Senior BASIS Administrator

Salary: £46,735.00 - £55,755.00  per annum

Closing Date: 08 June 2025

Interviews will be held w/c 16th June

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 Senior 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, at Gary.Atkinson@newcastle.ac.uk.

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

*STRICTLY NO AGENCIES*

Key Accountabilities

• To lead the planning, development and support of a major area of the technical infrastructure that supports the University’s core business systems.
• To plan and manage assigned technical projects and/or upgrades including the co-ordination of staff and other resources required to complete these tasks.
• 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 lead the development, implementation and review of processes for ensuring the integrity, security and resilience of a major part of the technical landscape for which they are responsible to ensure that the University’s business-critical processes can be supported at an acceptable level of availability and risk.
• Take joint responsibility with the rest of the team for service provision within this team, ensure there are systems and processes to deliver the required level of support and to recover from support issues as quickly as possible. Ensure cost effective delivery of SAP BASIS services to meet University needs and respond with the agility required to address changing business priorities.
• 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
• 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
• Ensure that all necessary proactive and reactive processes and procedures are in place – including for example, performance monitoring and tuning; load balancing; major software or hardware upgrade; installation and configuration; disaster recovery planning and management; contingency planning and any other activities required to ensure service continuity and effectiveness
• Engage with stakeholders across NUIT and the University to build and maintain good working relationships and ensure there is a clear understanding of University requirements within the team
• Act as a trusted advisor, building robust and collaborative relationships with other IT and University leaders to develop a clear understanding of business needs.
• Act as a deputy to the team manager if so required and take responsibility for management of tasks and activities allocated to them by their manager.
• Lead on any project or change related activity as part of wider NUIT or NU project teams
• Be responsible for developing best-practise policies, standards, procedures and guidelines for management of SAP, guided by NUIT standards and other stakeholders
• 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 a 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.
• A working knowledge of Cybersecurity processes and practices is essential

Attributes and Behaviour

• Builds both formal and informal professional networks, and extends these networks within, across and external to organizational boundaries
• Encourages and facilitates collaboration, cooperation and results
• Inspires, motivates and guides more junior team members
• Supports organizational change agents to improve maturity and practices, in support of University goals and strategy
• Mobilizes others within and outside of their team to support and enable change efforts
• 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
• 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: 28164