Executive Project Administrator - College of Arts and Law - 105343 - Grade 5

Job Description

Position Details

College of Arts and Law

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £28,397 to £30,210, with potential progression once in post to £33,938

Grade: 5

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 4th March 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.

Job context

The College of Arts and Law is home to outstanding teachers, researchers and Professional Services staff at the University of Birmingham. The College Hub plays a vital role in the life of the College, providing support to senior members of the College Senior Leadership Team and managing a broad range of college-wide projects and administrative tasks.

The role of Executive Project Administrator is a great opportunity to develop your career in Higher Education administration. As a valued member of College Professional Services staff working in a supportive team, you will provide crucial support to the work of the College in a variety of ways, including:

1. Providing high quality administrative support for College-wide projects and initiatives
2. Taking a proactive and enthusiastic approach to event management and on-the-day support
3. Information maintenance, including taking a proactive and creative approach to writing and updating College SharePoint pages
4. Delivering effective and engaging College-wide communications
5. Executive support for our Senior Leadership Team
6. Management of confidential information
7. Financial processing and ordering
8. Facilities and IT management
9. Committee administration and management
10. Human resources administration
11. Providing first-rate customer service

While in the role you will be given support to develop a wide range of skills and will also have the opportunity to lead on specific tasks within the team. You will have access to mentoring and performance and development support, together with a comprehensive range of on-line and in-person training opportunities through the University’s People and Organisational Development programmes.

Role Summary

As an Executive Project Administrator within a College you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You may also be responsible for managing the contributions of 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. You will be involved in organising events including booking a venue and technical requirements, sending invitations, devising promotional materials (including social media/Teams posts), arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers (internal and external), managing bookings, co-ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back. You will need to co-ordinate with colleagues in order to ensure smooth and successful delivery of events.
4. Support the development and delivery of multi-channel communication activities to key stakeholders (e.g. current students, staff and external organisations). Coordination of communications briefings, web pages, newsletters and social media campaigns, as appropriate. Researching and writing copy for presentations, communications and websites. Working with internal teams to deliver social media activity.
5. Develop content for webpages which will include you regularly reviewing pages and ensuring content is suitable for target audiences.
6. You will manage some smaller projects on own initiative, but will also carry out administrative tasks, desk research and source data from internal and external sources in order to contribute to the development and delivery of wider projects and to their evaluation.
7. Contribute to developing communications plans, presentations, and promoting the projects and outcomes of projects/workstreams.
8. Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems. Support the development of automation initiatives, identifying opportunities to streamline processes and increase productivity.
9. 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. This may include identifying and resolving issues with the data. Process complex data (which may be financial, HR, student-related or other), monitoring accuracy, chasing up missing information, and resolving any issues as appropriate.
10. Provide specialist advice and training to colleagues on area of activity. You will be expected to act as a role model and coach members of the team.
11. Support equality and value diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.
12. Providing other administrative support for the Hub, including arranging travel, servicing and arranging meetings and diary management.
13. You may be required to be responsible for one or more of the following:
1. monitoring budgets including processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget,
2. procuring goods and services through the University system,
3. providing a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings,
4. updating and writing contents for the department’s communications, eg SharePoint pages,
5. responsible for the regular review and update of key documentation,
6. dealing with health and safety and facilities issues,
7. HR-related tasks such as managing staff absence, induction, or dealing with leavers,
8. dealing with arrangements for international visitors,
9. monitoring internal procedures/compliance and ensuring these are followed and disseminated as appropriate.
14. To undertake any other duties, projects or special tasks as may be assigned from time to time by your line manager or the Deputy Director of Operations.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

1. 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.
2. Minimum of grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines.
6. Excellent interpersonal skills. The post holder must inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues and provide excellent customer service at all times.
7. A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
8. A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach.
9. Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
10. Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.
11. Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
12. Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

Dimensions

This role will require the exercise of personal initiative within and beyond the department. May manage projects 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 other 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 Lorena Catiche, email: m.l.catiche@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 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.