Fellowship Officer

Job Locations UK-London
Posted Date 1 day ago(18/07/2025 09:06)
Job ID
2025-1854
Category
Central Secretariat
Position Type
Temporary Full-Time

Job Scope

The Royal Society, founded in 1663, is the oldest national science academy in continuous existence. Since its beginnings, it has been a Fellowship of many of the world’s leading scientists, who are elected as Fellows of the Society by their peers on the basis of their excellence in scientific research.

 

Its Fellowship has included the founding figures of modern science, including Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. There are currently approximately 1800 Fellows from across and the rest of the world.  

 

The Society’s approach to electing and engaging the Fellowship has evolved with the times; it is now in the midst of a significant programme to improve the relevant processes. The Society is looking for a Fellowship Officer who will work across the range of the Fellowship team’s activity to provide outstanding administrative support to ensure our processes are robust, and to pursue their continuous improvement.

 

Current projects where the jobholder will get involved include the following:

  • improving the Fellowship election process, with a view to developing a Fellowship that is diverse and representative of scientific excellence in all its forms;
  • enhancing Fellows’ experience of, and engagement with, the Society. The Fellowship is critical to the effective performance of the Royal Society’s many functions – including as a science publisher, as a provider of scientific advice, and as a distributor of scientific grants. More needs to be done to give Fellows the opportunity to contribute to these workstreams in ways that make the best use of their interests and expertise;
  • improving the Society’s understanding of the Fellowship, by smarter use of data and an engagement programme that includes meetings across the UK and the development of a regular Fellowship survey.

You will work to support the Fellowship Manager, who runs the annual cycle of elections to the Fellowship, and the Fellowship Engagement Manager, who leads on the reform projects outlined above.

 

The key outcome of the role will be to provide an outstanding service to Fellows and the Society, making the Society more effective across the range of its activities.

 

Please note that we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

 

Reports to: Fellowship Engagement Manager

Line manages: Not applicable

Location: Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG                                                          

Hours: Full time, 35 hours a week                                                                                        

Pay band: C

Salary: £38,000 per annum

Contract type: Fixed term - 18 months

 

The application closing date is Monday 11 August at midnight. 

 

Interviews will be held on Monday 1 September and Tuesday 2 September. 

Responsibilities

The Fellowship is a network of approximately 1800 eminent scientists that is integral to the work of the Royal Society in promoting excellence in science and its application for human benefit. The Fellowship team carries out a range of functions that are critical to the Society’s work – it  manages the committees that elect the Fellowship, and is delivering continuous improvement of the process; it is responsible for deepening the Society’s own understanding of its Fellows, their experience and interests; it manages engagement with the Fellowship regarding the Society’s work, and oversees the deployment of Fellows to the Society’s activities, committees, and projects.

 

You will be involved in a wide range of activities in support of these functions. These will include:

 

Fellowship support

  • Providing secretariat support to committees and working groups involved in Fellowship elections, including dealing with meeting arrangements, preparing papers and information for meetings, taking minutes, processing expenses claims, and working to improve approaches over time.
  • Co-ordinating work on the allocation of Fellows to Royal Society committees, in coordination with the Society’s committee secretaries.
  • Customer Relationship Management: Updating, monitoring and improving Fellowship data in the Society’s CRM database, working with colleagues across the Society to improve the way we retain, handle and make use of key information about the Fellowship.
  • Liaising directly with the Officers of the Society and Fellows on miscellaneous queries raised by them.
  • Ensuring compliance with GDPR regulations, particularly in how we handle Fellows’ personal details.

Fellowship communication and engagement

  • Planning and management of Fellowship outreach meetings, including liaising with venues and managing registration.
  • Assisting with the design and development of effective channels of communication with the Fellowship.
  • Drafting and delivering communications including meeting papers, newsletter content, supporting documentation and guidance.
  • Building networks and working with individuals across the approximately 300 staff of the Society, to develop a better understanding of the Fellowship across the organisation, and more effective use of them as a resource.

Other

  • Deputising for Managers where appropriate
  • Undertaking other tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be requested. 

