Research Grants Finance Officer - Research Strategy and Services - 106424 - Grade 6

University of Birmingham; Park Central; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK university is seeking a Research Grants Finance Officer to manage financial administration across research projects. The role involves providing financial support, building relationships with academic colleagues, and ensuring compliance with funder requirements. Candidates should have a degree-level education, strong analytical skills, and experience in financial administration. The position offers a generous benefits package, including 40 days of paid holiday, making it an excellent opportunity for individuals looking to make an impact in research finance.

Benefits

Generous paid holiday (40 days)

Occupational sick pay

Pension scheme

Subsidised day nurseries

Qualifications

• Experience engaging with internal and external stakeholders to build relationships.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and customer service experience.
• Ability to communicate effectively with a range of internal stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Provide financial support throughout the post-award lifecycle for project grants.
• Build relationships with academic colleagues to understand financial information.
• Manage financial claims and reporting for project portfolio.

Skills

Financial administration

Numeracy

Communication skills

Analytical skills

Relationship management

Education

Degree level education

Tools

MS Office

Excel

Job description

Overview

The Research Grants Finance Officer plays a key role as part of the wider Post Award management within the Research Strategy & Services Division (RSSD), supporting academic colleagues to deliver successful, well‑managed research projects. The post holder is responsible for high‑quality financial administration across a portfolio of externally funded awards, ensuring financial claims, reports and forecasts are accurate, timely and compliant with funder requirements. This role combines financial administration, problem‑solving and relationship‑management, and sits within a collaborative team that provides guidance, mentoring and day‑to‑day support for post‑award activities.

Responsibilities

• Provide clear, practical and timely financial support throughout the post‑award lifecycle for a defined portfolio of project grants, including budget monitoring, claims, reporting and project closure.
• Build positive and proactive working relationships with academic colleagues and their project managers, helping them to understand financial information, optimise their budgets and comply with funder terms and conditions.
• Manage financial claims, reporting and monitoring for your project portfolio, ensuring accuracy and timeliness while drawing on established processes, templates and team support.
• Contribute to the smooth and efficient operation of the Post Award function by identifying opportunities to simplify steps, improve handovers and support process enhancements.
• Share good practice across the Post Award teams and support colleagues, helping to embed consistent approaches and contribute to a collaborative, supportive working culture.
• Monitor a range of monthly KPIs for your portfolio to deliver to expected standards and resolve issues proactively.
• Support preparation for internal and external audits, ensuring information is accurate and provided promptly.
• Liaise with external funders as needed to provide financial assurance, clarify processes and support colleagues in your academic areas.
• Promote equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
• Personally model the Values of the University, and in particular those in the Strategic Framework and Birmingham Professional.

Planning and Organising

• Prioritise and schedule work and resources to ensure on‑time budget delivery.
• Set priorities and quality standards for a wide range of tasks and duties.
• Contribute to written documents, for example guidelines internal to the area, taking account of audience.
• Operate with limited supervision, displaying considerable initiative within established work procedures.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

• Anticipate and identify issues in own area based on experience.
• Make appropriate suggestions for improvements and implement these when agreed.
• Facilitate change, and articulate the implications and benefits of change to others.
• Focus on determining short‑term priorities of work area, and how to maximise quality, efficiency and continuity.

Organisational Understanding

• Quickly develop an understanding of the working area and how it contributes to the success of the University.
• Display an interest in how the University operates beyond the own working area; develop and share this knowledge with others.

Relationships and Communication

• Develop and maintain excellent working relationships in own area, and more widely as required for collaborative working opportunities.
• Communicate clearly and openly with others both within and external to the University, using a range of communication skills and strategies to gain commitment to a course of action.
• Demonstrate collaborative working at all times, including with others outside the immediate work area.

Qualifications and Experience

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications); if no equivalent qualification is held, significant practical relevant experience within a financial background is required.
• Evidence of numeracy and literacy, with the ability to write clearly, and to analyse information and data.
• Knowledge of the UK research funding ecosystem and key research funders, understanding their processes (desirable but not essential).
• Experience of engaging and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to build relationships, deliver key outcomes or resolve challenges.
• Experience in improving processes, service quality and/or efficiency demonstrating a high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness and flexibility.
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to analyse qualitative and quantitative information and present this to a wide range of audiences.
• Budgetary monitoring and management, including reporting, identifying issues and resolving them decisively; high level of attention to detail.
• Proficient IT skills, including the MS Office suite; confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required (Excel essential).
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with proven experience of collaboration within teams, including engaging with peers and providing excellent customer service at all times.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage effectively with a range of internal stakeholders.
• High level of self‑motivation and personal accountability with ability to plan and deliver goals to deadlines under pressure to meet key performance indicators.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day‑to‑day activity that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Role Context

Roles at this level require expertise and a detailed understanding of methods, systems and procedures in an administrative or professional area. You may either use specialist knowledge or have a planning/coordination/project role, or a supervisory function where you manage a team. You will exercise a high degree of personal responsibility and initiative, using your judgement to resolve queries and deal with unforeseen problems with limited guidance or supervision.

Background

The University of Birmingham has an exciting vision to build on the success of REF2021, transforming research performance across outputs, income, impact and policy influence. The Research Strategy & Services Division (RSSD) is a new Professional Services department providing transformative support to research activity. The University is proud of its Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations, and it is committed to fair, inclusive employment. The university’s sustainability strategy is a key part of its long‑term plan.

Benefits

In addition to 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, there are three high‑quality subsidised day nurseries. The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston with excellent transport links, a state‑of‑the‑art sports centre, shops, cafés, an art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.