Senior Administrator - School of Physics and Astronomy - 105663 - Grade 5

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 30,000; Part time

Job summary

An established industry player in higher education seeks a Senior Administrator to support its Particle Physics Research Group. This role involves a variety of administrative duties, requiring excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to manage complex queries. The successful candidate will work closely with academics and students, ensuring effective communication and support across multiple functions. With a commitment to professional development and a focus on work/life balance, this position offers a dynamic environment where your contributions will be valued. Join a team dedicated to excellence in research and education, and help shape the future of the academic community.

Benefits

40 days paid holiday

Paid volunteering day

Occupational sick pay

Pension scheme

Qualifications

• Educated to A Level standard or equivalent with relevant work experience.
• Minimum grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Provide administrative support across HR, finance, and events.
• Maintain working relationships with key stakeholders and manage inquiries.

Skills

Interpersonal Skills

Communication Skills

IT Skills

Organizational Skills

Judgment and Decision Making

Education

A Level or equivalent

GCSE in Mathematics and English

Tools

MS Office Suite

Enterprise Resource Planning Package

Job description

Job Description

Position Details

School of Physics and Astronomy

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388.

As this vacancy has limited funding the maximum salary that can be offered is Grade 5, salary £29,647.

Part Time (18 hours per week)

Fixed Term contract up to June 2026

Closing date: 13th May 2025

Our offer to you

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. 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.

Background

The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham invites applications for a Senior Administrator role to support the School's Particle Physics Research Group, and the wider School. The successful applicant will work closely with members of the Group to provide a front of house service across a range of functions, including HR, finance, facilities and events. This is a varied role requiring good interpersonal skills and relationship management across staff and students within the School, as well as across wider University contacts.

The Particle Physics Research Group comprises around 60 people, including academics, researchers, PhD students and technicians. It is a world-leading research centre, with long-standing involvement in several large international experiments at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, aiming to understand the physical nature of the world around us.

Role Summary

As a Senior Administrator within the Group and wider School, you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You will be responsible 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.

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.
2. 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.
3. If you have a supervisory role, you will line manage your staff taking responsibility for co-ordinating and prioritising the work of others.
4. 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.
5. You may be involved in organising events including booking a venue, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers, manage bookings, co-ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back.
6. Will manage some smaller projects on own initiative, but will also carry out desk research and source data from internal and external sources in order to contribute to wider projects.
7. 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.
8. Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems.
9. Process more 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.
11. As required, provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings.
12. You may be required to be responsible for one or more of the following:

• monitoring budgets including processing payments, authorising expenditure, raising concerns where finances are not in line with the budget,
• procuring goods and services through the University system,
• updating and writing contents for the department's communications e.g. intranet pages,
• dealing with health and safety and facilities issues,
• HR-related tasks such as managing staff absence, induction, or dealing with leavers,
• dealing with arrangements for international visitors,
• monitoring internal procedures/compliance and ensuring these are followed and disseminated as appropriate.

Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

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.
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 a team 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 workloads of other staff.

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.

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 Professor Cristina Lazzeroni, email: [e-mail] and Anna Jenkin, email: [e-mail].

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.