Funding Officer

Contract: 12 month fixed term contract

Salary: £34,695 - £36,470 plus generous Civil Service defined benefit pension.

About us

The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England – we regulate higher education on behalf of all students.? Our mission is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers. 

The role

The Funding team sits within the Regulation directorate and is responsible for the development and implementation of teaching funding policies and for the distribution of around £1.5 billion of funding a year to more than 340 higher education providers. 

Our funding is used by providers for capital projects, to meet the teaching costs of certain subjects and to support the access, success and progress of underrepresented groups of students.

As a funding officer, you will be involved with many different aspects of the OfS's work. Across a funding year, this will involve collecting information and data from providers; oversight and monitoring of bids and projects we fund at providers; drafting guidance; conducting training; issuing funding allocations; issuing terms and conditions of grant and monitoring providers` compliance against them. 

Key responsibilities include: 

• Building an understanding of the technical details which lie behind our funding methods and the data/information that supports them
• programme and project management and team delivery
• understanding funding approaches, rules and definitions, as well as related data/information requirements and data sources.

About you

We are looking for someone who:

• is confident in delivering discrete pieces of work (including projects).
• is able to work autonomously;
• has strong analytical skills allowing them to collect, evaluate and interpret data.
• can use that information to form judgements and take appropriate action.
• can manage their own workload within a team environment and cope with changing priorities in a flexible and proactive way.
• has strong written and verbal communication skills and who can communicate effectively to internal and external audiences.

Applying for the role

The OfS currently uses ‘enablers’ to evaluate your strengths. The job description below lists the key enablers that relate to this role.

In the application form, you will be asked to describe times that you have demonstrated your abilities in these areas. This is your opportunity to expand on what you have achieved in your career by describing what you’ve done and how you’ve done it. We are looking to understand how you made your own contribution to a scenario, why you made that contribution and what was the outcome.

The OfS currently uses ‘enablers’ to evaluate your strengths. The job description below lists the key enablers that relate to this role.

In the application form, you will be asked to describe times that you have demonstrated your abilities in these areas. This is your opportunity to expand on what you have achieved in your career by describing what you’ve done and how you’ve done it. We are looking to understand how you made your own contribution to a scenario, why you made that contribution and what was the outcome.

Enablers we are looking for:

Communication

• Effective written and verbal communication skills.
• The ability to tailor your communications to the target audience.

Relationships

• The ability to develop high quality and professional relationships with a range of stakeholders, both internal (other teams at the OfS) and external (staff at providers, government and other sector groups.)
• The ability to work with staff at different levels of seniority, from senior management to other funding officers.

Planning

• You will be able to work autonomously on a project when needed, and identify opportunities to drive forward continuous improvement.
• You will be able to deliver discrete internal projects effectively, prioritising your own workload and working flexibly to meet competing and changing demands.

Knowledge and Learning

• You will have a commitment to developing your own knowledge and understanding of relevant work areas and how these support the delivery of the OfS’s wider objectives This will involve developing an awareness of the OfS’s funding and regulatory roles and policies and broader trends and policy developments in relation to higher education.
• You will be able to contribute to team discussions on future developments in our funding methods.

Experience

• Experience in Higher Education and / or public policy work is desirable, but not essential.
• You will have experience in the analysis and use of numerical and qualitative data to inform decision making.

Working for us

We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do. We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.  

Working arrangements

We love working flexibly because we know that it helps us all to do our best work. We’ve created a set of principles to shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two or three days in a typical week. 

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working, for example job share and part-time working, apply to these roles. 

Closing date for applications: 22 September 2024

Interviews: Week commencing 30 September 2024