Senior AdministratorPA Estates 57510Z25 Grade 5

The University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 29,000 - 32,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK university in Birmingham is seeking a Senior Administrator/PA to provide essential administrative support within the Estates Office. Responsibilities include complex diary management, organizing meetings, and supporting staff. The ideal candidate should have proven experience in administration, excellent organizational and communication skills, and proficiency in MS Office. A full-time fixed-term contract with a competitive salary range is offered.

Benefits

40 days paid holiday

Occupational sick pay

Generous pension scheme

Qualifications

• Previous administrative or PA experience.
• Ability to handle complex diaries and emails.
• Proven ability to anticipate requirements.

Responsibilities

• Undertake complex diary management and meeting planning.
• Proactive inbox management making decisions on behalf of others.
• Organize UK and overseas travel.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Organizational skills

Proficient in MS Office

Customer service

Education

A Level standard or equivalent

Minimum grade C in Mathematics and English at GCSE

Tools

MS Office Suite

Enterprise Resource Planning software

Job description

Description

Position Details

Estates

Location

Location : University of Birmingham Edgbaston Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range 29647 to 31460 with potential progression once in post to 35388

Grade : 5

Part Time (28 hours per week)

Fixed Term contract up to September 2026

Closing date : 4th November 2025

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 institution. It wants 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 5000 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 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 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 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

Working within the Estates Office this post provides essential PA support across the Projects / Operational Support functions and essential administrative duties across the wider Estates department.

Role Summary

As a Senior Administrator / PA within a team / department you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties some of which may be responsible for managing other staff or for supporting colleagues and sharing will use your excellent organisational skills and attention to detail to ensure the people you support are well prepared and that the tasks you carry out are completed to a high quality in a timely manner.

Main Duties

• Undertake complex diary management and meeting planning usually 6-12 months ahead making decisions on the best use of will require you to understand the priorities and deadlines you and your manager(s) are working to and will involve developing relationships across the University and beyond.
• Proactive inbox management with confidence to make decisions on behalf of others where appropriate.
• Dealing with a wide range of more complex enquiries and correspondence independently or exercising judgement to redirect them to senior colleagues or other departments within the University.
• If in a supervisory role you will line manage all staff and take responsibility for co‑ordinating and prioritising the work of others normally as the head of a small team or sub‑unit of a team. If not in a supervisory role you will still be expected to act as a role model and coach members of the team.
• Maintain high profile working relationships with key stakeholders fielding enquiries and ensuring that appropriate information is disseminated to stakeholders as appropriate.
• Proactive preparation and collation of meeting‑related papers working collaboratively to determine what information might be required in advance of a meeting articulating clear deadlines for submission and proactively chasing where may include attending meetings to provide high‑quality committee support taking minutes and following up as appropriate.
• Arranging complex UK and overseas travel including booking flights hotels transfers and organisation and planning of itineraries ensuring best use of time and taking into account budgetary constraints.
• Organisation of events including booking a venue sending invitations arranging refreshments liaising with speakers manage bookings co‑ordination of colleagues advertising collating feedback and reporting back.
• Collate analyse and interpret may include identifying and resolving issues with the data.
• 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.
• Support the management development and implementation of operational processes and systems.
• Will 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 departments communications eg 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 moderates own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

Required Knowledge Skills Qualifications Experience

• 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.
• Minimum of grade C in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent level 2 qualification.
• Previous administrative or PA experience.
• 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.
• 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.
• Excellent communication skills including the ability to write for different audiences and to required deadlines.
• 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.
• A high degree of professionalism tact and diplomacy and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information / issues.
• A high degree of initiative personal judgement resourcefulness flexibility and a self‑motivating approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a large complex organisation and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.
• Understands the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace.
• Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.

Dimensions

This role will require you to exercise personal initiative within and beyond the may manage a team or budgets.

Planning and Organising

This role will require you to work independently on daily weekly and monthly tasks but also on projects with medium-longer‑term horizons without daily may manage other staffs workloads.

Problem Solving and decision making

You will work under the direction of the senior manager you support but you will have a significant degree of will deal with the more complex queries and be expected to resolve any problems in your area of may also manage the workload of others or coach others to achieve results. You will take day to day decisions on managing the diary emails preparing papers and booking travel.

Internal and External relationships

You will be liaising with a wide range of internal colleagues and stakeholders likely to be University‑wide and with external stakeholders.

Informal enquiries to Katie Stone email :

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.

Required Experience :

Senior IC

Key Skills

Business,Baan,Communication,Corporate Advisory,HSSE

Employment Type :

Full‑Time

Experience :

years

Vacancy :

1

Monthly Salary Salary :

29647 - 31460