Job Description

Position Details

Finance Office


Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK


Full time starting salary is normally in the range 36,636 to 46,049 with potential progression once in post to 48,822


Grade: 7


Full Time, Permanent


Closing date: 28th October 2025

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

Role Summary

The Core Systems Optimisation team, (CSOT), is responsible for the delivery of, and ongoing enhancement to the University's Core Systems which underpin the activities of the University. The effective operation of these systems supports the University's ambitious plans to grow income, control costs, enhance efficiency and digitise transactional processing as part of improvements in key performance indicators and industry benchmarking.


Reporting to the Deputy Head of CSOT, the role holder will be a skilled and proactive Data & Reporting Systems Lead to manage and enhance our Oracle-based reporting environment, data security, and system access controls. This role will play a key part in driving data integrity, user governance, and business intelligence across the organisation while leading key system and reporting projects.


The ideal role holder will have hands-on experience with Oracle OTBI, BI Publisher (BIP), SQL, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), as well as a strong understanding of user access management and data security principles. This role will suit someone who enjoys both the technical and strategic aspects of enterprise data management.

Main Duties

Develop, maintain, and optimise Oracle OTBI and BI Publisher reports to support business and operational needs. Become the first point of contact for business users. Write, troubleshoot, and tune SQL queries for data analysis, reporting, and system integrations. Lead system and reporting projects from initiation through delivery -- including scoping, stakeholder engagement, requirements gathering, testing, and deployment. Collaborate with business teams to identify reporting and data insights opportunities that improve decision-making and efficiency. Act as the technical lead for Oracle reporting enhancements and integrations with other business systems. Lead on Business Intelligence (BI) systems implementation projects. Produce technical documentation, user guides, and training where required. Manage user access and permissions across Oracle and related systems, ensuring compliance with internal security standards. Oversee data security practices, including auditing, monitoring, and implementing controls in line with GDPR and University policies. Support Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) environments, including configuration, troubleshooting, and performance monitoring.

Change and Configuration Management

Ensure current Change Management policies and processes are followed when changes to systems are planned for the services managed by the role holder, providing accurate and timely communication to stakeholders to identify and minimise risk for all planned work. Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for the services and all procedures and tasks owned by this role holder for future reference and knowledge sharing.

Incident Management & Troubleshooting and Support:

Develop a comprehensive knowledge of Core Systems functionality to be best placed to respond to Core System's users queries and issues. Problem solving and troubleshooting 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. Ensure frequently asked questions or issues are logged and documented with their respective resolution or next steps.

Compliance and Security:

Assist the team with User roles and access ensuring access is provided following data security/segregation of duties policies and best practices are followed when applied

Continuous Improvement:

Continuously identify opportunities for improvements to existing processes. Keep abreast of industry trends, emerging tools, and technologies.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Qualifications:


Proven experience with Oracle OTBI and BI Publisher (BIP). Strong proficiency in SQL (data extraction, transformation, and reporting). Experience in user access management and data security. Demonstrated experience leading or coordinating data/reporting projects.
The post holder will have the following combined knowledge, experience, and personal qualities.

Communication & Stakeholder Management

Must be able to effectively engage with stakeholders to lead and deliver reporting enhancements. Must be able to effectively communicate with end users to understand queries or issues ensuring these are answered and resolved successfully and within agreed SLAs. Must be able to engage with third party managed service providers effectively. Must be able to engage and provide information to relevant stakeholders, collating feedback and flagging and/or escalating potential issues of upcoming work and/or changes. Strong customer service ethos having good interpersonal, listening and communication skills.

Problem Solving

Must be able to triage, reproduce, debug issues identifying solutions to customer needs. May have to resolve issues, which may not have arisen before, relying on own problem solving and investigation skills, but with regard to wider implications across the University.

Time Management and Organisational Skills

Must be able to lead data and reporting systems proactively engaging with the team and wider University when required. Must be able to plan and organise individual and or team activity to meet broader defined objectives. Must be able to integrate and co-ordinate work across different parts of the department and University.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) environments, including configuration, troubleshooting, and performance monitoring. Project management.

Informal enquiries to Vera de Oliveira Batista, email: v.m.deoliveirabatista@bham.ac.uk


View our staff values and behaviours here

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

.