Operations Officer (Communications & Events)

Council: ESRC (Economic & Social Research Council)

Salary: £30,895

Band: C

Contract Type: Open ended – programme funding is fixed term until 31 March 2031

Hours: Full-time

Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire - Hybrid working available. Regular travel to London office required.

About the role

ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) is a partnership transforming the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data, to enable better informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives. The programme is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The partnership is coordinated by a UK-wide Strategic Hub which promotes the benefits of administrative data research to the public and the wider research community, engages with UK Government to secure access to data, and manages a dedicated research budget and commissioning process.

This post will support two teams within the ADR UK Strategic Hub: Communications & Engagement, and Research Commissioning & Capacity Building. These teams include responsibility for ADR UK’s communications activities, including digital communications (website content, social media channels and audiovisual) and a growing virtual and in-person events programme, alongside leading on ADR UK commissioning, funded fellowships and our researcher training events programme.

You will primarily provide operational and administrative support to priority communication and events workstreams within this busy team, working collaboratively with the teams and independently on specific tasks. You will also support the administration of our commissioning and fellowship programme where needed.

This role is fundamentally an administrative role, tasked with the operational delivery of a range of projects within the team’s objectives. As a new role you will also be provided with opportunities to develop your skills and participate on specific workstreams and projects end-to-end to build your operational and administrative experience in a communications, events and research context.

Your responsibilities

• Providing general operational and organisational support for a range of projects within the ADR UK Strategic Hub, with a focus on communications and events, including managing shared mailboxes, supporting the implementation and ongoing maintenance of administrative processes (such as project or publication trackers), supporting the purchase order process.
• Being a first point of call for enquiries in relation to assigned projects you will support, providing answers and guidance in a timely manner or using judgement to escalate where needed.
• Engaging with and supporting continuous improvement project work and initiatives, seeking to refine processes and ways of working within both your team and the wider organisation to ensure smooth delivery of our projects and workstreams.
• Supporting meetings, webinars, and events both internally and externally and both in-person and virtually; tasks include securing venues (or virtual meeting space), maintaining invitation lists, arranging logistics, making travel and accommodation arrangements, and processing expenses claims.

These tasks are illustrative and not exhaustive.

Personal Specification

The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I).

Essential knowledge, skills and experience

Each criteria will be assessed shortlisting (S), at Interview (I) or both (S&I)

• You have excellent organisational and administrative skills gained within a communications, events, research or transferable context, including the ability to work flexibly and multi-task with good attention to detail while working at pace (S&I).
• You have sound numeric skills, including handling and analysing data sensitively, accurately, and responsibly (S&I).
• You have excellent written communication skills and can draft and understand complex written documents and interpret them clearly (S&I).
• You can work independently, think creatively, solve problems, and make effective decisions (S&I).
• You are a great team player and can provide support to colleagues, sharing knowledge and information, and giving towards the achievements of your team and the wider organisation (S&I).
• You are an excellent communicator with good social skills, working effectively with colleagues at different levels both inside and outside the organisation, while being an effective ambassador for the AHRC (S&I).
• You have a good working knowledge of IT and programmes (Outlook, MS Word, Excel, MS Teams, etc.) with the ability to quickly learn new software and systems (S&I).

About hybrid working

We support a hybrid approach, and you can expect a mix of working from home, the office, and occasionally at other UK locations.

ESRC staff will be assigned to Tier 2 meaning a standard expectation of 40–60% onsite attendance (pro-rated against working time) including those hosted by ESRC. This will come into effect on 1st October 2026.

At times, this may involve overnight stays and/or occasional work outside of standard office hours.

Employee Benefits:

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees' development and promote a culture of continuous learning!

We are offering this position with a whole host of benefits including:

• 30 days holiday (in addition to 10.5 bank holidays and privilege days).
• Flexible working hours.
• An excellent defined salary pension scheme.
• Easily accessible public transport links/ free parking
• Excellent learning and development opportunities.
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities.

For further information on our benefits please see: https://stfccareers.co.uk/rewards-and-benefits/ or Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact [email protected].

UKRI - UK Research and Innovation

UKRI is an organisation that brings together the seven disciplinary research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Together, we build an independent organisation with a strong voice and vision ensuring the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation.

Supporting some of the world’s most exciting and challenging research projects, we develop and operate some of the most remarkable scientific facilities in the world. We are pushing the frontiers of human knowledge through fundamental research and delivering benefits for UK society and the economy through world-class research, skills and business-led innovation.

More information can be found at www.ukri.org.

Choosing to come to work at UKRI means that you will have access to a whole host of benefits from a defined benefit pension scheme, excellent holiday entitlement, access to employee shopping/travel discounts and salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme. For more details, visit benefits of working for UKRI.

How we support EDI in the workforce

At UKRI, we believe that everyone has a right to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be provided with equal opportunities to thrive and succeed in an environment that enables them to do so. We also value diversity of thought and experience within inclusive groups, organisations and the wider community. For further information, please visit ‘How we support EDI in the workforce’.

Disability Confident Employer

As users of the disability confident scheme, any candidate who opts into the scheme and best meets the essential criteria, will be shortlisted for interview. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

How to apply

Online applications only preferred for this role. Please submit a CV and covering letter which clearly outlines how you fulfil the criteria specified along with your motivation for UKRI and the role. Ensure that the job reference number is included in the filename description of each document uploaded. Note that failure to address the above criteria or submit an application without a covering letter may result in the application not being considered. Assessment will only be based upon the content of your submitted covering letter and CV and not the ‘experience’ section of the application.

UKRI seeks to ensure it creates and maintains a system of openness, fairness and inclusion – a collaborative, trusted environment, which is attractive to and accessible to everyone who is interested in developing their career with us.

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be rejected and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

As part of the pre-employment checks there is a requirement to undergo Baseline Personnel Security Screening. BPSS is a pre-condition of employment and failure to achieve it may mean that the employment offer is rescinded. UKRI reserves the right to run, or re-run, security clearance as required during the course of employment.

The ESRC is the UK’s largest funder of economic, social, behavioural and human data science. It supports the development and training of the UK’s future social scientists and funds major studies that provide the infrastructure for research. ESRC-funded research informs policy-makers and practitioners and helps make businesses, voluntary bodies and other organisations more effective.

For more information about ESRC, click here