SERENE Senior Project Administrator - School of Engineering - 107705 - Grade 5 in Birmingham

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,062 to £31,900, with potential progression once in post to £35,883

Grade: 5

Full Time (Part time can be considered)

Fixed Term contract up to June 2029

Closing date: 17th August 2026

UK travel may be required for this role.

This vacancy may be closed early if we receive sufficient applications for the role.

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.

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.

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.

This role is based within the School of Engineering (College of Engineering and Physical Sciences). The School, which is the largest in the College, is a multi-department School comprising the disciplines of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering.

The post holder is expected to provide administrative and operational support to the Space Environment and Radio Engineering Research Group (SERENE). The SERENE Research Group is supported by a dedicated Professional Services team comprising a Space Environment Programme Manager, Project Officer, and Facility Manager.

The primary research focus of SERENE is modelling. SERENE has developed an operational first-principles data assimilation model of the Earth’s ionosphere and thermosphere, that uses state-of-the-art mathematical techniques coupled with tens of thousands of globally distributed observations to make accurate and actionable real time space weather forecasts.

As a senior administrator within SERENE, you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You will be able to use your wide range of skills, both technical and administrative, and have the opportunity to lead on specific tasks within a team.

Main Duties:

• Deal with complex systems and procedures and offer advice on these, including deciding on the response to more complex queries.
• Exercise judgment on the answer to queries or on the direction of work within parameters set by your manager.
• Proactive inbox management, with confidence to make decisions on behalf of others where appropriate.
• Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders on your own initiative, fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate.
• Organise events including booking a venue, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers, manage bookings, co-ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back.
• Procure goods and services through the University system, which are often large scale and complex, including the administration of trackers and reporting in association with this.
• Support the group to book travel in the UK and overseas for conference and events.
• Deal with arrangements for international visitors, including visas and travel.
• Serve as the SERENE Social Value Champion, supporting engagement in key social value initiatives, including sustainability, equality, diversity and inclusion, and wellbeing.
• Manage some smaller projects on own initiative but will also carry out desk research and source data from internal and external sources in order to contribute to wider projects.
• Use a variety of complex University systems and processes, to research, analyse and interpret complex data, producing bespoke reports as required.
• Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems.
• Process more complex data (which may be financial, HR, student-related or other), monitoring accuracy, chasing up missing information, and resolving any issues as appropriate.
• Provide specialist advice and training to colleagues on area of activity.
• Provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings.
• Monitor budgets including processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget.
• Update and write contents for the SERENE group communications e.g. intranet / web pages, dealing with health and safety and facilities issues.
• Monitor internal procedures/compliance and ensure these are followed and disseminated as appropriate.
• Support equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
• Undertake any other duties commensurate with the grade of the post, as reasonably directed by the Project Officer, Programme Manager, or Head of Research Group.

This role will involve hybrid working. Travel to events may be required.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience:

• Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Minimum of grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent.
• Highly proficient IT skills, in particular the ability to handle complex electronic diaries and emails, the wider MS Office suite of programmes including excel and PowerPoint, and some experience of using an enterprise resource planning package.
• Proven ability to plan ahead and anticipate requirements, proactively planning own (and sometimes others’ workloads) to manage time effectively, progress tasks concurrently and work to deadlines.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines.
• A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

Informal enquiries to Charlotte Frank, email: c.frank@bham.ac.uk