Operations Officer - School of Maths - College of Engineering and Physical Sciences -106955 - G[...] in Birmingham

Position Details

School of Maths, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £33,002 to £35,608 with potential progression once in post to £39,906

Grade: 6 Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 1 March 2026

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.

Job Context

The School of Maths is a vibrant and thriving academic community within the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences with over 80 research active academic staff, around 15 postdoctoral researchers and around 70 postgraduate students. We seek to appoint an Operations Officer who has energy, enthusiasm and the ability to work with confidence to support the day-to-day operational running as part of the School of Maths Operations Team. The postholder will form part of the School of Maths Professional Services Operations team reporting to the School Operations Manager. They will be able to work independently as well as being a strong team player.

Role Summary

This is a challenging and rewarding position, providing executive and administrative support to the School of Maths operations team. In addition, the role holder will be required to provide other general administration support as required and agreed with their line Manager, the Operations Manager. The Operations Officer role is fundamental to the smooth running of the School of Maths and supports significant areas of operational activity (e.g. academic staff recruitment and induction, visa compliance for staff and visitors) whilst also providing high level administrative support to the Operations Manager. The post holder will work with and without direct supervision and exercise a high level of discretion. They will have a good understanding of the University’s policies and procedures and be able to advise staff within the School accordingly. The post holder will work closely with the School’s Professional services Maths Operations team and the School Operations Manager to ensure that operational support for the School is professional, well-executed and timely; compliant with university policies; and based on best practice.

Main Duties

• Executive Support: Use extensive knowledge of University policies, procedures and systems, researching, developing and managing systems to support operations work is carried successfully to deadline and enhancing systems to improve effectiveness and team working where possible. Being a key support to the School of Maths Operations Team and leadership team and contributing to organisation development. This will require the post holder to maintain an understanding of School objectives and priorities and to use that information to inform day to day activity using delegated responsibility effectively. Support the School’s committee and governance structures which includes ensuring terms of reference are accurate and adhered to, supporting committee cycles of business and servicing committees. The post holder will provide advice on University protocols and policies, ensuring meetings are planned/terms of reference are applied and meetings are quorate. To actively ensure dissemination of information as appropriate.
• HR: Liaise with HR on the recruitment and contracting of staff, ensuring that all processes and procedures are followed. Coordinate and support recruitment campaigns on behalf of the Operations Manager. Support new School of Maths staff and ensure they are welcomed and inducted into the School of Maths under direction of Operations Manager. Foster a stimulating, innovative and inclusive cultural environment across the School enabling students and staff to thrive and develop, ensuring that processes and policies are visible, accessible and transparent. Contributing to diversity and inclusion activities in the School of Maths, assisting with the delivery of diversity and inclusion action plans.
• Facilities and Health and Safety: Act as the School Health and Safety Coordinator. Taking responsibility for allocated elements of health and safety implementation and documentation e.g. First Aid, Fire Wardens. Working with colleagues to deliver a suitable and compliant process. Carry out building inductions and ensuring all staff are adequately trained and adhering to H&S risk assessments. Responsible for undertaking risk assessments, working with colleagues, recording all required control measures and discussing with the Operations Manager where appropriate. Monitoring service standards and working with internal customers to ensure that the Facilities service is effective and efficient. Liaising with colleagues at all levels to ensure effective management of facilities including cleaning, security, Out of Hours Access monitoring and use of Gallagher system and co-ordination of essential maintenance and shutdowns at times which minimise impact on services. You may be required to organise office moves, working with customers to understand their requirements, ensure the appropriate resource is deployed, providing regular updates to relevant managers and stakeholders.
• General School Operations: Recognised as one of the School’s Super User in operational systems such as Core. The ability to advise on processes and provide coaching/training to staff as required. To identify opportunities in these processes and recommend improvements. Being an Information Champion in the School for information security including GDPR adherence, interpreting and explaining these as required, and complying with all regulations and policies in own work. Forge relationships with colleagues in the School, College and University, in order to contribute to process development and adoption of best practice. Advise and support across the School with day-to-day financial matters, such as purchase orders, expenses, invoices and provide advice as requested by colleagues. Support and build strong working relationships with academic and wider staff and other key stakeholders. Ensure that the School adopts and complies with College/University policies and practices for HR and operational matters within the School including UKVI, etc. Able to identify omissions and failures in policy and take remedial action where required. Oversight of managing facilities for the School: working to plan, monitor and implement facilities, maintenance and support space allocations for staff and PhD students. To ensure all new starters are processed and have access to facilities. Provide local support defined by the Operations Manager including being the main contact for enquiries, diary management, meeting coordination, managing travel, assisting visitors, managing local room bookings – including organising audio visual equipment, catering and confirmation of arrangements to participants and security. Carry out any other/ additional duties as required by the Operations Manager.

Whilst working within the framework agreed with the Operations Manager, the post holder is expected to manage their own workload and is expected to be flexible in anticipating and responding to shifting and competing demands on their and the wider team’s time. It is expected that the post will work with minimum supervision but will refer to the Operations Manager for advice on issues which fall outside existing regulatory or policy frameworks.

Essential

• Experience of working in a large and complex organisation.
• Educated to degree level or equivalent qualifications or work experience.
• Proven ability to manage own time effectively and potentially the time of others to deliver work to the highest quality standards.
• Proven ability to work flexibly to solve problems and propose and implement solutions at a senior administrative level.
• Proven ability to collate and manipulate data from a wide variety of sources and present it in an appropriate format to support business cases/needs.
• Proven experience of drafting documentation for the approval of others, accurately and with meticulous attention to detail.
• Excellent demonstrable IT skills (Office packages) with the ability and willingness to learn new systems.
• Previous experience of working in close partnership with staff at all levels, including leadership, to deliver significant strategic objectives.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including tact, diplomacy and confidentiality. The post-holder must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues across the academic community and Professional Services, and also external contacts.
• Experience of supporting committees which includes advising on and drafting agendas and paperwork; where necessary, writing minutes and taking follow-up action.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and proven ability to establish effective working relationships at all levels.
• Proven ability to negotiate and influence others.
• Proven ability to handle several demanding tasks concurrently and to prioritise workload, working to tight deadlines whilst also maintaining accuracy.
• Flexible, positive and creative approach to work and meticulous attention to detail.
• Proven financial/accounting experience which includes setting and monitoring spend against budgets.
• Proven experience of reengineering business processes to improve efficiency and the customer experience.

Desirable

• HE administrative experience in an academic setting.
• Experience of providing administrative support for academic staff recruitment.
• Experience of providing executive support to senior staff.

Informal enquiries to Martha Campos, email: m.j.campos@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here.

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

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.