Performance Improvement Manager (Accreditations)

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Durham University Business School

Dynamic and vibrant, Durham University Business School is one of Durham University's four Faculties and is comprised of three research-intensive departments: Accounting, Economics and Finance, and Management and Marketing.  Known for its global reputation, its impact on policy and practice and its strong focus on ethics, responsibility and sustainability, the School aims to be a leading European business school with a strong global presence by 2027. 

The School currently has 180 academic and teaching staff, with plans and resource commitments to grow to 230 by 2027.  The School has a high-quality portfolio of programmes at undergraduate, masters and doctoral level, across all subject areas.  The school's student population is around 4000, across undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes, attracting a talented and diverse student intake (with over 130 nationalities).

Our vision is to lead business thought and practice to improve global wealth and well-being. Our associated mission is to create, share and use knowledge to deliver equitable and sustainable futures around the world. We pursue this mission by advancing world changing knowledge and securing global impact through increasingly collaborative research across disciplines and around the world. 

The Department and role purpose   

The Business School is unique among the Faculties of Durham University in having a matrix management structure which requires its departments to work seamlessly with cross-Faculty functional teams in areas including: learning & teaching; research; and international and external partnerships. This results in specific business process and information system needs which are essential to meet the multiple and complex data requirements of global accreditation and ranking exercises and to support an integrated approach to the provision of management information.

Moreover, in an international accreditation context, it is vital that the Business School's approach to information systems and business processes is holistic and continually benchmarked against best in class to ensure it remains fit for purpose to respond to the demands of accreditation, taking advantage of opportunities to leverage core University systems and services and that new projects deliver the benefits that are expected.

The post holder will therefore challenge and develop existing practices and approaches and help align business processes, information systems and data collation to drive performance improvement, working with internal and external stakeholders to identify solutions to meet the School's needs.

The post holder will support the School's strategy by undertaking business analysis, project management and change management activities, optimising our performance reporting structure to underpin accreditations, and making processes more efficient through the use of IT and process improvement, working with managers to embed changes whilst also collaborating across the University on process review and improvement projects, when relevant.  They will also oversee the governance and day to day management of an external IT partner.

The role demands the ability to develop a coordinated programme of work which adopts a clearly defined School wide approach to information management and continuous improvement in order to meet our strategic operational objectives.

Role responsibilities:

Provide management for stakeholder service areas and/or processes ensuring a high-quality and timely service to all stakeholders, including prospective, existing and past students and staff, recommending agreed performance measures as appropriate.

Contribute to leadership teams and decision making to shape the nature and level of support services, providing support and advice to staff on the effective use of management information systems by scoping and assessing the current mechanisms and systems and how they could be used in the future to improve current data management and working practices.

Analyse service data and provide reports to senior management making recommendations for improvement and new ways of working, taking into account resource issues, Business School priorities and anticipated benefits of change.

Provide proactive and comprehensive input and support to the School and Departments to achieve key priorities, aligned with the School's Strategic Framework as well as the rankings and accreditation outcomes.

Provide advice to stakeholders in relation to University, School and or Department policy, procedures and regulations to ensure appropriate governance and support is provided for the delivery of all IT projects for the School.

Ensure the review and improvement of systems and procedures in line with University, School, Department or unit frameworks which will deliver integrated and flexible management information.

Distribute service information and provide advice to stakeholders regarding compliance and regulations, including GDPR, and drafting appropriate documentation.

Ensure regulations and procedures are updated to take account of internal and external changes, including change requests, particularly in response to changes and developments in accreditation and rankings requirements.

Ensure new processes for administrative functions are documented, managed, built upon and audited, and are communicated to all stakeholders.

Be an active participant in School and University committees and working groups and deal with key risks and issues related to projects undertaken.

Provide training and/or instruction to stakeholders in matters relating to new systems and processes.

Awareness of the external environment, especially the landscape of international business education, and sector best practice to support high quality services.

Proactively develop and manage the scope, development, delivery and post implementation issues relating to specific IT Projects, using an appropriate project methodology to ensure projects are delivered to agreed deadlines.

Deliver appropriate contract governance mechanisms in relation to system development projects undertaken by an external IT partner and play a key role in ensuring contract terms and objectives are being met.

Any other reasonable duties.