Retail Assistant Manager - Campus Services - 107148 - Grade 4

Assistant Manager

Campus Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £27,546 to £29,171, with potential progression once in post to £32,595

Grade: 4

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 29th April 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

Role Summary

As the Assistant Manager, you will support the Store Manager in effectively leading and managing the daily operations of a university-run convenience supermarket. Your role will involve driving sales, managing inventory, ensuring compliance, upholding standards, and leading a team of supervisors and retail assistants to deliver outstanding customer service. In the absence of the Store Manager, you will be the senior manager on shift, taking full responsibility for store operations, safety, staff supervision, and resolving any issues that arise. This position requires strong leadership skills, sound judgment, operational expertise, and the ability to inspire and motivate your team. To make the best use of resources, you may also be asked to work in other areas of the department or across the wider University.

Main Duties

• Ensure that areas within your area of responsibility are set up and operated adhering to Standard Operating Procedures or Brand Guidelines.
• Prepare for operational and standards audits, ensuring everything is in order to ensure a successful audit.
• Provide proactive assistance in supporting your manager to deliver financial targets. This will include:
• Contributing to the creation and delivery of sales plans to achieve the sales targets;
• Ensuring all costs are controlled: staffing costs, gross profit percentages, consumables, maintenance and repairs, and any other controllable costs;
• Carrying out, and acting on results of monthly stocktakes, suggestion improvements to ensure gross profit percentage is met;
• Delivering all event activity on time and within budget constraints;
• Monitoring all cash handling and till / system functions to ensure accuracy and consistency, dealing with any anomalies.
• Ensure that shifts within your responsibility are managed in a safe & efficient manner.
• Ensure compliance with the sale of alcohol and all age restricted products.
• Audit the units on a regular basis to address any potential or developing problems as they arise and become more serious.
• Ensure that all facilities are maintained and operational. You will be expected to deal with most issues yourself, but you will be able to escalate where appropriate to your manager.
• Support the Store Manager with daily operational oversight including opening, closing, floor management and acting as Duty Manager.
• Ensure the store environment is clean, well merchandised, safe, and compliant with agreed planograms and brand standards.
• Oversee stock accuracy and availability, ensuring timely replenishment, correct rotation, and effective waste and shrinkage control.
• Monitor and manage equipment issues (e.g., refrigeration, display units, handheld devices) and escalate or resolve as appropriate.
• Support the implementation of seasonal campaigns, promotions, and retail initiatives to maximise sales and customer experience.
• Review sales and stock data to identify trends, highlight risks, and recommend improvements to the Store Manager.
• To adhere to and ensure that the team follow all work rules and codes of practice including:
• Health & Safety codes of practice
• Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH)
• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) hygiene and allergen recording systems.
• Manual Handling
• Ensure that all Admin and paperwork is completed in a professional & timely manner.
• You will ensure that goals and objectives are set for your staff and that you develop organisational capability by coaching the team.
• You will display a "customer comes first" attitude by ensuring excellent service, training and supporting staff to ensure they deliver the same approach.
• Proactively evaluate customer needs; reviews working environment and key business indicators to identify problems, concerns and opportunities for achieving operational goals.
• Provide continued training of staff, both regular and casual members, as new guidance is released as well as ensuring the level of service is maintained via effective training and regular refreshers for all staff. This will include on the job training and delivering training sessions as required by your manager.
• Carry our regular job chats and PDR's with the team, ensuring compliance with the Universities policies and procedures.
• To deputise for the Manager as required, ensuring that your area of responsibility runs effectively and compliantly in your absence.
• Supports equality and values diversity, moderating own behaviour to avoid unfair discriminatory impact or bias on others.

Customer Service

• Lead the team in delivering excellent customer service, ensuring all customers receive prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable assistance.
• Manage the escalation of customer issues, complaints or complex queries, resolving them professionally.
• Monitor service standards throughout the day and address issues immediately.
• Encourage a pro‑customer culture by coaching staff in product knowledge, communication, and service behaviours.

Commercial Performance

• Support the Store Manager in achieving sales, margin, waste, and shrinkage targets.
• Identify opportunities to increase sales, enhance product availability, improve merchandising or optimise operational efficiency.
• Monitor product performance and customer demand, feeding back insights to management to inform ordering and range decisions.
• Ensure timely implementation of promotions, pricing changes, and point‑of‑sale materials.

Operational requirements

• Hours as required based on a 35 hour week 7/365 operation (BH and Closure days) on a rota basis, includes weekend and evening work activities to align with Campus Services and University.
• To participate in the BOPS duty management rota (7/ 365).
• 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

• Literacy and numeracy skills which may be evidenced by Mathematics and GCSE grade C or 4 (or other equivalent level 2 qualifications).
• Significant experience in a retail or supermarket environment, ideally in a supervisory or team leadership capacity.
• Full