UKOLN, University of Bath, UK
Deputy Director
Ref. No. 09274RP

Job Description

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1. Purpose

This senior post will have three key high-level functions:

The post-holder will deputise for the Director at local, regional, national and international levels, representing UKOLN interests within the University of Bath, at UK meetings and on the world stage to facilitate new global partnerships and sustained collaboration.
The post-holder will provide outstanding technical leadership, vision and strategic insight in the wider digital library context for education and research and across the range of UKOLN activities and projects to ensure that UKOLN addresses the requirements of its user communities, based mainly within the UK Higher Education sector.
UKOLN is a JISC Innovation Support Centre with responsibility for the support of innovation and development in JISC-funded programmes and projects, especially within the Information Environment. The post-holder will have responsibility for providing leadership, strategic co-ordination and oversight of all JISC funded technical innovation activity.

2. Reporting Structure

The post-holder will be a member of the UKOLN Senior Management Team and will report to the Director. The post-holder will have line management responsibility for the Team Leader, Software & Systems and the Team Leader, Research & Development.

3. Tasks and Responsibilities

Deputy Role

To act as the formal Deputy for the Director and represent UKOLN at meetings within the University including at Head of Department meetings, at meetings with core funders JISC and MLA, and on UK-wide committees and strategic groups.
To proactively build and develop partnerships and new collaborative initiatives with key international organisations to inform innovative developments in the UK digital library context and to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practice amongst the wider community.
To maintain and further develop the excellent national and international reputation of UKOLN across the wider digital library community through a range of high profile outputs.
To contribute strategic insight and vision to the overarching UKOLN Strategy and associated forward planning in partnership with the Director and the Senior Management Team.
To provide outstanding technical leadership and strategic direction-setting for innovation and technical development across UKOLN working with the Director and the Team Leaders.
To seek new funding opportunities through national and international partnership engagement and collaboration.
To generate income streams and lead bids for new projects and studies, and to collaborate with UKOLN staff to produce successful proposals.

JISC Core Support (Infrastructure)

To work with the JISC Executive and to advice on the scope and direction of future innovation and technical development programmes, technical studies and reports.
To liaise with JISC-CETIS and other Innovation Support Centres, JISC Data Services and JISC Advance.
To contribute to the strategic development of the international e-Framework.
To support JISC in taking forward links and partnerships with international standards bodies and other technical organizations, and to participate in standards communities and specification development, as appropriate.
To have responsibility for JISC core work, which forms a substantive part of UKOLN funded activities, to work with the UKOLN Senior Management Team and the Director to formulate the Work Programme, to monitor and to report on the Work Programme as required
To provide authoritative technical leadership, vision and direction to JISC core work within UKOLN.
To work closely with the Team Leaders responsible for Community & Outreach, Research & Development and Software & Systems to ensure operational integration and knowledge transfer across all UKOLN teams.
To have particular responsibility for development of the Observatory role and associated activity as a key function of a JISC Innovation Support Centre.
To lead the development of technical approached and where necessary information architectures and reference models applicable to the Information Environment (IE) and to oversee the delivery of IE guidance to UK HE.
To inform the future development, integration and adoption of JISC-funded projects and services that form a significant part of the information environment infrastructure, and which focus on providing an infrastructure for the creation, curation and use of resources for education and research.
To deliver strategic advice and guidance to JISC Information Environment programmes, for example Resource Discovery, Repository and Research Data Management Programmes and projects.
To oversee UKOLN contributions to the evaluation of bids to JISC Circulars and other funding calls and to participate in evaluation panels as required.

Dissemination and Profile

To deliver direction-setting reports, briefings and high-quality authoritative publications as required to inform and promulgate strategic and technical policy and practice in key innovation areas.
To disseminate UKOLN outputs and broader synthesis through high quality presentations.
To have a particular focus on promoting JISC-funded core and non-core work on the national and international stage, through presentations, articles and other dissemination channels.
To contribute to JISC Programme meetings and Programme-level workshops and conferences.
To develop and contribute to community technologies including blogs and wikis, to promote, comment and disseminate opinion and views around topics relevant to the broader UKOLN and JISC work programmes.
To inform relevant technical developments at the University of Bath including repository services, data services and related institutional infrastructure developments.
To contribute on a regular basis to the UKOLN Web site and to project Web pages.

Resources and Management

To contribute technical direction to newly-funded projects across UKOLN as required.
To appraise the Director, Senior Management Team and other UKOLN staff of emergent technical developments, initiatives and trends within the broader digital library space and Web environment.
To participate in and contribute to Senior Management Team meetings and Resource Allocation planning.
To have line management responsibility for the Leaders of the Software & Systems and Research & Development Teams.
To provide staff management support including direction and oversight of relevant tasks and outputs, workloads and quality, guidance on staff development, appraisals and recruitment as required.
To develop and foster enhanced information exchange and technical integration between UKOLN core-funded work, development and research projects and the wider community.
To ensure effective use of financial resources in liaison with the Resources Co-ordinator and in particular to oversee the expenditure and resource allocation for the JISC Work Programme.
To carry out other relevant activities as indicated by the Director.

4. Contacts outside UKOLN and the University

The post holder will work closely with the JISC Executive, JISC-CETIS, other JISC services and JISC funded projects, to work in a UK-wide arena. The post holder will collaborate with key UK organizations including the British Library, SCONUL, UCISA, the Research Councils, the Research Information Network and RLUK.

The post holder will collaborate with key international organizations including the US National Science Foundation, the Australian National Data Service, SURF and the European Commission.

5. Equal Opportunities

The post holder will carry out their job responsibilities with due regard to the University of Bath’s Equal Opportunities policy.

6. Terms and Conditions

These will be stated in the Contract of Employment.

UKOLN, University of Bath, UK Deputy Director Ref. No. 09274RP