Head of Business Operations (Interim) - INTERNAL ONLY

Job id: 086846. Salary: £62,696 - £71,857 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.

Posted: 25 March 2024. Closing date: 04 April 2024.

Business unit: The Dickson Poon School of Law. Department: Law School.

Contact details:Susanne Krieg. [email protected]

Location: Strand Campus. Category: Professional & Support Services.

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

The Head of Business Operations is a key member of The Dickson Poon School of Law Professional Services Senior Management team, responsible for leading the faculty’s business support function and managing the delivery of a portfolio of services across the faculty including; Finance, HR, compliance, executive support, H&S, Estate, project management, process development and improvements. Primary key duties of the role include:

• To lead and develop the business support function across the role’s different portfolio areas,
• To support the Director of Operation and law executive  in balancing faculty objectives and operational requirements, feeding directly into the annual business planning process,
• To coordinate the School’s financial, people and physical resources with direction from Director of Operations, the Executive Dean and Vice Deans, ensuring resources are effectively allocated and utilised,
• To develop and maintain strong and productive working relationships with related functional areas of the university, to influence policy, ensuring faculty perspectives are taken into consideration and to leverage service provision from central functions,
• To design and maintain implementation of robust governance and compliance measures, including risk assessment and health and safety regulations,
• To put in place effective and comprehensive business processes and procedures in line with King’s policies and structures,
• To support the Director of Operations and Senior Professional Services staff in workforce provision and development
• The role has line management responsibilities for members of the business function

This post will be offered on an a fixed-term contract for  until 7th of January 2025.

This is a full time post - 100% full time equivalent

• To lead the business support function, ensuring a responsive, effective, and efficient service  
• To collaborate closely with other functional leads and Vice Deans and central services to ensure optimal coordination of activity, resources , and support to service delivery in an integrated way
• To direct and ensure the timely delivery of professional services projects within the business support portfolio , and the provision of support to other functional leads ensuring completion of their projects.
• To lead in the effective management and planning of the faculty’s financial resources, the development of business cases, resource planning submissions, allocation of procedures and advising the Executive Dean and Director of Operations on key financial decisions.
• To monitor faculty strategic performance against planning targets and KPIs, advising faculty executive on any issues that might affect the meeting of such targets.
• To monitor activities throughout the cycle in order to feed into longer term planning.
• To work closely with the Faculty’s Management Accountant and School Business Manager on financial planning, forecasting and retain an overview on Faculty spending and income
• To feed into the faculty’s strategic business plan, short and long term
• To support appropriate business development opportunities and to proactively review the sustainability of current offerings; including commercial partnerships and reviewing of agreements
• To lead and coordinate with other functional leads, the faculty’s compliance with internal and external regulatory requirements and to develop and oversee faculty risk registers and associated mitigation plans.
• To direct and oversee the provision of systems and process development within the business support function’s portfolio areas and to facilitate the implementation (e.g Runbooks, Data management, Sharepoint etc.)
• To continuously improve processes and procedures and promote a culture of continuous improvement to enhance service delivery, effectiveness and efficiency
• To manage the provision of an effective executive support service including committee secretarial and governance management
• To participate in School, campus and university-wide meetings as appropriate, chairing meetings and leading working groups

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Essential criteria  

1.       Educated to degree level or equivalent experience 

2.       Excellent written and spoken communication skills 

3.       Significant experience with budgeting and complex financial management showing financial acumen, adept to understanding, analysing and presenting data in a meaningful way 

4.       Significant experience of leading and managing staff 

5.       A proven track record of managing projects and delivering to tight deadlines 

6.       Experience in leading through changes 

7.       Significant experience in leading the development and the application of policies and processes within a faculty context, drawing on sound understanding of local and university wide requirements 

8.       Demonstrated ability to communicate complex information to a range of audiences 

9.       Solution focused using different methods, tools and technologies 

Desirable criteria

1.       Experience of higher education and faculty operations 

2.       Experience in developing analytics reports, ideally including the design of Power BI dashboards 

3.       Interested in using new technologies to enhance services