Job description

This is an exciting opportunity within the School of Life Course and Population Health Sciences. We are seeking to appoint an experienced and highly motivated administrator to provide high quality HR & Finance and research management administrative support to the School. 

The post holder will work closely with the School HR & Finance Manager and the Core Team to provide efficient operational support to staff and students in the School. They will support staff recruitment campaigns and implement the School’s and College’s HR processes at every stage of the employee lifecycle. They will be responsible for administering financial transactions within the School, monitoring non-pay budgets and processing invoices and expense claims. The successful candidate will also work closely with the School Research Manager to support Pre-Award processes such as grant applications, award acceptance and award set up.

The post holder must ensure that HR and Finance processes are processed promptly, accurately and in accordance with King’s College London’s HR Policies and Financial Regulations. They will act as a first point of contact for general HR and Finance enquiries. They will also support Post Award processes such as providing guidance to our Academics on eligible and ineligible costs on a grant, monitoring budgets, flagging up risks with the School Research Manager and help find solutions to funding issues.

The post holder will forge good working relationships with the School’s academics and researchers as well as King’s Human Resources, the Faculty’s Management Accounts Team and the Research Management & Innovation Directorate, and champion the use of KCL systems (in particular our HR system PeopleXD and our Finance system Unit4 Business World/KFin).

As a core member of the School’s professional services Team, the post holder will work closely with colleagues to provide high quality general administrative support to the School across all locations, as required. 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract. 

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

Key responsibilities

• To assist line managers with the preparation of recruitment paperwork and manage the full recruitment process  
• To monitor and manage the employee lifecycle (for example induction, probation, appraisals) and process all HR transactions (contract extensions, contract variations, end of contract, resignations) 
• To support School staff with all tasks that span through the lifecycle of a Research Grant (Pre-award and post-award)
• To administer financial transactions (including purchase orders, invoices, sales invoices, expense claims, journals) 
• To monitor School budgets, in particular non-pay and research award budgets 
• To act as a first point of contact for general HR and Finance enquiries 
• To provide guidance and training to Staff and Students on HR and Finance specific policies and processes, as well as research-specific policies and processes
• To provide expert support and guidance to academic colleagues on the use of our Finance system (Unit4 Business World/KFin), our HR/Recruitment system (PeopleXD) and Research Management system (WorkTribe) 
• To deputise for the School HR & Finance Manager where appropriate 
• To provide general administrative support in line with the grading of the post 
• To build and maintain effective relationships with academic and professional services staff across the college, including by participating in college networks 
• To champion in matters related to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and actively address areas of potential bias 

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.  

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria  

1.       Educated to degree level or relevant experience 

2.       Proven Professional Services skills gained within the Higher Education sector 

3.       Highly numerate with proven financial management and analytical skills 

4.       Excellent communication, negotiation and influencing skills at all levels 

5.       Experience of implementing Human Resources processes 

6.       Experience and good knowledge of using complex databases, management information systems and Excel 

7.       Experience of using Finance systems such as Agresso, Oracle, etc. 

8.       Accuracy and attention to detail with ability to maintain confidentiality 

9.       Ability to work under pressure in a busy environment, multitask and deal with competing demands. 

10.   Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias 

Desirable criteria

1.       Excellent knowledge of UK employment and tax regulations 

2.       Experience of financial planning and implementation, including preparing budgets, financial profiling, preparing business cases and plans, and monitoring key performance indicators, budgets and risks 

3.       Knowledge of research practice and policy in health (bioscience/medicine) 

Candidates are strongly encouraged to specifically address the essential criteria outlined in the Person Specification in their covering letter. 

Further information

This is an exciting time to join the School of Life Course Sciences as we will soon merge with the existing School of Population Health & Environmental Sciences. This will bring together very considerable clinical, scientific, and population/global health strengths. There are already many examples of joint working and collaboration between the two Schools, and it is envisaged that there will be significant opportunities to collaborate further and draw upon the critical mass of clinical, methodological, and applied researchers in the new, integrated School. The School will be one of the largest in the Faculty with strong links to the NIHR BRC and NIHR Applied Research Collaboration and with King’s Health Partners Clinical Academic Groups and Institutes, with the enormous potential to further leverage these synergies.  

About the Faculty:   https://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/index.aspx 

About the School of Life Course Sciences:   https://www.kcl.ac.uk/solcs 

About the School of Population Health & Environmental Sciences:   www.kcl.ac.uk/sphes