Senior Administrator (National Embedding and Operations) - School of Social Policy and Society [...] 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, Fixed Term contract up to December 2027

Closing date: 14th July 2026

This role is also open as an internal secondment opportunity which would need to be agreed by your current line manager.

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.

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.

Background

IMPACT (‘Improving Adult Care Together’) is a UK‑wide centre for implementing evidence in adult social care, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, and the Health Foundation. IMPACT is an ‘implementation centre’, drawing on knowledge gained from different types of research, the lived experience of people who draw on care and support and their carers, and the practice knowledge of social care staff.

This role will provide administrative support for finance, recruitment and for the national embedding team. The professional services IMPACT team includes 10 staff in marketing and communications, operations and lived experience lead, 8 of whom are co‑located in Birmingham.

Role Summary

As a senior administrator within IMPACT, you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You may also be responsible for managing other staff or for supporting colleagues and sharing knowledge. 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

• You will be able to deal with complex systems and procedures and will be expected to offer advice on these, including deciding on the response to more complex queries.
• You will be expected to exercise your judgment on the answer to queries or on the direction of work within parameters set by your manager.
• On a day to day basis you will be expected to resolve more complex queries without necessarily referring to your manager.
• If you have a supervisory role, you will line‑manage your staff taking responsibility for co‑ordinating and prioritising the work of others.
• 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.
• You may be involved in organising events including booking a venue, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers, managing bookings, co‑ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back.
• Will 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.
• You will be expected to 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.
• As required, provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings.
• You may be required to be responsible for one or more of the following:
• monitoring budgets including processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget
• procuring goods and services through the University system
• updating and writing contents for the department’s communications e.g. intranet pages
• dealing with health and safety and facilities issues
• HR‑related tasks such as managing staff absence, induction, or dealing with leavers
• dealing with arrangements for international visitors
• monitoring internal procedures/compliance and ensuring these are followed and disseminated as appropriate

Treats everyone with dignity and respect in line with current equality legislation.

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.
• Experience of working in a research support environment is preferred.
• 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.
• The post holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
• 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 verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self‑motivating approach.
• 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 university policies and procedures relating to equality and diversity.

Dimensions

This role will require the exercise of personal initiative within and beyond the department. May manage a team or budgets.

Planning and Organising

The role is required to work independently on daily, weekly and monthly tasks but also on projects with medium‑longer‑term horizons without daily supervision. May manage others staffs’ workloads.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

They will work with direction from management but with a significant degree of autonomy. They will deal with more complex queries and be expected to resolve any problems in their area of responsibility. They may also manage the workload of others or coach others to achieve results.

Internal and External Relationships

This role will be liaising with internal colleagues and stakeholders, likely to be University‑wide and with external stakeholders.

Informal enquiries to Sheena Robertson, email: s.a.robertson@bham.ac.uk

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.