Administration and Business Support Manager(UMC)

Are you an experienced administration, finance or business support professional with a passion for leading teams, improving processes and delivering excellent customer-focused services? This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role within The University of Manchester’s Conferences, Venues and Hospitality team, supporting the smooth delivery of high-quality hospitality services across a busy, varied and commercially focused environment.

We are looking for an Administration and Business Support Manager to lead the business support function for Hospitality Services. This is a varied and influential role, offering the opportunity to shape ways of working, strengthen financial and administrative processes, support service improvement and help a dedicated team deliver professional, responsive support to colleagues, customers and stakeholders.

About the role

As Administration and Business Support Manager, you will lead the administration and business support team for Hospitality Services, ensuring that finance, systems, processes and customer support activity run smoothly and effectively. You will work closely with operational colleagues across the department to provide reliable business support, improve ways of working and enable informed decision-making across the service.

You’ll focus on

• Leading, supporting and developing the Hospitality administration team, building capability, confidence and engagement.
• Overseeing key financial administration processes including income processing, invoicing, reconciliations, internal recharges and reporting.
• Ensuring administrative systems, records and processes are accurate, compliant, efficient and customer-focused.
• Working with operational colleagues to support hospitality systems, software, reporting and service planning.
• Identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, service quality, communication and the overall customer experience.
• Contributing to a positive culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and professional service delivery.

About you

We are looking for someone who is highly organised, commercially aware and confident leading others. You will enjoy working in a busy service environment, balancing attention to detail with the bigger picture, and helping teams work more effectively.

• A Level 4 qualification, or equivalent professional experience, in business administration, finance or a related discipline.
• Experience of leading, motivating and developing an administration or business support team.
• A strong understanding of financial administration, budgeting, reporting and commercial processes.
• Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities, deadlines and operational demands.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to work collaboratively across teams.
• A customer-focused approach and a commitment to delivering high-quality, responsive support services.
• Experience of reviewing policies, improving processes and supporting operational efficiency.
• Experience in hospitality, events, catering or another commercial service environment would be beneficial, but is not essential.

What you’ll get in return

In return, you will join a supportive and ambitious team within a large, diverse university environment, with access to a wide range of rewards and benefits including:

• 26 days’ annual leave, plus bank holidays.
• Annual closure over Christmas and New Year.
• A pension scheme with generous employer contributions.
• Subsidised car parking and tax relief on childcare.
• Access to staff benefits and offers.
• A strong commitment to personal development, career development, wellbeing and mental health.

If you are looking for a varied leadership role where you can make a real difference to service delivery, team performance and business support across Hospitality Services, we would be delighted to hear from you.

As an equal opportunities employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender or gender identity, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

For informal enquiries about this position, please contact Jane Pinder, Head of Conferences, Venues and Hospitality.

Jane.pinder@manchester.ac.uk