BASIS Administrator

Salary: £35,116.00 - £45,413.00  per annum

Closing Date: 08 June 2025

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

We are a world class research-intensive university. We deliver teaching and learning of the highest quality. We play a leading role in economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England. Attracting and retaining high-calibre people is fundamental to our continued success.
 

The Role

Over the last 18 months, we have reimagined the way we deliver our University IT Services, building a world-class IT department responsive to the needs of our global community. We’re growing significantly and we’ve created new opportunities and made changes to how we work. Our people have been at the centre of this change, with a particular focus on development and opportunities to learn new skills.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a SAP BASIS Administrator to join an established team supporting a variety of SAP systems at Newcastle University.  Part of a £25m a year IT department, the SAP BASIS team work on systems affecting all areas of university life. These systems support key university processes such as student lifecycle management, financial management, expense management, HR and payroll. This gives us an incredibly diverse range of users and we work with many stakeholders from across the organisation.  We use a wide variety of technologies but regardless of the tools used we want to provide the best possible experience to our users so a strong focus on collaborative and agile working is every bit as important as the specific technical skills you bring.

The University is an exciting and dynamic place to work, dedicated to world-leading education and research. Benefits include excellent pension; flexible working options; a minimum of 37 days holiday (including public holidays); discounted travel for the Metro and local bus services; and discounts for national retailers. You can find out more on our benefits web page.

We are committed to building and maintaining a fair and inclusive working environment and we would be happy to discuss arrangements for flexible and/or blended working.

Informal enquiries can be made to Steve Cumpson, SAP BASIS Manager at Steve.Cumpson@newcastle.ac.uk or Gary Atkinson, Head of Infrastructure, Gary.Atkinson@newcastle.ac.uk.

To apply please upload a copy of your CV along with a cover letter evidencing how you meet the criteria as described in the person specification of the job description.

*STRICTLY NO AGENGIES*

Key Accountabilities

• To carry out support functions for the SAP technical infrastructure in order to support the University’s main business applications. This will include some of the following: software upgrades, system installation and configuration, support package installation, HANA database administration, user authentication and security/access.
• To contribute to the development, implementation and review of processes for ensuring the integrity, security and resilience of the landscape to ensure that the University’s business-critical processes can be supported at an acceptable level of availability and risk.
• Provide specialist Security, Role and Authorisations guidance for projects and changes where appropriate.
• Work with internal, external and vendor auditors to ensure that all agreed controls are operated effectively and that mitigations are clearly documented and agreed, thereby ensuring ongoing compliance.
• To contribute, where required, to the integration of the current SAP landscapes with external systems
• To produce and maintain system documentation to the appropriate level of detail and quality
• Operate all necessary proactive and reactive measures in place to ensure service continuity and effectiveness
• Ensure any SAP issues are escalated efficiently and ensure management is aware of any issues and the consequences thereof
• Act as an SAP SME and use this knowledge to deliver excellence in operational support, project and change delivery and help in defining the future SAP strategy
• Understand the Technology Roadmap and assist in its implementation as directed
• Deliver any project or change related activity as part of wider NUIT or NU project teams as required
• Ensure that policies, standards, procedures and guidelines are followed
• Any other reasonable duties that fall within the scope of the post, as allocated by the line manager

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience of working in an SAP BASIS team in a similar size and complexity organisation
• Technical background in the SAP technologies used by NUIT
• Experience of delivering SAP BASIS services to a dispersed customer base in multiple locations
• Interest in identifying and implementing new and innovative technologies to support customer needs, drive up quality and improve value
• A working knowledge of Cybersecurity processes and practices is essential
• Experience of working with multiple support and resolver groups across a wide variety of technologies
• Able to demonstrate focus on customer needs 

Attributes and Behaviour

Team Working

• Encourages and facilitates collaboration, cooperation and results
• Inspires, motivates and guides more junior team members

Embracing Change

• Supports organizational change agents to improve maturity and practices, in support of University goals and strategy
• Mobilizes themselves to support and enable change efforts

Finding Solutions

• Analyses situations quickly and effectively to determine the best way to deliver the required result
• Keeps their technical knowledge up to date and has a wider understanding of the technology landscape inside and outside their area

Delivering Services

• Sets and accomplishes challenging goals
• Defines standards in terms of doing what is appropriate and doing it well
• Leads by example in delivering high quality outcomes that they take responsibility for

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• A relevant technical qualification or equivalent technical experience

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver  Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 28165