Description Position Details School of Metallurgy and Materials, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Location: High Temperature Research Centre, Coventry, UK Full time starting salary is normally in the range £46,735 to £55,755 with potential progression once in post to £62,728 Grade: 8 Part Time (18.75 hours per week) Fixed Term contract up to January 2028 Closing date: 5th May 2025 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 The High Temperature Research Centre (HTRC) is a research partnership between the University of Birmingham and Rolls-Royce plc. Funded in 2012 and operational in 2016 the Centre is at the forefront of research in to manufacturing of nickel superalloy single crystals and related enabling technologies. Research projects span early stage discovery through development and maturing of technology and manufacturing capability and direct impact within Rolls-Royce’s manufacturing facilities. The Centre trains the manufacturing and technical specialists and leaders of the future. The excellence of the research partnership between the University and Rolls-Royce plc was recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering’s recent presentation of the Bhattacharyya Award (2022) and Queen’s Anniversary Prize (2023). HTRC is a dual site facility; laboratories focusing on low technology readiness level research are located in the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the Edgbaston campus and large scale research facilities at Ansty Park, Coventry. The HTRC recently secured an EPSRC Prosperity Partnership grant on Advanced Research in to Crystal Anisotropy and Nucleation effects in nickel superalloys (ARCANE). This large 5 year, £11M, Birmingham led project with Rolls-Royce plc, University of Oxford and University of Greenwich has five research work packages alongside an overarching data science and artificial intelligence strand. We are seeking to appoint Project Manager to support the Principal Investigator with management and delivery of the ARCANE project. Role Summary The Arcane Project Manager will have the remit of managing the EPSRC funded project within HTRC based at the University of Birmingham’s facility at Ansty. Within this capacity the job will provide strategic direction and management to ensure the project delivers in line with its objectives. The Project Manager will work directly with the HTRC Director for delivery of all aspects of this project and be line managed by the Deputy Director of Operations for EPS College at UoB. Through collaboration, the aim is to manage and support the delivery of five work packages and data science workstreams. As Manager for the project, the post holder will be responsible for day to day operational management of the project, robust financial monitoring and the successful delivery of contracted outputs. The task will necessitate co-ordinating and managing the efforts of staff involved in all aspects of project delivery. The Project Manager will be responsible for ensuring that all funder requirements for reporting and auditing are met for the duration of the project and will also be responsible to the Project Director for reporting progress on the projects, and for alerting senior management to any major potential threats to project delivery. The Project Manager will be required to ensure that all aspects of project delivery are completed in line with University policies. The Project Manager will also have responsibility of submitting final reports/claims to the funder and Project Closure for the contractual obligations which will conclude in May 2028. Main Duties Project Delivery Responsible for managing a large project. This will include the following: Leading on the management of the project, including influencing and developing complex project plans. Creating and maintaining an overall project management plan for the whole project using project management principles. Identifying objectives and indicators of success and delivering contractual obligations. Planning, organising and maintaining a regular schedule of project meetings and ensuring sufficient engagement by all relevant stakeholders to the project. Establish effective networking relationships with all stakeholders. Setting up, managing and monitoring a granular budget for the project. Co-ordinate and collate output evidence. Delivering project outputs on time, to budget and to the agreed quality standard. Budget management, monitoring and reporting Ensure records are maintained of expenditure, planned expenditure profiles, and cash flow to ensure that the full project value can be recovered from funders. Ensure that suitable records of all allowable costs are maintained by the University of Birmingham. Provide leadership and expertise to colleagues regarding the maintenance of accurate records of expenditure and allowable costs. Communicate and where appropriate determine and delegate budgets to key task managers. Ensure appropriate monitoring, control and audit of all project expenditure within the University. Approve expenditure in line with delegations and the project budget, escalating decisions on any novel contentious issues to the Project Director. Grants – ensure all grant reimbursement to beneficiaries / recipients of funding from the university is set up and processed in line with university policy and grant award. Provide financial reports to the project funder and to the Project Management Board at least quarterly, and more frequently if expenditure materially deviates from the plan in the proposal. Monitoring, evaluation and communication Develop and implement a comprehensive evaluation strategy for the project. Establish and implement reporting procedures which meet requirements, and ensure all necessary data is gathered in a timely and efficient manner. Analyse data to determine if it is fit for purpose, and take appropriate action to ensure data quality. Develop reporting mechanisms for the project then report on project progress to the ARCANE Management Group and highlight any risks. Maintain a risk register and communicate risks in a timely manner, proactively proposing solutions. Engage and communicate with a variety of stakeholders to ensure progress but also to disseminate outputs of the project. Coordinates and organises strategic governance meetings including ARCANE