Senior PA - Cancer Clinical Trials Unit - 46530 - Grade 5

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

Job summary

The University of Birmingham is seeking a Senior Personal Assistant for the Cancer Clinical Trials Unit. This role involves comprehensive administrative support, managing diaries, organizing events, and ensuring effective coordination within the team. The position requires strong organizational and communication skills, and offers a competitive salary with generous benefits.

Benefits

40 days paid holiday a year

Paid volunteering day

Occupational sick pay

Pension scheme

Subsidised day nurseries

Qualifications

• Educated to A Level standard or equivalent.
• Proven ability to manage complex tasks concurrently.
• Proficient in handling electronic diaries and emails.

Responsibilities

• Manage complex diary and meeting planning.
• Handle enquiries and correspondence independently.
• Organize events and manage travel arrangements.

Skills

Organizational skills

Interpersonal skills

Communication skills

IT skills

Problem-solving

Education

A Level standard or equivalent

Minimum grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE

Tools

MS Office Suite

Enterprise Resource Planning package

Job description

Position Details

Cancer Clinical Trials Unit, School of Medical Sciences, College of Medicine and Health

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

Grade: 5

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to September 2028

Closing date: 30th June 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, andweare 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 todevelopthrough our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programmewhichprovides allprofessionalservices staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.With almost 5,000professionalservices jobs in a wide-range of functionsin Edgbaston andin our campus inDubai, there are plenty of opportunities foryou to be able to develop yourcareer 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 andtothe success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer avarietyof 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 dayspaid holidaya 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 thebenefits of working for the Universityof Birmingham

Background

This is an exciting opportunity to join one of the largest UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) registered clinical trials units in the country. The Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU) is based in the School of Medical Sciences, University of Birmingham and specialises in running cancer clinical trials. The Unit has an extensive portfolio of phase I, II and III clinical trials in adults and children covering a wide range of disease sites. The Unit employs a multidisciplinary team of over 200 staff including statisticians, systematic reviewers, trial management staff, research nurses, monitors, programmers, administrators and IT staff. The CRCTU receives substantial core funding from Cancer Research UK and additional funding from other charities, government and pharmaceutical companies.

To provide executivesupport to the Head of Department and Director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU). The CRCTU is one of the leading cancer clinical trials units in the UK and internationally, responsible for a broad portfolio of local, national and international cancer clinical trials in adults and children. The CRCTU currently employs over 200 members of staff.

Role Summary

As a senior personal assistant within a team/department you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex.You may also be responsible for managing other staff or for supporting colleagues and sharing knowledge.You 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 time. This 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 otherswhere 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 necessary. This 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 data.This 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 department’s 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 experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Minimum of grade C/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent level 2 qualification.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 howthe Universityand higher education institutions work.
• Ability to understand policy and procedures and how to apply these.

Dimensions

This role will require you to exercise personal initiative within and beyond the department.

You 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 supervision. You 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 autonomy.You will deal with the more complex queries and be expected to resolve any problems in your area of responsibility.You 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.

Further particulars can be foundhere

Informal enquiries to Helen Evans, email: [e-mail]

View our staff values and behaviourshere

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 .