporter CRM database ensuring all data is managed confidentially.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

Person Specification

• Educated to GCSE level including grades A-C or 9-4 in maths and English with high levels of numeracy and literacy.
• Excellent written communication skills with a high level of attention to detail.
• Excellent relationship building skills with an adaptable approach to working with a wide range of people.
• Excellent customer service skills, with experience of responding efficiently and effectively to phone and email enquiries.
• Excellent time management and organisational skills, with an ability to plan, prioritise and progress work activities.
• Ability to work as part of a team as well as independently.
• A flexible approach to work with the ability to quickly adapt to changing circumstances.
• An understanding of the importance of Alumni Relations.
• Experience of working with customer relationship databases (CRM).
• Experience of working with website content management systems (CMS).

Further Information

Grade 4 £25,249 per annum with the potential to progress to £28,778 through sustained exceptional contribution.

Work arrangement: Full-time - Twelve-month fixed term - Three-day in-office hybrid.

Duration: 2 November 2026 - 29 October 2027.

For informal enquiries about this job contact Lucy Oxley, Events Manager: on l.j.oxley@sheffield.ac.uk.

Closing Date: 28/09/2026.

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