Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £58,225 to £67,468 with potential progression once in post to £87,974
Grade: 9
Full Time, Permanent
Closing date: 19 th May 2026
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 is a global institution working within a diverse and vibrant City, offering an inspiring education to our students, and undertaking critically important research.We are a place of open, critical thinking, and the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge. As part of our professional services team, you’ll provide outstanding support to our researchers and help the University to grow its influence regionally, nationally, and globally. We ensure the University’s resources are used wisely, manage and improve the infrastructure which sits at the heart of the institution, and support decisions to be made quickly and based on sound evidence.Our Birmingham Professional programme operates across the University, supporting colleagues to network and collaborate, offering opportunities to learn and develop, contributing to the delivery
Research and Impact
The University is one of the UK’s most successful institutions in terms of research. In the latest Research Excellence Framework, we placed 10th in terms of GPA, with the highest rise in position of any Russell Group university, and with significant improvements across the breadth of our disciplines – a genuine University-wide achievement. Our areas of research excellence are unusually comprehensive for a UK university, with a submission to 28 of a possible 34 Units of Assessment in the REF2021. The total value of research funding won by the University has grown rapidly in recent years, and we now have a portfolio of over 2,800 live projects with an award value to the University of over £900 million. Following several years of growth in research awards, our annual research income is now over £220m.
Our research generates lasting regional, national, and international impact, making a positive different to the economy, our environment, and to people’s lives. Research Impact is core to the University’s Strategic Framework 2030, which sets out our ambition to be a global top 50 university by 2030. Our Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Dom Moran leads our institutional Research Impact Strategy- this aims to foster an environment that embeds impact from the outset of research. A team of Research Impact Development Partners (RIDPs) and Academic Impact Lead from across our university are helping to make this a reality.
We seek to be in the top 10 once again – or higher – for research impact in REF2029, are are seeking a strategic and delivery-focused leader to operationalise this ambition across the institution.
The Head of Research Impact will play a pivotal leadership role within the Research Strategy & Services Division (RSSD), taking responsibility for delivering and sustaining a high-quality, institutional pipeline of impact case studies and ensuring readiness for the next REF2029 and future exercises.
Role Summary
The Head of Research Impact provides strategic and operational leadership for the development, coordination and delivery of research impact across the University.
Working closely with the Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Impact), the Director of Business Engagement and Research Impact (BERI), and College leadership teams, the role holder will lead the development of a high-performing institutional approach to research impact—ensuring that impact is embedded from the earliest stages of research design, supported throughout the research lifecycle, and evidenced effectively for REF and other national and international assessment frameworks.
The role will oversee the University’s REF impact portfolio and preparations for REF2029 and future exercises, while also strengthening the University’s wider impact culture, partnerships, funding success, and regional, national and international influence.
Main Duties
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
Education and Experience
Specialist Knowledge
Advisory And Analytical Skills
Communication and Engagement
Collaboration and Influence
Organisational and Strategic Awareness
Values and Professionalism
Informal enquiries to Helen Lau, email: h.l.r.lau@bham.ac.uk
View our staff values and behaviours here
Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style. Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience. Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.
We believe there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .
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