Operations Coordinator

Salary: £31,236.00 - £34,610.00  per annum

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.

Closing Date: 22 September 2025

The Role

The Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering is seeking to appoint an Operations Coordinator (Infrastructure) to join the SAgE Faculty Professional Services team, based within the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics.

The postholder will support the School to achieve their agreed strategic objectives and be responsible for coordinating areas of operational activity within the school. Working closely with the Operations Manager and the Deputy Head of School Operations, you will support the development and implementation of a wide range of projects and administrative functions, with a focus on infrastructure. Infrastructure covers physical infrastructure (the school estate), digital infrastructure (the schools computing provisions and digital communications) and administrative infrastructure (coordinating activities that support research, teaching and learning).

Assisting the Operations Manager the postholder will be responsible for taking forward appropriate projects and administrative functions to support the school’s wide portfolio of activity, working across the school and Faculty and University to achieve this.

The postholder will work with colleagues on ensuring that school research, teaching and other activities are fully supported and ensuring enhancement of the school’s reputation and profile, both internally and externally.

This is a new post within the School and we are looking for a candidate who will take a proactive and confident approach in helping to establish the role, by working closely with the Operations Manager and stakeholders across the school and faculty.

Some examples of the duties contained in this role are coordinating office space for colleagues within the school, liaising with Newcastle University IT to ensure that the school has the equipment that it needs and supporting the Operations Manager in implementing new estates policies. This is not an exhaustive list of duties and the ideal candidate will demonstrate the enthusiasm and flexibility to tackle the wide range of tasks contained within the role.

This is a permanent role with full time hours, working Monday- Friday. Blended working arrangements are in place at the university, with up to 40% of the working week spent working from home, but you will be required to demonstrate flexibility in this, as the role will often require an on campus presence.

To apply, please complete an online application, upload a CV and a cover letter. Your cover letter should be a detailed supporting statement outlining how your skills and experience can be applied against the below person specification, explaining how you meet the essential criteria outlined below and evidence this with examples. 

We would strongly encourage candidates who are considering applying to contact Claire Lavender, Operations Manager (Claire.lavender@ncl.ac.uk) or in Claire’s absence, Dr Thomas McDaniel, Deputy Head of School Operations (Thomas.mcdaniel@ncl.ac.uk) for an informal discussion about the role.

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for in person assessments in the week commencing 29th September. 

Key Accountabilities

• Support the Assistant Operations Manager in the delivery of school and faculty objectives and projects, with a particular focus on the School’s reputation and profile, internally and externally.
• Work with colleagues to effectively resolve any issues/queries whilst providing efficient customer service.
• Set and monitor service objectives and standards within own area of work to maximise service quality and efficiency.
• Plan and prioritise own and support team’s short and medium term work activities in line with overall School and Faculty objectives, whilst managing the development of the team.
• Maintain and improve procedures to ensure the efficiency and quality of service within own area and the wider School
• Supervise the day-to-day administrative function within your business area
• Supervise the integrity and recording of data and management information for the School, supporting colleagues with processes and training as appropriate
• Disseminate requirements and collate information for School Office and School responses to Faculty/University initiatives/governance, for example, data assurance; insurance renewals; congregations, statutory returns, etc.
• Work as part of a wider Faculty and unit team and to undertake other duties within the scope and general nature of the grade which may be required.
• Lead on the coordination of space and project requests, ensuring that they are dealt with in a timely and affective manner, working with the Deputy School Manager (operations) and Deputy Head of School in progressing requests in line with the School strategic objectives.
• Support the School management team and School Safety Officer in ensuring that all Health and Safety issues and maintenance are completed, helping draft communications and escalating any issues identified to the relevant committee

The Person (Essential)

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Excellent numeracy and IT skills with experience of Microsoft suite of programmes, together with confidence in handling and analysing data from a diverse range of sources.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including negotiating influencing and relationship building and developing and working as part of a team.
• Experience of leading and managing a team.
• Evidence of a proactive, creative and flexible approach to problem-solving. A ‘can-do’ approach.
• Experience of establishing, reviewing and monitoring administrative systems in office environments to improve processes to maximise efficiency.
• An excellent communicator both verbally and in writing with the ability to tailor messages to the appropriate audiences
• Demonstrates high energy and commitment to the delivery of excellent customer service.
• High level of organisational and time management skills, able to manage a range of tasks simultaneously.
• Experience of managing and training colleagues.
• Proactively assesses and manages risks and makes changes of approach if necessary
• Experience of project management, with ability to find and utilise information to keep records up to date.

Attributes and Behaviour

• Acts in a collaborative, inclusive, transparent and open manner, acting with integrity and able to build high levels of trust.
• Encourages and supports a free flow of communication and information across own area, and the wider University where appropriate.
• Sets own priorities in conjunction with team and area objectives and has the ability to quickly identify what is important and act accordingly.
• Keeps an open mind to alternative ways of doing things.
• Proactively anticipates and plans for likely problem areas or obstacles by assessing and managing risks
• Maintains flexibility in work plans to allow for changing circumstances
• An aptitude for utilising software tools and technologies to enhance, improve and simplify day to day functioning/organisational skills

Qualifications

• A-levels/BTEC Level 3 or equivalent
• Plus significant relevant experience in an administrative setting demonstrating development through involvement in a series of progressively more demanding relevant work/roles

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: 28537