Position Details
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,636 to £46,049 with potential progression once in post to £48,822
Grade: 7
Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 25th June 2026
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.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background
We are currently recruiting for an Executive Officer to join the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Hub. This is a challenging but exciting role, which would suit a highly motivated individual seeking to develop a successful career in Higher Education management.
The College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) Professional Services is led by the Director of Operations. The EPS College Hub provides executive support to the Head of College, Director of Operations and other College Senior Officers through co-ordination of governance activity, initiatives and projects, preparation of briefings across the breadth of College activity, secretarial support to committees and groups, organisation of events, management of a range of business planning activities (including finance and HR), and through Personal/Executive Assistants.
Role Summary
The Executive Officer is an important role within the EPS College Hub. The post is line managed by the Deputy Director of Operations (Administration) and gains exposure to a wide range of activities across the EPS College, working with senior academic and Professional Services colleagues.
The role involves undertaking a varied range of projects and tasks including leading on College Governance, coordinating support for committee work, preparing briefings, papers, and presentations, undertaking research activity, policy development and support, and project management. This is a busy and challenging post and the successful post holder will be driven, ambitious, highly professional and proactive with excellent communication skills. They will be well-organised, resilient, and resourceful with an ability to successfully undertake and deliver simultaneous and inter-dependant projects.
Main Duties
The post is generalist in nature and will involve a range of duties, which are set out in broad terms below. Examples of typical projects are included, although it should be noted that in a role such as this the nature of individual projects and initiatives, and the balance of work between different areas, will inevitably change and develop.
Executive Support
- Coordination of executive support for the College Academic and Professional Services Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
- Provide general support to College Senior Officers, including undertaking research and gathering information to inform decision making, and planning, coordinating and supporting College activity.
- Support co-ordination of a wide range the annual cycle of business planning activity across the College, (e.g. School Planning meetings).
- Line management of the College Hub Team.
- Coordinating the College Secretariat to ensure appropriate support to committees as required, including agenda, report, and minute preparation and undertaking and co-ordinating follow up actions arising from meetings. The College Executive Officer has particular responsibility for College Board meetings.
Governance support
- Support the delivery of projects including planning activity, co-ordinating actions, managing communications, organising events and workshops, and secretarial support for meetings. This may include providing project support and leading other staff engagement activities across the College.
- Support the coordination and maintenance of College / School Business Continuity Plans
- Support the College processes liaising with Legal Services around Information Security / Subject Access Requests, Freedom of Information requests and compliance with GDPR requirements.
- Monitoring of College compliance with all mandatory training activity and liaison with Schools over any resulting actions required.
- Support for Professional Services People & Culture-related activity
Communications
- Take a lead role as part of a steering and delivering College internal communications, including relevant events and bulletins
- Coordination of College-level forum / meetings (e.g. Professional Services Town Hall)
- Write papers, reports, briefings, and management information for a range of internal and external audiences.
- Work with College Senior Officers to write presentations for various internal (and potentially external) meetings and other forum.
Operational Processes
- Work with School Operations Leads on streamlining of processes including use of automation where appropriate.
- Coordination with School Operations Leads to ensure efficiency of processes where the work spans Schools and the College.
Person Specification
Skills and Experience
- Educated to degree level or equivalent relevant work experience.
- Evidence of outstanding writing skills, with the ability to produce high quality papers, reports, briefings, and presentations to a senior management level.
- Excellent organisational and administrative skills, and demonstrable experience of managing complex projects.
- Evidence of strong IT proficiency, including effective use of automation tools, AI technologies, and Microsoft 365 cloud-based applications to enhance productivity and outcomes.
- Excellent interpersonal skills, including tact and diplomacy, and an ability to work at all levels of the organisation.
- Evidence of commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion issues in an institutional setting.
- Demonstrates ability to work collaboratively, persuade others, build open, trusting and effective networks, and bring people together to work towards a common goal.
- Demonstrable experience of researching and analysing complex source material, information, and data, and turning these into purposeful reports that influence policy and assist decision making.
- Sensitivity to the constraints of working in a confidential environment and confidence working within formal information governance and statutory compliance frameworks (e.g. Information Security, Data Protection, Freedom of Information requests).
- Demonstrable experience of ability to service committees and working groups.
- Proactive and flexible approach and attitude, effective time management, and a willingness to respond to changing priorities.
- Evidence of working with a high degree of initiative, personal judgement, and a self-motivating approach. The ability to bring personal ideas and creativity to projects, and complete tasks based on only broad direction and with minimum supervision.
- High standard of presentation, accuracy, and attention to detail.
A strong interest in and understanding of key policy issues in HE and management, and the ability to take into consideration the potential impacts of this on own work and in advising others.
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Informal enquiries to Mark Jeffery, email: [email protected]
View our staff values and behaviours here
Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.
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 .
