Summary
The Senior Project Manager will have the remit of managing the EPSRC funded project within HTRC based at the University of Birmingham’s facility at Ansty. Within this capacity the job will provide strategic direction and management to ensure the project delivers in line with its objectives. The Senior Project Manager will work directly with the HTRC Director for delivery of all aspects of this project and be line managed by the Deputy Director of Operations for EPS College at UoB. Through collaboration, the aim is to manage and support the delivery of five work packages and data science workstreams.
As Manager for the project, the post holder will be responsible for day to day operational management of the project, robust financial monitoring and the successful delivery of contracted outputs. The task will necessitate co-ordinating and managing the efforts of staff involved in all aspects of project delivery.
The Senior Project Manager will be responsible for ensuring that all funder requirements for reporting and auditing are met for the duration of the project and will also be responsible to the Project Director for reporting progress on the projects, and for alerting senior management to any major potential threats to project delivery. The Senior Project Manager will be required to ensure that all aspects of project delivery are completed in line with University policies. The Senior Project Manager will also have responsibility of submitting final reports/claims to the funder and Project Closure for the contractual obligations which will conclude in May 2028.
Main Duties
Project Delivery
Responsible for managing a large project. This will include the following:
1. Leading on the management of the project, including influencing and developing complex project plans.
2. Creating and maintaining an overall project management plan for the whole project using project management principles.
3. Identifying objectives and indicators of success and delivering contractual obligations.
4. Planning, organising and maintaining a regular schedule of project meetings and ensuring sufficient engagement by all relevant stakeholders to the project.
5. Establish effective networking relationships with all stakeholders.
6. Setting up, managing and monitoring a granular budget for the project.
7. Co-ordinate and collate output evidence.
8. Delivering project outputs on time, to budget and to the agreed quality standard.
Budget management, monitoring and reporting
9. Ensure records are maintained of expenditure, planned expenditure profiles, and cash flow to ensure that the full project value can be recovered from funders.
10. Ensure that suitable records of all allowable costs are maintained by the University of Birmingham.
11. Provide leadership and expertise to colleagues regarding the maintenance of accurate records of expenditure and allowable costs.
12. Communicate and where appropriate determine and delegate budgets to key task managers.
13. Ensure appropriate monitoring, control and audit of all project expenditure within the University.
14. Approve expenditure in line with delegations and the project budget, escalating decisions on any novel contentious issues to the Project Director.
15. Grants – ensure all grant reimbursement to beneficiaries / recipients of funding from the university is set up and processed in line with university policy and grant award.
16. Provide financial reports to the project funder and to the Project Management Board at least quarterly, and more frequently if expenditure materially deviates from the plan in the proposal.
Monitoring, evaluation and communication
17. Develop and implement a comprehensive evaluation strategy for the project.
18. Establish and implement reporting procedures which meet requirements, and ensure all necessary data is gathered in a timely and efficient manner.
19. Analyse data to determine if it is fit for purpose, and take appropriate action to ensure data quality.
20. Develop reporting mechanisms for the project then report on project progress to the ARCANE Management Group and highlight any risks.
21. Maintain a risk register and communicate risks in a timely manner, proactively proposing solutions.
22. Engage and communicate with a variety of stakeholders to ensure progress but also to disseminate outputs of the project.
23. Coordinates and organises strategic governance meetings including ARCANE Steering Board and Advisory Board meetings, producing progress reports for key stakeholders including EPSRC.
24. Supports the PI in oversight of project delivery through attending short term meetings (task reporting and tracking, finance and contracts, staff and student recruitment, IP register and risk register updates, updating project plan), medium term (capturing impacts, coordination with Steering Board and Advisory Board, annual conference planning, finance planning and forecasting, third party opportunities, research funding opportunities, technical reports) and long term (reports to EPSRC, Advisory Board, mid-term review).
People management and Research Culture
25. Line manage (where appropriate), ensuring relevant targets and goals are achieved within resource constraints.
26. Create a motivating and collaborative ARCANE project environment where staff are encouraged and supported to achieve outstanding research outputs and impacts.
27. Identify appropriate opportunities for development and change and encourage other team members to do the same.
28. Maintain the ARCANE website as an external portal for communication of research.
29. Supports day to day needs of ARCANE research students.
General
30. Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
31. Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
32. Any other duties commensurate with the grade.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
33. Relevant degree or relevant equivalent professional qualification, plus significant programme/project management experience (in increasingly large and/or complex projects) or substantial relevant experience evidencing the experience required in this role.
34. Formal Project Management qualifications such as APMP, Prince2 or MSP preferred.
35. Substantial experience of managing large financial budgets along with experience of budget planning, forecasting and monitoring.
36. Technical reporting.
37. Substantial experience of financial policies and processes.
38. Authoritative knowledge of the work practices, processes and procedures relevant to the role, including broader sector/commercial awareness.
39. Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly for a variety of audiences, and to produce and analyse source material, information and data.
40. Proven ability to meet targets, with minimal supervision to deadlines.
41. Substantial experience of engaging, and collaborating, with internal and external stakeholders.
42. Proven analytical and problem solving skills that will help to identify and implement improvements and efficiencies across the project or projects you work on.
43. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with a range of stakeholders.
44. Highly proficient IT skills, including the MS Office suite. You should be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
45. Excellent people management skills, with proven experience of leading, motivating and managing teams.
46. High level of self-motivation and personal accountability with ability to plan and deliver goals to deadlines under pressure.
47. Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
48. Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.
49. Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
50. Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
51. Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.
DBS required
The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory DBS clearance prior to appointment.
BPSS Required
Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role, all successful applicants will be subject to a BPSS check prior to appointment.