Job Description

Position Details

Professional Services

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £47,389 to £56,535 with potential progression once in post to £63,606

Grade: 8

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 3rd November 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.

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

Background

The University of Birmingham is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant city, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research. We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. Professional Services put students at the heart of all they do and enable an exceptional educational experience. They provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. They ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence. Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery of the University’s objectives, and helping everyone to understand the broader context within which we work.

Department Overview

Our University has a proud history of philanthropy stretching back to its foundation in 1900. With a clear vision to change the lives of the people of Birmingham, Joseph Chamberlain raised the funds required to build the University from citizens and corporations based locally and around the globe. Since then philanthropy has continued to play an important role in shaping the University. There have been a number of fundraising campaigns, including a £1m urgent capital appeal after the Second World War and a £1.4m campaign to fund the Vale ‘student village’ in the 1960s. In 2015 we closed the Circles of Influence Campaign, raising £193 million, making it the largest HE fundraising campaign outside Oxbridge and London.

The University has global reach, including several partnerships with other leading universities around the world, and is grounded in its local community, having opened the first fully comprehensive University secondary school in the country in 2015. We are an ambitious and successful research-intensive University (one of the top 100 research-led universities globally) and have produced 10 Nobel Prize winners, including three who received their awards in 2016. Academics here are exploring the impact of climate change, helping to address global health epidemics, seeking ways to diagnose cancers earlier and create more effective personalised treatments, changing our understanding of Shakespeare. Our students come from nearly 150 countries and our flagship outreach programmes mean that almost 25% of our student population come from disadvantaged backgrounds: one of the highest proportions in the UK. 

DARO (The Development and Alumni Relations Office) exists to support this academic and student community by engaging, inspiring, and celebrating alumni, individuals, and charitable funders who give their money, time, and networks to support the University’s strategic priorities. The Office, which is comprised of five teams, is focused on fundraising and volunteering from alumni, organisations and individuals who are passionate about changing lives, through funding various research trials, supporting student bursaries, mentoring students, and providing internships. We are currently at the heart of delivering the Birmingham in Action campaign with goals to raise £600m and generate 1,250,000 volunteer hours.

As an office, we are committed to sustainability and value green working practices. The environment is an integral part of our campaign and we encourage eco-friendly ways of working in order to have a positive impact on our campus and global surroundings.

Role Summary

The post holder is responsible for managing, developing and improving efficient systems and technical solutions that advance fundraising and alumni engagement in support of the Birmingham In Action campaign and beyond. With responsibility for a team of 8 working across data, finance, and insight, this role has responsibility for DARO’s CRM (Blackbaud CRM), associated technical systems / integrations, information management, insight & analysis, reporting, user support, and gift administration. The postholder is DARO’s systems lead, with responsibility for development and maintenance of the CRM and associated information systems and integrations.

Main Duties

Leadership of Team and Functional Areas

• Strategic & team leadership – Ensure data, insight and finance activity align with DARO's strategy and 5-year plan; manage and develop the team through clear objectives, feedback, and professional development, fostering a motivated, customer-centric, solution-focused culture across internal and external stakeholders.
• Resourcing, budget & collaborative leadership – Deploy team resources to meet priorities and own the team budget, including forecasting and monitoring spend; work collaboratively with other Heads across DARO to ensure key priorities from DARO's annual strategic plan are developed and implemented, building cross-DARO and University-wide relationships to share best practice.

Systems and Information Management

• CRM ownership – Take overall accountability for DARO's systems (CRM, platforms, integrations), ensuring they are stable, secure, fit for purpose, and operationally effective, including data collection, storage and processing.
• Continuous improvement & operational planning – Develop and deliver the team's operational plans, ensuring alignment to overarching DARO plans; maintain systems maps, review systems to identify issues/opportunities, and manage implementation of updates and change (including training), staying abreast of new technology developments with the CRM Manager.
• Stakeholder & data integrity management – Manage relationships with IT Services, other business areas and external suppliers; work with the Head of Prospect Development to strengthen data integrity through clear permissions and accountabilities, and oversee planning and delivery of data quality activity.

Reporting, Insight and Analysis

• Reporting development – Supervise and support the Insight and Reporting Analyst to develop, improve and add to the existing suite of PowerBI reports aligned to DARO and stakeholder needs, and work with IT Services on the technology/process behind reporting.
• Insight delivery – Present actionable insights, strategic recommendations and business intelligence to SLT, and drive user engagement with PowerBI and other reporting outputs to support decision-making.

Training, Documentation and User Support

• Knowledge & documentation – Build and maintain a SharePoint knowledge hub of guides, training materials and process documentation across Data & Insight and Finance, ensuring consistent, secure and future-proofed ways of working.
• User support – Provide expert technical support, with the CRM Manager, on DARO systems to all teams.

Governance and Compliance

• Legal & regulatory compliance – Work with the AD of Development Services to ensure legally compliant collection, storage and processing of data; keep up to date with data protection regulation; ensure processes are in place for statutory returns (FOI, SARs, etc.).

General

• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour in line with university policies.
• Plans, monitors and evaluates relevant processes for equality impact in line with the Equality Act 2010 and the objectives of the University EDI strategy.
• Other relevant criteria from our equality and diversity duties document.
• 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) plus significant relevant practical experience - where no equivalent qualification is held substantial practical relevant experience and expertise in a series of progressively more demanding roles will be required.
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to communicate clearly for a variety of audiences, and to produce and analyse source material, information and data.
• Knowledge of fundraising / fundraising operations, preferably in higher education or large / complex non-profit organisations, is highly desirable.
• Experienced in all aspects of the technical management and development of information systems and technology, including CRM, web tools and platforms. Demonstrable and extensive practical understanding of relational databases with specific knowledge of Blackbaud CRM or Raiser’s Edge an advantage.
• Proven ability to deliver complex IT projects, including demonstrable evidence of significant project management and change management.
• Strong customer service and stakeholder management skills, with an ability to understand business need and to work collaboratively with colleagues to create user focused solutions.
• Excellent operational planning skills.
• Experience of managing reporting suites.
• Strong understanding and experience of BI platforms, dashboard construction, data modelling, segmentation, and reporting (specific PowerBI experience is strongly preferred)
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present and explain complex datasets or concepts to a wide audience.
• Strong influencing skills, with experience of adopting an evidence-based approach to influence stakeholders
• Experience of leading a team including performance management, developing team strategies and objectives, assisting with workload management, and identifying opportunities for professional development.
• Ensure resources across the team are deployed in the right way to meet prioritised needs and agreed objectives.
• Excellent operational planning skills required.
• Authoritative knowledge of the work practices, processes, and procedures relevant to the role, including broader sector/commercial awareness.
• Excellent understanding of data protection, particularly in reference to the management of personal data in line with GDPR. Knowledge of fundraising regulation and Freedom of Information processes.
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in own work area.
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.

Informal enquiries to Nicola Williams at n.williams.4@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.