FASTCHEM Facility Manager - School of Chemistry - 106364 - Grade 7

Position Details

School of Chemistry, College on Engineering and Physical Sciences

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822

Grade: 7

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to December 2029

Closing date: 12th November 2025

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.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Background

The School of Chemistry at the University of Birmingham is a vibrant and thriving academic community, with over 150 academic and research staff, 25 professional services staff and over 600 students. With a strong focus on its three main research themes, energy, sustainability and health, and a number of interdisciplinary interest groups, the School has ambitious plans to grow research activity; indeed, major investment from the University for a state‑of‑the‑art molecular sciences research building (2023/24) and a new Collaborative Teaching Laboratory (2018/19) that is revolutionising how undergraduate practical chemistry is taught. The School provides an inclusive and supportive environment where every member of staff is supported in realising their career potential.

Role Summary

The role holder will be responsible for operational management of the FASTCHEM facility. This includes co‑ordinating and managing the daily activity of the instruments and users within the unit to ensure that the requirements and objectives of the researchers using the facility are met, including: allocation of activities to space; ensuring legal compliance; management of rotas, fault reporting; managing maintenance; ordering equipment and consumables. Furthermore, the role holder will develop standard operating procedures for the facility and provide the necessary level of training for user groups as well as conducting and co‑ordinating appropriate technical training on the use of the technology platforms, for all staff and researchers, delivered either in‑house or through external sources. The role holder will also develop and maintain robust systems for managing usage including capturing demand, rationing access (where appropriate), recording bookings and actual usage plus the collation of management information to inform charging and to monitor utilisation and performance.

Another crucial responsibility of the role holder is to develop and maintain effective customer relations both internal and external to the University, acting as the key customer contact in meeting their service delivery requirements and technology expectations. This includes:

• Providing advice and information for current and prospective users on the use of the technology and experimental design and to keep up to date with new information through participation in a range of School, University and external meetings and conferences, and by keeping up to date on new advancements through recent publications and literature.
• Conducting and overseeing specified research work with the appropriate academic input, providing strategic direction, interpreting project aims and results, trouble‑shooting and advising on appropriate experimental designs to maximise a successful research outcome.
• Managing and optimising the effective use of the technology in terms of access, capacity, contractual commitments, managing collaborative relationships and customer/scientific conflict.
• Monitoring and evaluating customer feedback in order to identify opportunities for continuous improvements.
• Ensure the relevant research community is engaged and that the University maximises the optimal use of the technology through user training and local talks.

As a result of the above activities, the role holder will prepare, or contribute to the preparation of, scientific reports, presentations and research papers arising from the work in the facility, both to communicate the outputs and to publicise the capabilities of the facility.

In addition to the operation management and customer engagement outline above, the role holder will: contribute towards the strategic planning and future development of the facility, drawing upon their personal technical expertise in order to ensure leading edge technological advancement; contribute towards the development of a revenue plan and the generation of new income by leading specific agreed activities and new initiatives that may include external and international collaborations which provide additional support funding; and ensure full compliance with relevant statutory health and safety regulations and that safe working practices are embedded within all activities through relevant guidance, risk assessment, safe systems of work and the monitoring of health surveillance.

