Position Details
Executive Office
Dubai Operations
University of Birmingham, Dubai campus
Salary: Competitive
Grade 6
No. of positions: 1
Full time
Location: Dubai, UAE
Closing date: 6th November 2024
University of Birmingham Dubai
Having established ourselves in Dubai International Academic City in 2018 we have now moved to our new state-of-the-art campus which opened in Sept 2021. These posts represent an excellent opportunity to join an ambitious World Top 100 University as we continue to grow our long-term strategic mission in Dubai, the UAE and the wider region. Our campus reflects the very best of Birmingham through our presence in Dubai.
Background
University of Birmingham Dubai
This post represents an excellent opportunity to join an ambitious Top 100 world leading University as we continue to grow our long-term strategic mission in Dubai, the UAE and the wider region. Our campus reflects the very best of the University of Birmingham through our presence in Dubai.
Professional Services Ethos
Our ethos as a Professional Services team has been developed in line with the principles of being a Birmingham Professional. Here in Dubai this means that all Professional Services colleagues seek to collaborate effectively to ensure the needs of the whole campus community and our stakeholders are met. It also means that we work constructively together to provide a flexible range of service and support that adapt to the changing needs of the campus as we grow. There are specific focal points in the academic cycle when all Professional Services team members will be expected to contribute regardless of their primary role, for example Welcome Week or Graduation.
In addition, the duties listed below are illustrative of the general nature and level of responsibility of this post which is likely to change over time in response to the needs of the campus and as you develop your experience and skills. You will have the opportunity to develop and may also need to specialise your duties further, over time, in agreement with your manager.
In order to contribute to the success of the team and the University’s vision for the Dubai Campus the Professional Services team will be seeking to continue to recruit and develop colleagues who display:
- a high level of intellectual aptitude;
- strong agility and a portfolio of skills that can adapt to meet changing circumstances;
- an innovative and creative mindset; and
- both an enterprising and entrepreneurial nature to support our growth and pursuit of excellence.
Role Summary
The Executive and Corporate Office represent the Senior leadership of the University of Birmingham Dubai and support the delivery of central corporate services.
All members of the office work to execute the mission set out by the University’s Executive Board and Council and are required to work closely with colleagues from the Edgbaston campus to ensure that governance, policy and processes are effective and meet the needs of the wider university.
Reporting to the Executive Office Manager, the Operations Officer will lead a team with responsibility for providing operational and administrative support for a range of processes and activities across the campus. The division of responsibility between members of the team will be agreed locally and, although you will focus on Core Operations, you will work flexibly to ensure the delivery of excellent and seamless support for all operations, governance and activity.
The Operations Officer will act as the first point of contact for day-to-day queries; liaising with staff across the University, as well as external collaborators, students and visitors will be a key aspect of this role.
The role is dynamic and demanding role and will involve considerable flexibility and the ability to prioritise and deliver tasks with a high level of accuracy and precision to support Senior Leadership and our wider campus community.
Main Duties
Operational Delivery:
- Manage Operations Administrators within the Dubai Operations division.
- Support the delivery of effective, efficient and compliant operational and administrative support ensuring an exceptional customer experience and high level of service.
- Provide support advice and guidance on a broad range of operational functions and respond to enquiries from academic staff, students and colleagues.
- Contribute to the development, review and continuous improvement of relevant procedures, plans, policies, processes and working practices.
- Work flexibly to support colleagues and the delivery of tasks and priorities, ensuring peak periods are accommodated, and services are able to flex with changing demand.
- Provide general operational support including: raising purchase orders, maintaining records, reception cover, room and catering bookings, and updating School websites, social media, and SharePoint and PA or committee support where required.
- Contribute to the delivery of local projects and initiatives.
- Organization 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 and building reports.
- 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.
- Undertake the roles of Health and Safety Assistant and First Aider.
Will be responsible for one or more of the following:
- Monitoring budgets including processing payments, 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 e.g. internet pages,
- Dealing with health and safety and facilities issues.
- Monitoring internal procedures/compliance and ensuring these are followed and disseminated as appropriate.
- Supporting student-led services and thematic areas where necessary.
Event Coordination
- Leading the organisation of events which may include conferences, workshops and or senior visits including booking a venue, sending invitations, arranging refreshments, liaising with speakers or visitors, manage bookings, co-ordination of colleagues, advertising, collating feedback and reporting back.
- Leading on communications with external stakeholders and ensuring a strong customer service throughout.
Front Desk Operations
- Act as a first point of contact when dealing with correspondence calls.
- Handling a busy front desk at the main campus reception to support the smooth running of customer interaction points within the campus supporting Business Development and Engagement and the Executive Office.
- Welcoming esteemed guests and visitors to the Executive Office.
- Answering and referring technical queries to the appropriate department when unable to provide guidance based on the information on the official website.
- Manage initial requests in-person or over the phone dealing with general queries and delegate more technical queries to the appropriate teams.
- Supporting interested applicants which may include campus tours.
- Deliver outstanding customer service and support with bookings for bespoke commercial and corporate events in accordance with the clients’ vision, budget, and requirements.
- Collating feedback to the relevant Heads of Service to ensure a continuous improvement of service and delivery.
Executive Support
- Act as Assistant Secretary to relevant committees, groups and meetings, scheduling meetings, booking rooms, circulating agendas/papers, capturing actions and taking minutes.
- Provide local administrative support for legal, statutory and regulatory compliance
- e.g. data entry, collating, maintaining and disposing of records, acting as a first aider, Health and Safety Assistant etc.
- Providing operational support for HR-related processes including supporting onboarding, wellbeing initiatives, maintaining annual leave records etc.
- Provide support for Finance-related processes including raising purchase orders, stationery ordering, booking travel, catering orders and reconciling expenses etc.
Role context
Roles at this level will require a broad understanding and practical experience of an administrative or operational area which will be used to plan the running and development of services and/or lead shorter term projects or contribute to larger projects.
You will work with information which needs interpretation and analysis; you will use your judgement to identify the best solution to differing problems and issues, offering recommendations for managing more complex situations. You may also need to liaise and/or co-ordinate activities across a number of different sections within the department or possibly with wider department or external bodies as appropriate.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
- Educated to degree level or has a significant practical work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
- Experience in Higher Education would be advantageous.
- Ability to use Power Platforms e.g. PowerBI, PowerApps, Power Automate etc
- Experience in coordinating large events with an ability to use resources effectively.
- Proven ability to lead and be proactive. Experience in management is advantageous.
- Excellent interpersonal skills: you must be able to inspire confidence and command authority with a range of colleagues, including senior executives and provide excellent service at all times.
- Ability to identify and implement improvements to services and monitor performance output.
- Experience of handling a busy front desk and reception with excellent customer service skills.
- 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.
- Maintain effective administrative systems to ensure the smooth running of the activities within their area(s) of responsibility and liaise with the Head of Institute
- Operations on developing new practices to obtain greater operational efficiencies.
- 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 verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, and to required deadlines.
- Understands the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
- Ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity and inclusion issues in line with relevant policies and procedures.
- Where possible, undertake and maintain suitable training/certification to be able to act as First Aider and Fire Warden.
- Undertake any other tasks across the Institute as a whole that might reasonably be asked by the Executive Office Manager, and are suitable by way of knowledge or experience, or can be achieved by a reasonable programme of training.
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.
