Project Officer (NBIF) - School of Engineering

Position Details

School of Engineering

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £27,924 to £30,497, with potential progression once in post to £34,304.

Grade 6

Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to July 2025.

Closing date: 20th June 2022

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 .

Role Summary

This role is based within the National Buried Infrastructure Facility (NBIF), which is part of the School of Engineering within the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. NBIF is a £27.2m new large-scale laboratory which opened in 2021 to conduct research on buried infrastructure, tunnelling, ground improvements and large-scale structural testing. NBIF is open for research funded by UKRI and industry as well as training and CPD. 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.

This role will support the Director of NBIF and other staff with the administration of projects, the running of the facility or support in the management of one or more projects through the provision of significant and high-level project management support as directed by the Director of NBIF.

Working closely with academics in NBIF, the Project Officer will support the day-to-day activities and administration at the start of projects as they move into set-up and delivery. This role will involve duties liaising with HR, contracts and finance and the buying team. It further involves reviewing financial expenditure and the communication of information, guidance and regulations to project participants. The post holder will also contribute to the planning of events and meetings and assist the Director of NBIF in the successful delivery of these activities.

Main Duties

• Support NBIF's lead academics liaising with HR, finance, procurement, estates and contracts to support the running of the facility.
• Support with the running of small projects, especially industry facing, which includes initiating invoices, liaising with the industrial lead and providing financial reporting.
• Provide administrative support for the NBIF advisory boards which includes liaising with the Chairs of the boards, issuing invites and agendas and compiling minutes after the meetings.
• Support will include preparing progress reports for project boards (where they are held), project planning, and delivering on sub-projects/small projects, which will be defined on a continuing basis.
• Draw up project plans, including key performance indicators, identifying milestones as appropriate.
• Contribute to milestone tracking/key performance indicator tracking.
• Appropriately assess and escalate issues and risks.
• Support the management of project resources and the tracking of spend against budgets.
• Contribute to developing communication plans, presentations, and promoting the projects and outcomes of projects/workstreams.
• Maintain an up to date knowledge of project management methodologies.
• Determine short term priorities for work, and how to maximise quality, efficiency and continuity.
• Assist in the evaluation and review of projects.
• Promote equality and value diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.

Person Specification

• Graduate-level or the ability to demonstrate relevant work experience.
• Experience in managing complex information and presenting this in a clear and easily understandable format.
• Experience of project management, preferably in an academic setting.
• Experience within the accountancy or financial environment, including demonstrable ability to prepare and monitor budgets and the ability to cost activities.
• Be an organised individual who has the ability to manipulate a large amount of information.
• A good level of numeracy and knowledge/understanding of accounting and financial practices, methods and systems.
• Ability to plan, manage and prioritise their own workload, respond to changing priorities and deliver work to deadlines maintaining a consistently high standard.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to work closely with other people at all levels of seniority, both within and outside the University.
• Excellent communication skills: oral, written and presentational.
• Ability to implement processes and identify where processes or procedures might be improved.
• Ability to understand complex regulations and work appropriately to those regulations.
• Excellent IT skills, with a working knowledge of standard Microsoft Office software and using custom systems and databases.

Informal enquires to Nicole Metje, email: n.metje@bham.ac.uk