Job Title : Systems Administrator - CSOT - 101661 - Band 500
Location : Birmingham
Company : University of Birmingham
Salary :
Open Date : 2023-05-10
Close Date : 2023-09-10

Position Details

CSOT

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £25,506 to £27,399, with potential progression once in post to £31,718

Band: 500

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 24th May 2023

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

The University of Birmingham has ambitious plans to be a leading global university. In order to achieve this it needs to have modern, flexible systems that support efficient processes, effective decision making and provide meaningful management information.

In the light of the above, the University’s legacy finance, HR and payroll systems were replaced with integrated cloud based systems in June 2019, named “Core Systems”. A dedicated functional and technical team, the Core Systems Optimisation Team (CSOT), has been established to manage the new system. The role of CSOT includes helping to stabilise and optimise the build and functionality of the new system, incident management, quarterly release management and co-ordinating and delivering end-user support and training.

Summary of Role

The System Administrator will have a range of duties supporting CSOT’s core work.

The role forms part of a team providing 2nd line Core Systems support to end users (e.g. academic, administrative, support and casual workers) as well as functional business users (e.g. Finance, HR and Worklink teams).

The role-holder will be the primary point of contact for all users with any issues relating to Core Systems receiving and managing enquiries using the University’s incident management software (ServiceNow). The post holder will be expected to resolve the majority of queries without referral however escalation to other members of CSOT may, on occasion, be required.

The CSOT team is responsible for managing the test cycles for the Core System. This role will play a key role in preparing data for testing, amending tests scripts as required, running tests and providing relevant test evidence and other test relates duties, as required.

The role will be responsible for managing requests for new positions and work schedules in Core Systems in a timely manner. Positions and Work Schedules are key HR building blocks within the system that are essential to ensuring HR processes, reporting and eligibility run accurately.

Main Duties

• Developing a comprehensive knowledge of Core Systems functionality so as to be best placed to respond to Core System’s users queries and issues
• Problem solving and troubleshooting in order to provide second line support to staff via ServiceNow incidents
• Taking ownership, monitoring and tracking incidents through to resolution, which will include raising incidents with our third-party Managed Support Provider, or third-line University IT Services.
• Responding to incidents in a timely and professional manner
• Liaising with members of other teams to aid in the timely resolution of Core Systems relates issues (E.g. IT Services Desk, HR, Finance, Worklink)
• Updating knowledge base articles, based on information provided by the COST Training and Operations Manager, to ensure users have accurate information to try and resolve their issues themselves, before raising ServiceNow incidents
• Create and maintain positions and work schedules, ensuring tasks are dealt with in a timely manner whilst also ensuring data accuracy
• Liaise with Finance colleagues, sharing weekly spreadsheets in order that position costing can be maintained
• Investigate data issues and identify ways to resolve them, using excel look-ups to compare and reconcile data.
• Create/update test scripts
• Undertake testing to ensure that functionality is configured appropriately , recording outcomes and providing appropriate test evidence documentation
• Update process maps and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure that they are kept fully up to date.
• Undertake such other duties as may be required from time to time in furtherance of the work of CSOT

Person Specification

• Relevant professional experience preferably in a Systems support role or within a Higher Education or a comparable complex public sector body or significant commercial organisation.
• Good communication and inter-personal skills including:
  • the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with academics, professional services staff and other partners demonstrating credibility
  • the ability to work using own initiative and mange own workload within agreed deadlines and tolerances
• Proven ability to work with a diverse range of stakeholders courteously, diplomatically and confidentially
• A creative, analytical and enthusiastic approach to problem solving
• Well-developed administrative and organisational skills with a proven ability to pay attention to detail
• Proficient use of administrative and information software packages including Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Excel and the ability to quickly learn to use new applications
• Collaborative and flexible working style
• Ability to work effectively and cohesively as part of a team and independently as required
• Ability to prioritise work, particularly under pressure. Using the reports available, in ServiceNow to ensure Tasks and Incidents and responded to in a timely manner whilst also balancing the requirements to carry our other non-ServiceNow related duties
• An understanding of and empathy for the activities/objectives of the University
• Willingness to learn and develop within a fast paced team
• Personal characteristics:
  • Strong intellectual abilities
  • Eye for detail
  • Problem solving
  • Honesty and integrity
  • Energy and resilience

Informal enquires to Stella Poole, email: [email protected]

View our staff values and behaviours here

Open House Event:

We will be holding an ‘open house’ event at the University’s Exchange building, in Centenary Square, Birmingham, between 10am and 5pm on Thursday 18 May 2023. If you’re interested in working at the University of Birmingham and perhaps have a few questions, this is an opportunity to meet colleagues in the Recruitment team. It will be a relaxed and informal event – you can drop in at any time. If you are interested in coming along but cannot make it until after 5 please can you let us know by dropping an email to [email protected] and we will see if we can arrange a time between 5 - 6 on this day.

Valuing excellence, sustaining investment

We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working .

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