Data and Systems Officer

The Schmidt Science Fellows program provides the world’s best emerging scientists with skills and perspectives to develop novel solutions to society’s challenges, become scientific and societal thought leaders, and accelerate ground-breaking discoveries.

The program is based in Rhodes House in Oxford, United Kingdom, with team members also located in the United States in both the metro Washington DC and New York areas.  The Data and Systems Officer will provide logistic, analytic, and administrative support to enable a systematic approach across multiple processes in support of our application, outreach, and communications processes.

The role

This is a newly created role working closely with the Director of Admissions to facilitate the selection process and with the Director of External Affairs and Fellowship Engagement to promote our stakeholder engagement and outreach efforts.  She/he will report directly to the Director of Admissions.  The nomination, selection, outreach, and communications functions are primarily managed through the Oxford office and, as such, the Data and Systems Officer will be located in Oxford.

Key accountabilities and responsibilities

The duties of the Data and Systems Officer role are broad and varied, and include the following:
 

• Provide logistical and administrative support for the academic review, online interviews, and the final selection stage of our annual Selection process.

• Assist with data collation and analysis relating to the entire life-cycle of the Fellowship (from applications through to Selection, interactions and placements during the Fellowship year, and alumni programming), writing reports as necessary.
• Manage the implementation of the team's customer relationship management (CRM) system and interactions with other Rhodes Trust teams. 

• Support the use of the CRM and its full functionality across the team including its interaction with the website and applications portals.
• Be the lead on updating and managing stakeholder contact information and relationship information in the CRM.  
• Support the development, review, and implementation of program privacy and data policies, in line with GDPR requirements, and support the management of the CRM system to ensure ongoing compliance.
• Manage multiple email inboxes, assist in processing candidate data, and communicate with a wide range of academic and professional stakeholders relating to our review and selection processes.
• Support the management and delivery of communications platforms and systems, including the website and social media management tools.

Person specification

Individuals will need to be highly collaborative, have a 'start-up' mentality, and be risk-positive.  Strong teamwork with a hands-on, adaptable approach to numerous and overlapping tasks will be especially important, as the day-to-day responsibilities are likely to be fluid in the early years of our program. The ideal candidate will have the following skills, experience, and qualifications:

• An ability to manage projects, coordinate multiple initiatives simultaneously, and involve relevant staff at appropriate times.
• Possess an outcome-orientated approach.
• Be proactive, focused, and organized with an attention to detail and have the ability to plan and deliver work ahead of time and according to an annual cycle.
• Possess the desire and initiative to improve processes and to find ways of working that ease and facilitate the work of Schmidt Science Fellows.
• Have excellent written and verbal communication skills with a service-oriented approach and the flexibility and diplomacy to be able to converse and work with a large variety of stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, sectors, and organizational levels.
• A post-graduate degree is desirable but not essential. However, an understanding or experience of the higher education, science, engineering, and innovation landscapes and how academia functions, particularly at the PhD and Post-Doctoral stages, is essential.
• Excellent IT skills, including experience with standard packages (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, gSuite, SalesForce, WordPress, etc.) and an ability to troubleshoot and problem solve across multiple key digital platforms.
• Have a solid degree of literacy in webpage editing and social media tools.
• Have experience with accurate data entry and record maintenance along with competency in creating and running reports from a database.
• Have relevant and proven administrative experience in the higher education sector or similar is desirable but not essential.

For a full job description and candidate pack go to the vacancy page at https://schmidtsciencefellows.org/who-we-are/working-for-us/

TO APPLY

Please send your curriculum vitae (no longer than three pages) plus cover letter (no longer than two pages) and the contact details of at least two references (these will not be contacted without applicant’s permission), to cnorton@schmidtsciencefellows.org.

The closing date for applications is Monday 8 July at 12 noon but please note that shortlisting will not be finalised until the week commencing Monday 5 August. All applications will be acknowledged.

Enquiries about the vacancy can be directed to Christine Norton at cnorton@schmidtsciencefellows.org.

Initial interviews will take place between Monday 19 August and Friday 23 August.

Please visit the website https://schmidtsciencefellows.org/ to learn more about Schmidt Science Fellows.