Position Details

Executive Support

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £45,585 to £54,395 with potential progression once in post to £61,198

Grade: 8

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 29th January 2024

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

Strategic Programme Development & Change is a newly formed, high-performing, friendly team with an exciting and challenging remit. We have a critical strategic development and implementation role within the University, and our capabilities are used to bring stakeholders together, agree strategic direction and deliver outcomes. We are providing support to senior leaders to meet the University’s ambitions to be a Global Top 50 institution, solving tricky problems and finding solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing our organisation. Our work is both stretching and rewarding, and no two days are ever the same.

We are looking for a Strategic Programme Development Managers to join our existing highly regarded change management unit to form the new Strategic Programme Development & Change team. The team, working to a significant portfolio of projects, has two core remits:

• To provide an exemplar service for the development of major cross-functional strategic initiatives that are in direct support of the Birmingham 2030 Strategic Framework, ensuring alignment between key projects to enable fully informed and integrated decision making, from the business case to implementation methodology.
• To provide change leadership capacity that can operate flexibly across the institution and to create change, process review and improvement capability that spreads across the institution.

To be to be successful you’ll need to be an effective strategic thinker, writer and collaborator, able to convene stakeholders at all levels from across organisational boundaries, hold outstanding interpersonal and organisational skills, and will bring a can-do mindset.

We are looking for a highly motivated colleague who:

• has experience of delivering outcomes in a complex and fast paced environment and has the resilience to work in ambiguity and with changing priorities,
• can think strategically, bringing clarity to ambiguity, identifying ways forward and developing creative solutions to complex problems;
• is adept at building relationships across organisational boundaries, balancing interests to build consensus and leveraging these relationships to deliver outcomes,
• and is a highly effective communicator, collaboratively breaking down challenges and demonstrating impact.

We are open and welcoming to people from all walks of life and believe that a diverse team with a mix of perspectives and experiences provides the best environment for success. We pride ourselves on our collaborative approach and are looking to recruit an individual who has values in line with ours: Ambitious, Open, Responsible, Collaborative and Innovative.

Strategic Programme Development & Change is part of a wider Executive Support Division that includes Strategic Planning & Performance Insight, Executive Office, Legal Services, and Governance Support, and we meet regularly to share our work and successes, and to learn together.

The right candidate will benefit from a flexible working environment (we work to a pattern of 3 or 4 days from campus) and will be able to access lots of opportunities for learning and development.

Role Summary

In this role you will work at the heart of the University to support the delivery of our Birmingham 2030 aims and ambitions.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Owning and delivering a range of time-limited strategic programmes (e.g. major capital investments in support of our academic strategy) across the University, producing robust business cases that are consistent in authorship, are linked to the strategic aims, and can capture and then translate academic vision into a practical delivery plan.
• Providing thought leadership and analysis where required to define the problem, identify ways forward and agree next steps.
• Scoping and planning programmes of work, ensuring outputs are progressed and establishing virtual teams with relevant colleagues across the University to support delivery, and are integrated and aligned with the full portfolio of strategic initiatives.
• To provide challenge to ensure that in development programmes meet the strategic needs of the University and that the proposed beneficial outcomes are realistic and achievable (and that clear mechanisms are identified to capture and monitor them).
• Presenting findings and recommendations to senior members of the University (up to Executive Board level), to enable efficient and effective senior level decision making, supporting the University’s ability to keep pace with its ambitions.

This will be a varied role, and will see you working to develop a range of major cross-functional strategic initiatives that are in direct support of the Birmingham 2030 Strategic Framework. These initiatives are likely to be wide in scope, involve a large range of internal and external stakeholders, have significant associated costs and or organisational change, and may involve capital developments (digital, estates), and lead to a step change in ways of working.

The projects that the role will be assigned to may include the development of the investment case for new teaching or interdisciplinary research spaces and facilities that align to the needs of our academic strategy and sustainability goals. The established change management team have led on projects to create a significant new interdisciplinary research institute for Data Science & AI, an extensive programme of efficiency and effectiveness service important projects across Professional Services (HR, IT Services, Finance, Education support, Research Services), and School and College level strategy development projects.

