Operations Assistant in Sheffield

We are seeking to appoint an Operational Support Assistant to provide a high-quality reception service and operational support to staff and students across the School of Medicine & Population Health (SMPH West). As a member of the School’s Administrative Support Team, you will gain transferable skills in administration and customer services whilst supporting the work of the administrative team and the wider School. Excellent communication skills and a compassionate manner will be vital for this role as you will be the first point of contact for a range of complex staff and student enquiries via the reception desk and have responsibility for triaging requests, signposting as appropriate.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Act as first point of contact for School enquiries at the Medical School reception and provide guidance to students, staff, and visitors, directing them as needed.
• Handle non-standard queries by collecting and assessing information to provide effective solutions.
• Provide general admin support by maintaining and updating records, databases, filing systems, phone/email lists and committee terms of reference and membership lists and assisting with the organisation of the school’s annual calendar of meetings and events.
• Carry out travel and accommodation bookings for the School, ensuring that the University financial regulations are adhered to.
• Perform a variety of financial administrative tasks, including creating requisitions where appropriate, goods receipting, and coding purchasing cards.
• Provide administrative support for recruitment activities, including job postings, application processing, interview coordination, pre-employment checks, onboarding, and maintaining recruitment records.
• In collaboration with colleagues, plan and coordinate School events, workshops, and meetings to a high standard. Manage logistical preparations, including booking rooms, catering, taking minutes or notes, organising parking and booking accommodations.
• Maintain the School’s Staff Handbook and externally facing web pages, creating pages and layouts, monitoring information, and liaising with staff to ensure information is accurate and up to date.
• Act as the departmental contact for building maintenance, liaising with Estates and Facilities Management, reporting faults using the EFM Self Service.
• Provide support to office moves as required, including arranging any maintenance required, updating door plates, and ordering keys.
• Support senior staff in ensuring the School's compliance with Health and Safety, Information Management, and Security requirements. Responsibilities include monitoring training records, sending reminders, generating reports, and distributing relevant information.
• Provide support as required across the Professional Services team in key operational areas in the event of absence/peaks in workload, including providing administrative support for events, conferences and seminars.
• Answer the main enquiry telephone line, dealing with messages appropriately and promptly.
• Proactively identify areas requiring further action to maintain excellent service delivery, ensuring adherence to quality standards, guidelines, and procedures. Raise issues with senior colleagues when necessary and contribute solutions to prevent recurrence.
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

Criteria

• Five GCSEs at Grade C or above including Maths and English (or equivalent experience).
• Experience of providing high quality administrative and business support within a complex organisation.
• Excellent IT skills including knowledge of Microsoft Office and/or Google drive.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to deal with difficult situations and conversations in a sensitive and confidential manner.
• Ability to work flexibly as part of a team, and to show own initiative.
• Excellent organisational and time management skills.
• Ability to work effectively and accurately to deadlines.
• Ability to produce work to a high standard with attention to detail.
• Ability to remain calm and maintain high level service standards whilst under pressure.

Further Information

• Grade: 4
• £25,249 - £26,707 per annum pro rata (Potential to increase to £28,778 per annum pro rata through sustained exceptional contribution).
• Work arrangement: Full-time post – 35 hours per week – Monday – Friday. Fully on campus – Not suitable for hybrid working.

Benefits

• A minimum of 38 days annual leave including bank holiday and closure days (pro rata) with the ability to purchase more.
• Flexible working opportunities, including hybrid working for some roles.
• A wide range of discounts and rewards on shopping, eating out and travel.
• A variety of staff networks, providing opportunities for social interaction, peer support and personal development (for example, Race Equality, LGBT+, Women’s and Parent’s networks).
• Recognition Awards to reward staff who go above and beyond in their role.
• A commitment to your development access to learning and mentoring schemes; Professional Services Shared Skills Framework.
• A range of generous family-friendly policies paid time off for parenting and caring emergencies support for those going through the menopause paid time off and support for fertility treatment and more.

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process.

Contact

For informal enquiries about this job contact Mrs Emma Rower, Operations Manager at e.rower@sheffield.ac.uk.

Closing Date

20/05/2026