Job Description

Position Details

School of Social Policy and Society

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, Fixed Term contract up to March 2027

Closing date: 2nd August 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. 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

Our shared purpose is to understand the world – but also to work collaboratively to change it for the better. We carry out rigorous and relevant research that acts as a starting point for real-world change through our teaching, professional training, policy advice, and work with local communities.

The Executive Officer plays a key role in supporting the Head of School and SMT in the management of complex tasks and processes which contribute to the academic endeavour of the School. This role requires the post holder to review and analyse School activity as required, to optimise service delivery and compliance with policies and procedures. This post holder will need to be able to draw on information from a wide range of sources and summarise this in order to provide advice and recommendations to the Head of School and Head of Operations in the management of the School’s performance.

The post holder will also work closely with the Head of Operations and the School’s Professional Services Managers to ensure that management support for the Head of School and other senior academic and professional services staff within the School is professional, well-executed and timely; compliant with university policies; and based on best practice.

The role will be responsible for the effective management of the Head of School’s diary, and provide excellent executive support to the School’s Management Team, ensuring high-quality governance and action tracking. The post holder will also be responsible for a portfolio of administrative projects which currently includes mandatory training and providing support for the School’s strategic themes. The post holder will need to be able to respond to changing priorities and differing situations and will be expected to take up other delegated responsibilities consistent with the needs of the School as the role develops.

In addition, they will be expected to become familiar with the work of the wider team to ensure fully integrated administrative support in the School, and to be able to deputise for the Deputy Head of Operations where necessary.

Main Duties

Executive Support

• Provision of high-quality committee support where necessary, taking minutes and ensuring that any action points are followed up in a timely manner.
• Proactive preparation and collation of meeting-related papers and the production of documents, presentations, and briefings in relation to the work undertaken by the Senior Management Team, including undertaking desk research and sourcing information from internal and external stakeholders.
• Effective management of a complex and challenging diary for University business and business related to the Head of School’s roles in other external organisations, with an ability to prioritise and plan the diary at least 12 months’ in advance.
• Dealing with a wide range of enquiries independently, exercising good judgement when acting as the interface between the senior team and senior figures within the University and externally.

Operations and Project Support

• To deliver continuous improvement in the School through enhancing systems, policies, and procedures, and providing advice to colleagues to facilitate them to achieve similar improvements.
• To lead on the administration of WAM in the School, supporting Heads of Department to ensure timely collection of data and ensure impact of WAM on other activities is widely understood by staff.
• To establish, manage, and have oversight for databases and tracking systems within the School, including for Academic PDRs and mandatory training.
• To work with the Deputy Head of Operations and wider team in establishing and maintaining comprehensive tracking systems in the School as necessary.
• To lead on allocated School projects to deliver improvements to processes and ways of working.

Leadership and Management

• To work closely and flexibly as part of a team of School Professional Services Managers to deliver the business needs of the School and the evolving operating environment.
• Line manage the Senior Administrators, providing support, development, mentoring and training and addressing performance concerns where necessary.

Other Duties

• To proactively assist the Head of Operations and Deputy Head of Operations in the on-going development of the School’s administration, its values, standards, service levels and professional ethos within the overall objectives of the School and the Birmingham Professional agenda.
• To undertake such other duties as may be reasonably required by the Head of Operations (or nominee).
• The specific areas of responsibility and/or tasks may change from time to time in accordance with the requirements of the School and the priorities of the time.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Qualified to UK level 5 (e.g. Foundation degree, HND) or equivalent work experience, with a proven ability to grasp complex issues.
• Outstanding organisational, administrative and IT skills, including diaries, emails and MS Office suite of programmes.
• Ability to work effectively under pressure, prioritising appropriately in order to meet multiple deadlines with excellent attention to detail and high standards of accuracy.
• Ability to bring personal ideas, enthusiasm and creativity to projects and to use own initiative and self-motivation when undertaking tasks.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to inspire confidence and effectively negotiate with others.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including establishing effective working relationships with a wide range of staff and the ability to work as part of a team.
• A high degree of resourcefulness, flexibility, a self-motivating approach and personal judgement, including the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
• Experience of producing and analysing complex source material, information and data.
• Enthusiasm and willingness to learn, meet challenging demands, work with different people and to differing deadlines, and the resilience to manage changing priorities.
• 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.

Informal enquiries to Guvinder Kaur Rajania, email: g.rajania@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 everyoneon our website