Cluster Manager - Campus Services - 30066 - Grade 6

Position Details

Business and Operations, Food and Beverage

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range 33,002 to 35,608 with potential progression once in post to 39,906

Grade: 6

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 21st June 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

As part of Campus Services, the Business and Operations department offer a wide variety of outlets to staff, students and visitors across campus and in our student accommodation. These range from small coffee shops, bars to large restaurants, as well as providing hospitality services for conferences and events held on campus. The post-holder will be responsible for managing a team and providing excellent customer service in any one of those areas/outlets.

Role Summary

As a Food and Beverage Cluster Manager, you will oversee the operations across a group of outlets / functions. You will be responsible for leading teams in providing excellent customer service in each of those areas/outlets and for providing proactive managerial assistance in contributing to financial planning, target setting and delivering key performance indicators.

Food and Beverage Cluster Managers provide proactive support to our Managers and to the Food and Beverage teams' success. As a Food and Beverage Cluster Manager, you will be responsible for driving sales, promoting and growing the units, as well as developing and motivating your team. In order to flexibly use resource, you may be required to work elsewhere in the department or wider University.

Main Duties

The key focus for this role is to deliver all operating standards for your area of responsibility, ensuring operational and standards audits are passed, whilst maintaining sales, cost and profit control and delivering budget expectations.

Leadership

• Provide leadership for all day-to-day operational activity within your areas, with responsibility for maintaining and improving operational efficiency and quality of service. Your focus will be on determining short-term priorities for your work areas, focussing on maximising quality and efficiency.
• You will also think ahead to review the shape of the service in your area and engage with senior managers in proactively recommending actions for improvements, drawing on your knowledge of current catering trends.
• You will ensure all aspects of service provision are responsive and well managed, and that the units in your control responding promptly and efficiently to customer feedback.
• You will have the opportunity to contribute to improving the broader service.

Safe ways of working

• You will have a responsibility for ensuring that operations in your areas are managed in a safe manner, including ensuring:
  • the agreed standard of food and beverage is delivered at all times and meets all legal requirements;
  • that the operations and delivery of the service of alcohol is compliant with the relevant laws;
  • that all work rules and codes of practice are following, including all Health and Safety provision.

Business Planning

• Deliver business processes, people and resources within operational area.
• Regularly review operations to ensure that they are as efficient and effective as possible. Implementing any changes as a result.
• Identify actions that result from customer feedback gathered within the operation.

People Management

• You will have broad managerial responsibility for the teams in your areas and you will ensure that managers in your team are adhering to policy and procedure at all times.
• Through your managers you will ensure that the objectives set for staff will develop organisational capability.
• Ensure training is carried out, as required, delivering some yourself and using your managers to deliver as well.
• Carry our regular job chats and Performance and Development Reviews of your direct reports, and ensure they do likewise.
• Implement Universities HR Policies around Absence management and Performance management as required within your team.

Financial Management

• You will be responsible for sales plans in your areas and for overall cost control.
• You will contribute to the development of financial budgets; responsible for delivering budgets once developed.
• Analyse the monthly stocktakes and determine actions to be taken to deliver Gross Profit percentages.
• Ensure the delivery of all event activity on time and within budget constraints in your areas.
• Ensure all cash handling and till / system functions are delivered accurately and consistency.
• Ensure that the University financial policies and procedures are adhered to at all times for areas of responsibility. You will be expected to use in-house University systems (e.g. New Core / Pelican etc. for which training will be available).

General

• To Deputise for your Manager as required.
• Promotes equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.

Operational Requirements

• Contracts are task-based as such hours be will required to suit the needs of the business, which will include evenings and weekends, bank holidays and closed days, based on a notional 37.5 hour week (or pro rata).
• BOPS is an all year round service, you will be required to participate in the Duty Manager rota, providing management cover 7 days per week / 365 days of the year, and provide emergency response as necessary across all operations.
• To undertake works activities across all UoB campuses as requested that are commensurate with the grade and role activities to support the Division and wider UoB activities.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to Degree level in a relevant area such as hospitality, or significant practical experience of working at a management level within a commercial food service/preparation environment.
• Literacy and numeracy skills which may be evidenced by Mathematics and GCSE grade C or equivalent (or other equivalent level 2 qualifications).
• Current Food Safety level 4 qualification.
• Excellent people management skills with the ability to motivate staff to deliver excellence.
• Full, clean driving license as your role may involve driving University vehicles.
• Current Personal License holder for the sale of alcohol, or be willing to obtain said license with training and support.
• Ability to plan, organise and develop sales and service plans to grow and advance current business levels in all areas.
• A flexible approach is essential in order to monitor staff on various shift patterns throughout your areas.
• Health and Safety Level 3 qualification. Knowledge of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point procedures, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health, waste disposal and other regulatory guidance is essential as is knowledge of Fire procedures.
• Excellent IT skills, with experience of using the full range of with the Microsoft suite of programs, and the ability to quickly learn in-house systems.
• Clear and concise communication skills are essential as you will be in regular communication with managers, staff and customers, good interpersonal skills are also essential with the ability to demonstrate a friendly and courteous manner toward both internal and external customers.
• Highly motivated, team player able to engage across multiple student and staff groups with the ability to work under pressure and to timelines.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own areas that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly.

Informal enquiries to Karen Morrey, email: [email protected]

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.