Key Knowledge and Skills Required

EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS/KNOWLEDGE

 

Educated to degree standard or equivalent

Essential

An understanding of the research and innovation system in the UK including the higher education and public and non-profit research organisation sector

Desirable

 

 

SKILLS

 

Excellent project management and planning skills

Essential

Excellent oral and written communication and interpersonal skills

Essential

Ability to work with senior people (including the UK’s most eminent scientists) in a way that ensures their confidence

Essential

Ability to convey information to a range of audiences in a clear and confident way

Essential

Excellent organisational and time management skills                                            

Essential

Strong attention to detail and meticulous record keeping

Essential

Ability to use tact and diplomacy to handle confidential information

Essential

Ability to prioritise and manage a varied workload

Essential

Good analytical and problem-solving skills

Essential

Strong IT skills                                                                                                    

Essential

 

 

EXPERIENCE

 

Experience of working in a team and of effective engagement across teams

Essential

Experience of using Microsoft Office (in particular Excel, Teams and SharePoint)

Essential

Experience of working in administrative roles or a similar role

Essential

Experience of record and data management

Desirable

 

 

 

 

Competencies

Self-management

·        Works unsupervised and can motivate self

·        Produces results under pressure

·        Can manage in stressful situations

·        Pushes for the best results

·        Pursues and encourages feedback that may reveal an error in judgment and then makes appropriate adjustments

·        Recognises own personal biases or limitations, and uses this understanding to improve decisions and plans for action

·        Seeks out mentors and other development resources to gain additional self-awareness and personal development

·        Reflects on negative situations with maturity and seeks to understand own contribution to the situation

·        Holds things together and acts as a settling influence

Working with others

·        Contributes ideas and identifies opportunities to work with others both within the team and across the organisation

·        Willing to provide feedback to sectional colleagues when requested

·        Produces succinct presentations and papers for senior colleagues

·        Understands when to seek senior advice on potentially delicate negotiations

·        Reaches a variety of audiences using an appropriate mix of communication methods and tailored messages to appeal to their unique needs

·        Speaks from the heart to compel action and creates an emotional appeal for organisational priorities

·        Creates an environment of transparency while respecting confidentiality requirements

·        Builds consensus for delivering team goals. Frequently interacts with peers, on cross-functional matters.

Resource management

·        Makes the best of internal/external resources and coordinates well with external partners to best meet the needs of the Society

·        Builds contingency into projects taking into account possible outside factors

·        Sets and monitors performance against quality and results orientated targets.

·        Focuses on both short and long-term goals

·        Creates novel solutions to problems

·        Creates a detailed design or plan to implement a new solution or approach

·        Evaluates new technology as potential solutions to existing issues.

·        Adjusts course as new information comes to light

·        Executes quickly and decisively in a time-sensitive situation

·        Takes accountability to persist until opportunity is realised or problem solved

Critical thinking

·        Determines and clarifies the exact requirements of any situation

·        Checks information for accuracy and raises concerns if information is inaccurate

·        Extracts the key points succinctly, clearly and accurately

·        Puts forward suggestions for improvement concerning current processes or systems

·        Tries different ways of doing things to get the best results

·        Compares and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of options

·        Formulates an opinion by considering opposing views and suggestions

·        Runs trials and models or applies statistical analysis  and stress testing to confirm or disconfirm proposal

Adaptability

·        Overcomes obstacles and is not deterred by setbacks; checks assumptions and first principles and works out alternative approaches

·        Reacts proactively to new challenges and works in a flexible manner to produce solutions

·        Provides feedback and participates in discussions surrounding new ideas approaches or projects

·        Maintains focus and continues to deliver when things are ‘up in the air’

·        Adjusts to act differently depending on the situation

·        Takes steps to understand basic risk management and importance of identifying and maintaining controls

·        Helps others to understand and cope with ambiguous situations

Managing people and relationships

·        Delegates effectively, setting clear expectations and authority

·        Monitors results and feeds back to team on a regular basis

·        Recognises others’ contributions and acknowledges their limits

·        Helps others to identify ways to improve their performance

·        Prioritises supervisory responsibilities and carries them out in a timely fashion

·        Understands and can identify client/stakeholder/staff needs and looks for opportunities to improve their experiences

·        Demonstrates trust in others’ ability to accomplish tasks at acceptable levels of performance

·        Provides current, direct, complete and actionable positive and constructive feedback

·        Has a mind-set of sharing own and others’ expertise

·        Creates an environment of transparency while respecting confidentiality requirements

·        Focuses on surfacing underlying customer issues/concerns and identifying root causes

·        Increases exposure to and personal relationships with customers

·        Expresses positive views of the customer

 

Options

Sorry the Share function is not working properly at this moment. Please refresh the page and try again later.
Share on your newsfeed