Steering Board and Advisory Board meetings, producing progress reports for key stakeholders including EPSRC. Supports the PI in oversight of project delivery through attending short term meetings (task reporting and tracking, finance and contracts, staff and student recruitment, IP register and risk register updates, updating project plan), medium term (capturing impacts, coordination with Steering Board and Advisory Board, annual conference planning, finance planning and forecasting, third party opportunities, research funding opportunities, technical reports) and long term (reports to EPSRC, Advisory Board, mid-term review). People management and Research Culture Line manage (where appropriate), ensuring relevant targets and goals are achieved within resource constraints. Create a motivating and collaborative ARCANE project environment where staff are encouraged and supported to achieve outstanding research outputs and impacts. Identify appropriate opportunities for development and change and encourage other team members to do the same. Maintain the ARCANE website as an external portal for communication of research. Supports day to day needs of ARCANE research students. General Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour. Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working. Any other duties commensurate with the grade. Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience Relevant degree or relevant equivalent professional qualification, plus significant programme/project management experience (in increasingly large and/or complex projects) or substantial relevant experience evidencing the experience required in this role. Formal Project Management qualifications such as APMP, Prince2 or MSP preferred. Substantial experience of managing large financial budgets along with experience of budget planning, forecasting and monitoring. Technical reporting. Substantial experience of financial policies and processes. Authoritative knowledge of the work practices, processes and procedures relevant to the role, including broader sector/commercial awareness. Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly for a variety of audiences, and to produce and analyse source material, information and data. Proven ability to meet targets, with minimal supervision to deadlines. Substantial experience of engaging, and collaborating, with internal and external stakeholders. Proven analytical and problem solving skills that will help to identify and implement improvements and efficiencies across the project or projects you work on. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders. Highly proficient IT skills, including the MS Office suite. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required. E xcellen t people management skills, with proven experience of leading, motivating and managing teams. High level of self-motivation and personal accountability with ability to plan and deliver goals to deadlines under pressure. Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied. Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action. Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area. Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied. Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action. Role context Roles at this level provide authoritative professional advice across a range of activities and/or will lead and manage diverse team(s) and resources. You will use your professional skills to resolve problems where the solution is not immediately apparent. Significant evaluation and independent thought is therefore required to resolve ambiguity. You will have wide discretion to decide on direction whilst ensuring activities are broadly consistent with operational policies. You will be able to influence policy through advising on the impact of policy change and implementation in your area of work. You will need to assess the impact of your activities across your area, with related areas and to ensure they fit with the broader objectives of the University. Core competencies/transferable skills Working at this level you will be able to develop and successfully use the following core competencies/transferable skills in each of the areas shown below. You will be expected to take ownership for getting things done, including calling on or joining others to assist. You will be expected to be flexible as required in supporting your department and wider University. Planning and organising provide professional expertise, and manage resources and/or a diverse team; integrate and co-ordinate work across different parts of the department/university; lead and manage staff who are likely to be carrying out diverse duties, and ensure collaborative working to deliver a successful service; project manage activities to facilitate major changes; develop policy within functional guidelines, and contribute to strategic development within own area; be accountable for the quality and professionalism of service delivery, with an appreciation of longer term issues. Problem solving and decision making anticipate, interpret and assess customer needs, identifying trends, generating original ideas and testing innovative solutions; deal with significant people management issues such as change programmes; resolve issues which may not have arisen before through use of experience and judgement. Organisational understanding has an excellent understanding of their own working area and a broad understanding of the contribution other areas make to the success of the University; has an excellent understanding of how the University operates, together with an understanding of how academia operates in the UK; demonstrates empathy with the academic endeavour and seeks to encourage others to do so. Relationships and communication use coaching skills to motivate and develop staff; proactively and sensitively manage the performance of their team and create a motivating environment; influence others (including across the University) to follow a particular course of action; represent the department at internal and external meetings/events/network with colleagues in other institutions to share best practice. Informal enquiries to Gareth Pugh, email: g.j.pughbham.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. 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 .