Operations Officer

Swindon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom (Hybrid)

Salary: £30,895 per annum

Band: UKRI Band C

Contract Type: Fixed Term (9 months). Ends 31st March 2027.

Hours: Full-time (minimum 0.8 FTE) (flexible working available)

Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire - Hybrid working available

About the role

A post has become available providing operational and administrative support to a busy team within the AHRC. The Operations Team is looking to recruit one Operations Officer on a fixed term basis (until March 2027) to join the Policy and Process area of the Team. The role is fundamentally an administrative role tasked with the operational delivery of the team’s objectives. This exposure to the broad and varied work of the AHRC will provide you with an excellent understanding of the national and international research funding landscape and allow you to develop a long-term career path within grants funding.

Responsibilities

• Providing general operational and organisational support to the AHRC Grants Operations team, including managing shared mailboxes, supporting the implementation of grants policy and process updates, supporting the purchase order process, creating online surveys, processing disabled student allowance claims and supporting the research outcomes reporting process.
• Being a first point of call for external enquiries; engaging directly with prospective applicants, grant holders and other external stakeholders in relation to AHRC grants policy, funding provision and processes, and providing answers and guidance in a timely manner.
• Engaging with and supporting continuous improvement project work and initiatives, seeking to refine processes, policy, and ways of working within both your team and the wider organisation.
• Occasionally supporting meetings, webinars, and events both internally and externally and both in-person and virtually; tasks include securing venues (or virtual meeting space), arranging logistics, making travel and accommodation arrangements, and processing expenses claims.
• Supporting training and guidance on the systems and processes of AHRC.

Personal Specification

• You have excellent organisational and administrative skills, and the ability to work flexibly and multi-task with good attention to detail, often at pace.
• You have sound numeric skills, including handling and analysing data sensitively, accurately, and responsibly.
• You have excellent written communication skills and can draft and understand complex written documents and interpret them clearly.
• You can work independently, think creatively, solve problems, and make effective decisions.
• You are a great team player and can provide support to colleagues, sharing knowledge and information, and giving towards the achievements of your team and the wider organisation.
• You are an excellent communicator with good social skills, working effectively with colleagues at different levels both inside and outside the organisation, while being an effective ambassador for the AHRC.
• You have a good working knowledge of IT and programmes (Outlook, MS Word, Excel, MS Teams, etc.) with the ability to quickly learn new software and systems.

Benefits

• 30 days' annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent).
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.
• Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice.
• Flexible working options.
• Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

Equality and diversity

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.