Description Position Details Campus Services Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK Full time starting salary is normally in the range £27,546 to £29,171, with potential progression once in post to £32,595 Grade: 4 Full Time, Permanent Closing date: 29th April 2026 Our offer to you People are at the heart of what we are and do. The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University. We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work. Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries. The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens. Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham Background Department overview Campus Services (CS) employs over 1000 staff with a turnover exceeding £65m in the last financial year. CS plays a key role in the quality of the student, staff and visitor experience, providing services across diverse areas such as the University’s sporting facilities, food and beverage, cleaning, conferencing, hotel operations, day nurseries, Portering, post, branded and own-brand retail outlets, visitor services and attractions (e.g., Winterbourne House & Gardens), student housing, transport, waste disposal and recycling. CS is a highly commercial organisation operating within the University context and has an ambitious strategic agenda, in terms of growing our service profile across both our Birmingham and Dubai campuses. The Food, Beverage, and Retail team run over 25 retail outlets on campus, at The Exchange, Winterbourne and Vale Village, alongside all hospitality and delivered catering for the university. From hairdressers to bookshops, opticians, and supermarkets, we manage a diverse range of shops and services that cater to the daily needs of students, staff, and visitors. As part of Campus Services, the Business and Operations department offers a variety of outlets to staff, students and visitors across campus and also in student accommodation from small coffee shops to large restaurants. We also provide hospitality services for conferences and events held on campus and further afield. Role Summary As the Assistant Manager, you will support the Store Manager in effectively leading and managing the daily operations of a university-run convenience supermarket. Your role will involve driving sales, managing inventory, ensuring compliance, upholding standards, and leading a team of supervisors and retail assistants to deliver outstanding customer service. In the absence of the Store Manager, you will be the senior manager on shift, taking full responsibility for store operations, safety, staff supervision, and resolving any issues that arise. This position requires strong leadership skills, sound judgment, operational expertise, and the ability to inspire and motivate your team. To make the best use of resources, you may also be asked to work in other areas of the department or across the wider University. Main Duties Ensure that areas within your area of responsibility are set up and operated adhering to Standard Operating Procedures or Brand Guidelines. Prepare for operational and standards audits, ensuring everything is in order to ensure a successful audit. Provide proactive assistance in supporting your manager to deliver financial targets. This will include: Contributing to the creation and delivery of sales plans to achieve the sales targets; Ensuring all costs are controlled: staffing costs, gross profit percentages, consumables, maintenance and repairs, and any other controllable costs; Carrying out, and acting on results of monthly stocktakes, suggestion improvements to ensure gross profit percentage is met; Delivering all event activity on time and within budget constraints; Monitoring all cash handling and till / system functions to ensure accuracy and consistency, dealing with any anomalies. Ensure that shifts within your responsibility are managed in a safe & efficient manner. Ensure compliance with the sale of alcohol and all age restricted products. Audit the units on a regular basis to address any potential or developing problems as they arise and become more serious. Ensure that all facilities are maintained and operational. You will be expected to deal with most issues yourself, but you will be able to escalate where appropriate to your manager. Support the Store Manager with daily operational oversight including opening, closing, floor management and acting as Duty Manager. Ensure the store environment is clean, well merchandised, safe, and compliant with agreed planograms and brand standards. Oversee stock accuracy and availability, ensuring timely replenishment, correct rotation, and effective waste and shrinkage control. Monitor and manage equipment issues (e.g., refrigeration, display units, handheld devices) and escalate or resolve as appropriate. Support the implementation of seasonal campaigns, promotions, and retail initiatives to maximise sales and customer experience. Review sales and stock data to identify trends, highlight risks, and recommend improvements to the Store Manager. To adhere to and ensure that the team follow all work rules and codes of practice including: Health & Safety codes of practice Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH) Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) hygiene and allergen recording systems. Manual Handling Ensure that all Admin and paperwork is completed in a professional & timely manner. You will ensure that goals and objectives are set for your staff and that you develop organisational capability by coaching the team. You will display a “customer comes first” attitude by ensuring excellent service, training and supporting staff to ensure they deliver the same approach. Proactively evaluate customer needs; reviews working environment and key business indicators to identify problems, concerns and opportunities for achieving operational goals. Provide continued training of staff, both regular and casual members, as new guidance is released as well as ensuring the level of service is maintained via effective training and regular refreshers for all staff. This will include on the job training and delivering training sessions as required by your manager. Carry our regular job chats and PDR’s with the team, ensuring compliance with the Universities policies and procedures. To deputise for the Manager as required, ensuring that your area of responsibility runs effectively and compliantly in your absence. Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others. Customer Service Lead the team in delivering excellent customer service, ensuring all customers receive prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable assistance. Manage the escalation of customer issues, complaints or complex queries, resolving them professionally. Monitor service standards throughout the day and address issues immediately. Encourage a pro‑customer culture by coaching staff in product knowledge, communication, and service behaviours. Commercial Performance Support the Store Manager in achieving sales, margin, waste, and shrinkage targets. Identify opportunities to increase sales, enhance product availability, improve merchandising or optimise operational efficiency. Monitor product performance and customer demand, feeding back insights to management to inform ordering and range decisions. Ensure timely implementation of promotions, pricing changes, and point‑of‑sale materials. Operational requirements Hours as required based on a 35 hour week 7/365 operation (BH and Closure days) on a rota basis, includes weekend and evening work activities to align with Campus Services and University. To participate in the BOPS duty management rota (7/ 365). To undertake works activities across all UoB campuses as requested that are commensurate with the grade and role activities to support the Division and wider UoB activities. Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience Literacy and numeracy skills which may be evidenced by Mathematics and GCSE grade C or 4 (or other equivalent level 2 qualifications). Significant experience in a retail or supermarket environment, ideally in a supervisory or team leadership capacity. Full, clean driving license is desirable as your role may involve driving University vehicles. Current Personal License holder for the sale of alcohol, or be willing to obtain said license with training and support. Confident decision‑making skills and ability to manage operational challenges independently Ability to contribute to the planning, organising and development of sales and service plans to grow and advance current business levels in all areas. Knowledge of the Health and Safety at Work Act, HACCP, COSHH, waste disposal and other regulatory guidance is essential as is knowledge of Fire procedures. Proficiency with Microsoft suite of programs. Clear and concise communication skills are essential as you will be in regular communication with managers, staff and customers, good interpersonal skills are also essential with the ability to demonstrate a friendly and courteous manner toward both internal and external customers. Excellent organisational skills with the ability to work within a team environment and to deadlines. Highly motivated, team player able to engage across multiple student and staff groups with the ability to work under pressure and to timelines. An understanding of the importance of equality and diversity in the workplace. The ability to identify and respond to equality and diversity issues in line with relevant policies and procedures. Ability to present in a smart way – uniform will be provided for this purpose. Dimensions You will provide proactive contributions in developing and delivering sales and service plans. You will also lead a team in providing excellent customer service in one of the catering team’s areas/outlets. Planning and organising You will be expected to contribute proactively to the planning of the service and also to sales plans and targets. You will be able to organise your unit to meet targets as appropriate. Problem solving and decision making You will take action to ensure audits are successful and will identify any actions to be taken through your own regular audit of your unit’s performance. You will be able to deal with the majority of day to day issues that occur without referral to your manager. You will also be expected to deal with more difficult, escalated complaints from customers. Internal and external relationships Professional working relationships across the catering team and with your manager in particular. Leading your team members. Customers and suppliers. Informal enquiries to Peter Kelland, email: p.kelland@bham.ac.uk View our staff values and behaviours here Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview. We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .