Deputy Head of Operations

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £34,980 to £44,263, with potential progression once in post to £46,794

Contract Type: Fixed term contract up to July 2025 

Background

The School of English, Drama and Creative Studies (EDACS)

The School of English, Drama and Creative Studies is a vibrant and thriving school situated within the College of Arts and Law. It hosts a community of academics and students researching and learning together in areas including Linguistics, Media and Communication, Film Studies, English Literature, Creative Writing and Drama and Theatre Arts. Many of our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes combine academic scholarship with creative practice and offer students opportunities to learn from industry experts and partners in the Creative Industries. EDACS encourages inter-disciplinarity and intellectual collaboration both in teaching and research. One of the School’s strengths includes the study of Shakespeare both on the Edgbaston Campus and at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. The Department of Drama and Theatre Arts is based on the University’s Selly Oak campus. Whilst the School’s Deputy Head of Operations will be based on the University’s Edgbaston campus, the post holder will be required to undertake regular work-related travel to the University’s campuses in Selly Oak and Stratford-upon-Avon and potentially to the University’s campus in Dubai.   

Role Summary 

The College of Arts and Law seeks to recruit two Deputy Heads of Operations, one to work in the Birmingham Law School (permanent appointment) and one to work in the School of English, Drama and Creative Studies (fixed-term, one year in the first instance). Each post holder will be comfortable and familiar with exercising considerable leadership and solution-focused management responsibility in their current role and demonstrate a commitment to exercising transformational leadership within each of the Deputy Head of Operations roles. The post holders will undertake strategic and operational projects that span the breadth of their school’s activities and the College too. Each School Deputy Head of Operations will be responsible for ensuring that teams they manage provide efficient and high-quality services within a broader context of continuous improvement for all stakeholders.  

Person Specification

• Educated to first degree level (or equivalent)
• Significant experience of working within Higher Education administration and/or management
• Experience of managing groups of professional services staff through intermediate managers to achieve common goals to a high standard
• Established transformational leadership and management skills and the ability to motivate teams and manage performance
• Extensive experience of working in partnership with academic staff to deliver complex operational objectives
• Demonstrable commitment to inclusion, diversity and equality in the workplace
• A high degree of initiative, resourcefulness, flexibility and a self-motivating solutions-driven approach

For informal enquiries, please contact Fiona Gilyead, Head of Operations for the School of English, Drama and Creative Studies at F.Gilyead@bham.ac.uk.

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment
We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.

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