Senior Administrator

18320BR

School of Medicine

Administrative Support

Advert

Senior Administrator
Centre for Trials Research (CTR)
College of Biomedical & Life Sciences

The Centre for Trials Research at Cardiff University is a large, multinational community of researchers, professional services staff and students from a diverse range of backgrounds. 

We tackle the big diseases and health concerns of our time by forming partnerships with researchers and building lasting relationships with the public. Find out more about the Centre and working with us here .
Working as part of a large, diverse team from many backgrounds, you will engage in a wide range of tasks including supervising a small team, as well as administrative tasks such as purchases and payments, data entry, file management, organising and servicing meetings and events and engaging with study teams. The role includes opportunities to engage with quality assurance systems and procedures, supporting our pharmacovigilant and safety work, as well as operational functions.

The role requires administrative experience, as well as supervising the work of others and providing training and wellbeing support. This varied and exciting role means that you would need to be a good communicator, and problem solver to provide an excellent service to satisfy customer needs. 

With a culture of continuous professional and career development the Centre has an excellent track record of helping people develop in their areas of interest, with many progressing within the Centre itself, the wider University or further afield.

For informal discussions you are welcome to contact the recruiter Laura Johnson (Research Support Officer) on [email protected] or 02922 512358.

This post is full-time (35 hours per week), open-ended, based at Heath Park and is available from 2nd May 2024.

The majority of roles at Cardiff University are currently operating under “blended working” arrangements, with staff having the flexibility to work partly from home and partly from the University campus depending on specific business requirements. Discussions around these arrangements can take place after the successful candidate has been appointed.

Salary: £26,444 – £29,605 per annum (Grade 4).

Appointments to roles at Cardiff University are usually made at bottom of scale unless in exceptional circumstances.

Cardiff University offers many excellent benefits, including 40 days annual leave (incl. bank holidays), local pension scheme, a cycle to work scheme and other travel initiatives, annual increments within the pay scale, and more. It’s an exciting and vibrant place to work with many different challenges and is a proud Living Wage supporter. Business needs will require some degree of office-based working but the balance of time can be spent in the office or remotely (subject to agreement with the line manager).

Date advert posted: Wednesday, 13 March 2024

Closing date: Wednesday, 27 March 2024

Please be aware that Cardiff University reserves the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds.  We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age.  In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Applications may be submitted in Welsh, and an application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application submitted in English.

Job Description

Job Purpose

Providing comprehensive and professional support to the CTR while supervising colleagues within the CTR team.
This role is eligible to be offered on a blended working basis, meaning that as well as spending time working on campus you can also choose to spend some time working from another location, e.g., your home. The University is committed to offering this flexibility, wherever the role and business need allows, supporting work-life balance.
As the biggest university in Wales – and a major employer, with more than 7,000 staff – we are an ambitious and innovative university located in a beautiful and thriving capital city. We can offer you the chance to work in a vibrant organisation, with great benefits and opportunities for progression. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Duties
•    Supervise a small number of Study Administrators including allocating/reviewing tasks, monitoring holiday cover arrangements; completing probation, annual appraisal, and staff development requirements; and providing training and wellbeing support to staff members where necessary.
•    Support the team to work together to achieve shared objectives.
•    Work with others to make recommendations to improve our ways of working.
•    Establish productive relationships with key individuals (University colleagues and external contacts) to help improve the level of service the team provides to its customers.
•    Perform a variety of administrative duties to support the team and department achieve its goals.
•    Gather and analyse data so that informed decisions can be made, establishing basic trends and patterns in the data, and providing reports and recommendations for management.
•    Ensuring work is undertaken and documented in a regulatory compliant way and following financial processes and procedures to internal and external customers.
•    Instruct and guide colleagues across the University within any aspect of research administration as required.
General Duties
•    Abide by all University policies and undergo appropriate personal and professional development.
•    Perform other duties which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role.
•    Uphold the Professional Services Values & Behaviours or local equivalent. 

Person Specification

We want to employ people with a wide variety of experiences. We welcome applications from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age. We are particularly seeking applications from candidates who come from backgrounds that are underrepresented at the University, including people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities.

We are looking for a team player who will work with colleagues to provide a great service to staff and students. You don’t need to have worked for a university before; this is an opportunity to show your potential and start or continue your career at Cardiff University.

This role may be an opportunity for you to build on your experience from working in a previous administrative role or environment, showing your transferable skills and potential to be successful in the role. You should be enthusiastic about developing your knowledge and skills to become a valued member of the team.

Your application will be assessed against the following essential and desirable criteria for the role. Please copy and paste this section into a new document and give clear examples of how you can evidence meeting each criteria by writing under each one. You can draw on elements from any aspect of your life (e.g., work, home, education/qualifications, or community life) as long as you focus on their relevance to the role.

Please save your supporting statement in a separate document with the title [YOUR NAME-18320BR-Senior Administrator] and attach it to your application in the recruitment system, available here .

Essential Criteria

1.    Ability to communicate in writing clearly, concisely, and effectively to provide detailed advice, guidance and support to team members and customers on administration and operational functions. 

2.    Evidence of a good standard of numeracy and IT literacy. 

3.    Experience of working in an administrative role or environment. 

4.    Understanding of line management responsibilities (such as work allocation, probation, appraisal, holiday requests etc.). 

5.    Ability to resolve and manage performance and welfare issues within your team within University procedures and policies, maintaining professional standards. 

6.    Ability to communicate information effectively and professionally to a wide range of people. 

7.    Ability to use your initiative and creativity to solve problems, respond to queries and make recommendations, identifying and proposing practical solutions. 

8.    Ability to work unsupervised to deadlines, planning, setting, and monitoring your priorities and those of the team. 

9.    Ability to explore customers’ needs and adapt the service your team provides accordingly to ensure a quality service is delivered. 

10.    Ability to analyse processes and procedures and advise on improvements.

Desirable Criteria

1.    Previous experience of supervision/line management. 

2.    Ability to speak/understand Welsh or a willingness to learn. 

Additional Information

Additional Information

HOW WE WILL SUPPORT YOU IN PERFORMING THIS ROLE 

We want to support and develop you in the role, using a combination of the following to help you reach your full potential.

1.    Regular one-to-one meetings with your team leader.
2.    An experienced and supportive team around you.
3.    Support to undertake job-relevant training and development, as identified by your Line Manager. This could be informal or could be an apprenticeship leading to a formal qualification, such as Business administration NVQ.
4.    A staff mentoring scheme.
5.    Support to learn Welsh or to update language skills.

Job Category

Admin / Clerical, Health, Medical & Dental