Main Duties

• Manage a designated scientific facility, or facilities, within the School of Chemistry, including the line management of associated staff if applicable. Organise and deliver training programmes for users, emphasising the importance of health and safety compliance. Contribute towards the management of FASTCHEM’s financials, produce user and usage statistics and set commercial and FEC charge rates. Organise and oversee day‑to‑day and preventative maintenance and troubleshooting of instrumentation by facility staff to ensure that they are performing to very high standard and that data obtained remain at the highest quality possible. Maintain records of service contracts with suppliers and expenditure on maintenance.
• Develop and maintain effective customer relations. Consult with external users, including companies, in order to facilitate their research and development needs and troubleshoot problems. Provide quotations for such activities and report results in a timely and professional manner. Ensure that external websites, promotional materials and other information sources are kept up to date and are appropriate for their intended audience. Actively encourage external and industry usage through working with Business Engagement.
• Communicate effectively with facility users and Academic staff from the School of Chemistry, other Schools/Colleges and external users, especially in regard to changes and developments in the facility and any interruptions in service or instrument availability. Ensure that the facility is responsive to the research direction of the School through attendance and engagement at School meetings, research seminars and through conversations with users and academics. Contribute to research papers when appropriate.
• Contribute towards the strategic planning and future development of FASTCHEM. The role holder, in consultation with the academic lead, users, academic representatives and the School’s Senior Leadership Team, will be expected to plan for the future needs of facility users and the wider research school, researching and sourcing new instrumentation and upgrades as required and funding allows. When the purchase of new equipment is approved, they will manage the procurement and installation processes.
• Assess current instrument capacity, research new technologies, keep on top of the latest developments in the field thorough, for example, continuing professional development, and assist with planning for future capability and expenditure. Be responsible for the acquisition and installation of new/transferred instruments and planning decommissioning and disposal of broken/obsolete equipment where appropriate.
• Ensure FASTCHEM’s compliance with health, safety and security. Manage the use of designated laboratory space, ensuring that the environment is safe and space used efficiently. Ensure all relevant university health and safety policy and guidance is followed, liaising with the school health and safety coordinator and/or the University Health and Safety Unit as appropriate. Write and regularly review risk assessments, COSHH and standard operating procedures for area. Arrange, in liaison with the School’s Building Services Coordinator, for Estates and contractors to make necessary alterations and repairs.
• Act as a collegiate team member in the School of Chemistry facilities and technical support team.
• Promotes equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
• Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications) or relevant technical qualification and considerable relevant experience. Where no equivalent qualification is held, significant practical relevant experience and expertise in a series of more demanding roles will be required demonstrating the conceptual understanding required.
• Holding a higher degree, such as PhD, is desirable.
• Extensive experience in ultrafast laser spectroscopy.
• Proven expertise in ultrafast transient electronic absorption spectroscopy with both solutions and thin films.
• Proven expertise in ultrafast time‑resolved ion‑yield and time‑resolved velocity map imaging spectroscopies.
• Proven track record in managing a team.
• Proven experience working on and leading projects with industrial and academic collaborators.
• Proven experience in designing and constructing beam paths for ultrafast laser spectroscopy experiments.
• Familiar with alignment of optical parametric amplifiers.
• Familiar with optimisation and alignment of ultrafast regenerative amplifiers.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day‑to‑day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Role context

Roles at this level will require in‑depth specialist technical/specialist/IT expertise. Role holders may have supervisory responsibility for a technical service or team, where the primary focus will be on planning, overseeing and reviewing the work of the team and/or will operate as individual technical, specialist or IT experts either supporting service delivery or contributing directly to local project implementation or problem‑solving through the provision of specialist support activity.

Core competencies/transferable skills

Working at this level you will be able to develop and successfully demonstrate the core competencies/transferable skills outlined in each of the areas shown below. As appropriate for the level, our Birmingham Professionals will take ownership for getting things done. You will be expected to be flexible as required in supporting your department and wider University.

Planning and organising

• be responsible for the provision of a technical service through the day to day organisation and technical supervision of a work area;
• manage the prioritisation, allocation and quality of work, developing the technical capability in the area;
• manage a combination of technical and (where required) non‑technical staff
• progress several initiatives concurrently and to plan effectively;
• contribute to developments of the service and in policies, procedures and plans in own area;
• ensure compliance with all legal, health and safety standards as applicable;
• lead, if required, on project work.

And/or

• advise on the development and application of specialist techniques/experiments and/or procedures and the analysis and interpretation of results (may run an advanced specialist service);
• act as a recognised source of technical and/or specialist expertise in own area;
• generate original ideas and innovative solutions and/or new techniques/experimental designs.

Problem solving and decision making

• resolve high level problems with specific techniques/applications, or in the implementation of services and technical support;
• provide specialist advice and recommendations to support decision‑making of others;
• respond to changing priorities and differing situations.

Organisational understanding

• understand their own and closely‑related working areas and how they contribute to the success of the University.
• has an understanding of how the University operates; actively seeks to share this knowledge with others.
• developing empathy with the academic endeavour.

Relationships and communication

• develop excellent working relationships with customers, proactively anticipating their requirements in order to understand and deliver them.

Informal enquiries to Trevor Hardy, email: t.a.hardy@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

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 AthenaSWAN, 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. .