SERENE Senior Project Administrator - School of Engineering - 107705 - Grade 5

Position Details

School of Engineering

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £30,062 to £31,900, with potential progression once in post to £35,883

Grade: 5

Full Time (Part time can be considered)

Fixed Term contract up to June 2029

Closing date: 17th August 2026

UK travel may be required for this role

This vacancy may be closed early if we receive sufficient applications for the role

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

This role is based within the School of Engineering (College of Engineering and Physical Sciences). The School, which is the largest in the College, is a multi-department School comprising the disciplines of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering. The post holder is expected to provide administrative and operational support to the Space Environment and Radio Engineering Research Group (SERENE). The SERENE Research Group is supported by a dedicated Professional Services team comprising a Space Environment Programme Manager, Project Officer, and Facility Manager. The post holder will provide administrative support to the SERENE Project Management Team to ensure successful delivery of the research portfolio. They will also continue to support the wider SERENE group comprising of approx. 20 members. They will also be an integral member of the School’s research Professional Services staff, which is led by the Head of Operations and the Research Administration Manager. The post holder will be part of a wider network of Research and Operations staff in the School of Engineering, including the School Operations Hub, the College of EPS and wider University. 

The SERENE group seeks to bridge the gap between academia and industry and has strong links with Dstl, the UK Met Office, QinetiQ and the European Space Agency as well as traditional UK Research Councils, primarily NERC and EPSRC. The group has a number of active research themes, including Over The Horizon Radar (OTHR), space radar, and the impacts of scintillation on satellite communication systems.

The primary research focus of SERENE is, however, modelling. SERENE has developed an operational first-principles data assimilation model of the Earth’s ionosphere and thermosphere, that uses state-of-the-art mathematical techniques coupled with tens of thousands of globally distributed observations to make accurate and actionable real time space weather forecasts.

SERENE also investigates the long-term likelihood of extreme space weather events, which it does using statistical methods, to estimate the associated risks. This enables the UK Government to better evaluate this risk in comparison to other risks.

Role Summary

As a senior administrator within SERENE, you will provide support for a broad range of administrative duties, some of which may be complex. You will be able to use your wide range of skills, both technical and administrative, and have the opportunity to lead on specific tasks within a team. 

This role is full time however, part time can be considered.

Main Duties

• 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. 
• 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. On a day-to-day basis you will be expected to resolve more complex queries without necessarily referring to your manager. 
• Proactive inbox management, with confidence to make decisions on behalf of others where appropriate. 
• 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.
• You will 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.
• You will be procuring goods and services through the University system, which are often large scale and complex, including the administration of trackers and reporting in association with this.
• You will be supporting the group to book travel in the UK and overseas for conference and events.
• You will be dealing with arrangements for international visitors, including visas and travel.
• Serve as the SERENE Social Value Champion, supporting engagement in key social value initiatives, including sustainability, equality, diversity and inclusion, and wellbeing. Represent and promote social value priorities on behalf of the group, working collaboratively across the School of Engineering, College, and wider University to support and enhance social impact.
• 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.
• 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. This may include identifying and resolving issues with the data.
• Support the management, development and implementation of operational processes and systems.
• 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. 
• Provide specialist advice and training to colleagues on area of activity. 
• As required, provide a professional secretarial service to relevant committees and meetings. 
• 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, 
  • Updating and writing contents for the SERENE group communications e.g. intranet / web pages,
  • dealing with health and safety and facilities issues, 
  • 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.
• Undertake any other duties commensurate with the grade of the post, as reasonably directed by the Project Officer, Programme Manager, or Head of Research Group.
• This role will involve hybrid working. 
• Travel to events may be required.

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/4 in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent.
• 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 postholder 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.

Informal enquiries to Charlotte Frank, 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.