Main Duties

To be personally responsible for leading and managing significant and complex University-wide initiatives. This will involve:

• The curation of a coherent and robust business case for the intended audience (e.g. UEB, Council) that has explored all suitable options, having convened and coordinated the appropriate inputs, and ensures the alignment with all levels of governance.
• Working closely with Project Sponsors (academic and Professional Services) to identify and plan the requirements for implementation and ensuring that programmes will delivered in accordance with the plan.
• Utilising excellent negotiation, communication and creativity skills to gain agreement across a broad range of stakeholders to initiatives. This will include working with staff groups for whom the proposed programme may represent significant changes, eg. to ways of working, and gaining commitment.
• Managing and coordinating the different strands of the initiatives including ensuring effective communication flows to all stakeholders.
• Implementing relevant project and change methodologies in support of strategic initiatives.
• Development of benefits realisation plans.
• To act as a repository for lessons learned and to ensure this knowledge is applied in the future.
• To be conduits the to professional expertise within UoB, for example Finance Business Partners, College Planning Partners, Legal Services, to ensure the right people are sufficiently engaged at the appropriate stages.
• Development and execution of results yielding engagement plans and strategies for a wide range of stakeholders and audiences, including academic colleagues, professional services staff, and students.
• Preparing and, where appropriate, presenting reports, proposals and papers for stakeholders, project sponsors, College Boards, RLG and other senior meetings.
• Working collaboratively with other teams that are responsible for delivering programmes, projects and change, to ensure a coherent and consistent approach to programme and change management across the University.

Supporting the work of the Strategic Programme Development and Change function

To support the development of change management and process improvement methodologies in the University. This will involve:

• Promotes equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
• Using Strategic Programme Development and Change’s methodologies and practices and contributing the development of the University’s programme and change management capability.
• Identifying and, where appropriate, adopting best practice within and outside HE in programme development change management
• Developing and delivering training and other forms of support to staff developing and managing programmes and change within the University.
• Being a proactive member of the Strategic Programme Development and Change function, contributing to its continued success and development and supporting other members of the team.

Duties and responsibilities within the post and the obligations placed upon post holders may vary and develop over time. Any resulting changes will be subject to consultation with the post holder and the Head of Strategic Programme Development and Change, through the agreed annual review process.

Person Specification

The post holder will have the following combined experience and personal qualities:

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Relevant degree or relevant equivalent professional qualification (change management, project management), plus substantial relevant experience evidencing the experience required in this role.
• Outstanding writing skills: with the ability to write/prepare high quality papers, presentations, reports and briefings to Project Board, Executive Board, and Council (our governing body) levels. This includes a clear style of communication and the ability to write for different audiences.
• Experience of developing strategic businesses cases, in collaboration with senior stakeholders, for significant cross-functional strategic initiatives, for example major capital investments, substantial organisational change.
• Evidenced successful setup and delivery of strategic programmes and projects (including structures, processes, tools & methods ) in a complex governance organisation.
• Experience of developing effective networks and strong relationships at all levels in a complex organisation in order to support the delivery of major initiatives.
• Highly developed research skills and experience of producing and analysing complex source material, information and data and turning these into purposeful reports or strategic and operational plans that influence policy and assist decision making.
• Strong facilitation skills, including workshops, and face-to-face.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with an ability to use a range of communication skills and strategies to gain commitment to action or change.
• Excellent IT, organisational and administrative skills.
• An ability to work simultaneously and effectively to progress several different tasks.

Personal Characteristics and Knowledge

• Strong intellectual ability and the ability to apply this to management tasks.
• Ability to identify and assess strategic drivers in determining the strategic alignment and viability of major initiatives.
• Knowledge of a wide range of Project, Programme & Change methodologies, with evidence of applying tailored professional best practice to organisational needs.
• Analysis of complex problems and formulation of innovative, simple and effective solutions.
• Analysis and assessment of complex project, programme and portfolio information to provide clear recommendations to senior leadership and governance bodies.
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility and a self-motivating approach. The ability to complete tasks based on only broad direction and with minimum supervision.
• Enthusiasm and willingness to meet challenging demands, working to different people, deadlines and within budget.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including tact and diplomacy, and an ability to work at all levels of the organisation.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• A flexible approach and attitude and a willingness to respond to changing requirements of the team.
• Demonstrates collaborative working, builds open, trusting and effective partnerships.
• A firm but diplomatic attitude with the ability to prioritise, negotiate and use one’s own judgement.
• A commitment to promote and adhere to the agreed values of the University and the Executive Support Division.
• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.

When completing the application form, please use the person specification above to inform your answer to the section that says: This section should set out your reasons for applying, skills and experience, and other interests and activities as appropriate to the person specification. As a rough guide, we would expect you to write in the region of 1000 words and cover how your skills and experience apply to the role, with clear examples. You may also attach a CV if you wish, however, shortlisting will be predominantly based on the information in the application form.

Informal enquiries to Stuart Harvey, Head of Strategic Programme Development and Change, email s.harvey@bham.ac.uk

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. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .