School Manager

Salary: £46,485 to £49,250 with progression to £55,295 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: 08 December 2024

The Role

This is an exciting opportunity for a people-focused leader to join the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Professional Services Leadership Team, managing our Newcastle Law School, Professional Services.

This is a fixed term contract for 2 years.

Located on our main city centre campus, Newcastle Law School is a small school with big ambition.  We are committed to delivering excellence in teaching and world leading research.  You can find out more about our school here.

Working closely with the Head of School, the School’s Senior Management Team and Faculty Senior Leadership team, you will lead and manage the School’s community of professional services colleagues, overseeing the operations and strategic development of administrative support services for education, research and engagement within the School to meet the objectives of the School, Faculty and wider University.  

You will have overall responsibility for ensuring support for School and Faculty activities relating to education and student experience, and that these are carried out effectively with a commitment to enhanced efficiency and quality. This includes building and leading relationships with key business partners across the Faculty and University and working to support excellent service delivery and a ‘one team’ culture. You will be a member of the University’s Senior Leadership community, working closely with other leaders and teams, sharing good practice, and supporting consistent approaches. 

Working closely with our academic community, you will develop an in-depth understanding of the Faculty and School business You will be a team player, people focused, comfortable working in a matrix structure, excellent at building relationships with key stakeholders and lead a collaborative environment which fosters a culture of trust and mutual respect. 

Informal enquiries should be directed to Jo Geary, Director of Faculty Operations, Humanities & Social Sciences at jo.geary@newcastle.ac.uk.

Interviews will be held in December 2024. 

Main Purpose

The University’s Vision and Strategy sets out to be a people-focused, world-leading university that harnesses academic excellence, innovation, and creativity to advance knowledge and provide benefits to individuals, to organisations and to society as a whole.

As a full member of the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Professional Service Leadership Team, the role of School Manager (Newcastle Law School) is to lead and manage the School’s community of professional service (PS) colleagues, overseeing the operations and strategic development of administrative support services for education, research and impact/engagement within the School to meet the objectives of the School, Faculty and wider University. This involves providing overall leadership and management of all administrative staff within the School and for facilitating and managing external partnerships and relationships The School Manager is the main Professional Service interface with the Faculty, the wider University, and external organisations.

As a member of the Faculty Professional Service Leadership Team, the School Manager is responsible for creating a collaborative environment, fostering a culture of trust and mutual respect and championing the University’s values and guiding principles. As a senior leader within the Faculty, they are a visible role model, demonstrating the highest standards of leadership and behaviour and contributing strategically to the development of an outstanding professional service.

Key Accountabilities

• To participate as a member of the School Executive Board and leadership team in helping to shape the strategic objectives for the school; to respond to challenges and opportunities going forward, to forward plan the business cycle of the School and ensure the school professional services community supports delivery of operational processes
• Ensure that the administrative structure in the School is appropriate and effective and to structure the services as required in line with the academic requirements and strategic direction of the School, Faculty and University
• To lead, manage and develop the facilitation of the School’s education, research and engagement activities ensuring that they are deployed efficiently to deliver a high-quality experience and service to all colleagues, students, and visitors. This includes the coordination and leadership of business partner teams line managed via the matrix structures
• Leading and managing, at the request of the Head of School or Director of Faculty Operations, major projects within the School or across the Faculty/University, including working with other Schools and Central Service colleagues to respond positively and effectively to any opportunities and challenges that arise internally or externally
• To develop a culture and environment of collegiate partnership with academic colleagues, to ensure that the School meets its academic objectives and to minimise the need for academic colleagues to undertake administrative or support tasks
• To lead the continuous evaluation and improvement of service provision in the School and the Faculty, working closely with other Schools, Faculties, and Central Service colleagues keeping abreast of feedback and broader developments in the external environment to ensure appropriate developments and innovative solutions are proposed that consistently enhance and maximise service quality, efficiency and continuity
• Actively manage collaborations with external partnerships and attend various board committees representing the school and wider Faculty Professional Services community as required. Overseeing the presentation of the School to all external stakeholders to actively raise the profile and reputation of the School
• To manage projects in support of the School’s strategic plan as required; and to ensure each project or work package is managed and delivered to time and budget. This will include the need for internal and external horizon scanning, identification and analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and the identification and oversight of the management of risks
• To lead, together with the Head of School, on resource planning and budgetary discussions. To utilise and manage allocated budget and resources effectively and flexibly, controlling all related expenditure to ensure delivery of targets/objectives within budget
• To manage Health and Safety, Estates, and Emergency and Business Continuity. arrangements for the Law School, working closely with colleagues from other services as appropriate
• To play an active role in the School’s work around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, including working closely with the School’s Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, attending relevant meetings and committees, sourcing relevant data and contributing to the delivery of appropriate action plans

The Person 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Demonstrable experience of effective and successful leadership, with a proven track record of working with others to achieve common goals
• Relevant management experience, and proven success in a strategically important area
• Proven ability to lead, empathise, inspire confidence, foster a team-based approach, and build equally effective relationships with academic, research, and Professional Service colleagues across an organisation
• Demonstrable experience of strategic planning and delivery of plans either from within or outside the Higher Education sector
• Experience of developing operational plans, and associated resource planning
• Proven experience of working with and building teams who work collaboratively and flexibly
• Strong influencing skills in complex stakeholder environments; getting ‘buy in’ to policy and strategy and to facilitate changes in behaviour and direction at both a strategic and operational level across organisational boundaries
• Able to demonstrate budgetary capability and a good understanding of financial management procedures
• Experience of leading, managing and supporting colleagues and external stakeholders through transformational change
• Proven ability to work with colleagues at all levels within an organisation, providing advice, guidance and information as appropriate
• Proven high-level decision making and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrable ability to undertake initiatives, prioritise and plan appropriately
• Experience of motivating, mentoring and developing colleagues across the school, Faculty and occasionally partners in order to fulfil their capability, resilience and potential
• Ability to adapt to systems and services required in academic units and across functions and how they relate to each other

Desirable

• Experience of leading a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion Knowledge and understanding of the education environment 

Attributes and Behaviour

• People orientated, is approachable and can motivate and work in partnership with others, showing exceptional interpersonal and collaboration skills
• Effective leadership skills; can work with and empower others to achieve a common goal, is inspirational and provides clear direction
• Demonstrates resilience to the demands of the role and pace of change and is open to learning from constructive challenge
• Able to act objectively and to consider innovative and creative ways in dealing with complex problems, issues and decision making
• Able to handle conflict and conflicting priorities in a timely and effective way, bringing situations to speedy resolution
• Acts in a collaborative, inclusive, transparent, and open manner, acting with integrity and able to build high levels of trust
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to tailor communication style to the audience
• Will be a role model for the University Values and guiding principles and actively promotes a culture of mutual respect

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: 27747

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