Operations Assistant

**Job Description**:
**Job Title**:Operations Assistant

**Posting Start Date**:20/08/2025

**Job Id**:1276

**School/Department**:Vice Chancellor's Office

**Work Arrangement**:Full Time (Hybrid)

**Contract Type**:Permanent

**Salary per annum (£)**:£24,900 - £26,338

**Closing Date**:09/09/2025

The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

**Overview**
- The post holder will provide general administrative support for the School as part of the wider administration team, often as a first point of contact for queries which they will direct as necessary.
- Providing assistance across a number of administrative functions, you will work in support of more senior staff in order to ensure the smooth running of the School. In addition, you will provide administrative support to school staff, for example in booking travel and making purchases.
- The Operations Assistant will undertake a range of tasks in a range of areas including support for staff recruitment, financial administration tasks, and organising and supporting School events and meetings and keeping School information up to date. You will also play a key role in supporting senior staff in their work, for example by generating reports, inputting information and following up where needed.

**Main duties and responsibilities**
- Act as a point of contact for School enquiries and provide guidance to students, staff, and visitors, directing them as needed. Handle non-standard queries by collecting and assessing information to provide effective solutions.
- Carry out travel and accommodation bookings for the School, ensuring that the University financial regulations are adhered to.
- Perform a variety of financial administrative tasks, including creating requisitions where appropriate, goods receipting, and coding purchasing cards.
- In collaboration with colleagues, plan and coordinate School events, workshops, and meetings to a high standard. Manage logístical preparations, including booking rooms, catering, taking minutes or notes, organising parking and booking accommodations.
- Maintain the Schoolʼs Staff Handbook and externally facing web pages, creating pages and layouts, monitoring information, and liaising with staff to ensure information is accurate and up to date.
- Act as the departmental contact for building maintenance, liaising with Estates and Facilities Management, reporting faults using the EFM Self Service. Provide support to office moves as required, including arranging any maintenance required, updating door plates, and ordering keys.
- Support senior staff in ensuring the School's compliance with Health and Safety, Information Management, and Security requirements. Responsibilities include monitoring training records, sending reminders, generating reports, and distributing relevant information.
- Provide support as required across the Professional Services team in key operational areas in the event of absence/peaks in workload, including providing administrative support for events, conferences and seminars.
- Proactively identify areas requiring further action to maintain excellent service delivery, ensuring adherence to quality standards, guidelines, and procedures. Raise issues with senior colleagues when necessary and contribute solutions to prevent recurrence.
- Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

**Person Specification**

**Criteria**

**Essential or desirable**

**Stage(s) assessed at**
Five GCSEs at Grade C or above including Maths and English (or equivalent qualifications/experience)EssentialApplicationExperience of providing high quality administrative and business support within a complex organisation.EssentialApplication / InterviewExcellent IT skills including knowledge of Microsoft Office and/or Google drive.
EssentialApplication / InterviewExcellent communication skills, both written and verbalEssentialApplication / InterviewAbility to deal with difficult situations and conversations in a sensitive and confidential mannerEssentialApplication / InterviewAbility to work flexibly as part of a team, and to show own initiative
EssentialApplication / InterviewExcellent organisational and time management skillsEssentialApplication / InterviewAbility to work effectively and accurately to deadlinesEssentialApplication / InterviewAbility to produce work to a high standard with attention to detailEssentialApplication / InterviewAbility to remain calm and maintain high service standards whilst under pressureEssentialApplication / InterviewExcellent customer ser