Job Description
Job Title:
Department:
Salary:
Head of Field
MOLA Field Team
£30, 200 plus £220 p.a clothing allowance
Grade:
Hours:
MOLA Grade 4
37 hours per week.
Flexibility with working hours will be required
The post is based mainly at Mortimer Wheeler
House; flexibility with regard to location and travel will
be necessary.
Permanent
Operations Manager
Location:
Duration:
Responsible to:
Responsible for:
Overall Job
Purpose:
Key Result areas:
Project Officers
Assistant Field Manager
To provide a professional lead in developing the
capability and contribution of the Field Team.
Working closely with the Client Team, Post Ex
Management and the SMG, the post-holder will
provide expertise in developing field capability in
support of client and organisational needs.
Leadership and People Management
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September 2011 Version 1
To lead the Project Officer team to roll out
best practice and achieve consistency of
approach and performance across the field
team;
To work with the client team and post ex
managers to develop and maintain academic,
delivery and technical standards;
e.g. MOLA templates for reports WSIs, risk
assessment etc, interpretation of IfA codes,
To actively support MOLA systems for
managing and developing staff.
To provide a focus for the Field Team to raise
professional issues, and to act as a role
model;
To promote a culture of continuous
improvement among staff.
Represent the interests of field team members
within MOLA management and communicate
organisational issues and initiatives to the field
team
Improve communication flow between the field
and other functions and coordinate the
strengthening of the links between field based
and office based staff
Performance Management and Development
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To set Field Team annual objectives aligned
to organisational needs and coach and mentor
Project Officers to be active line managers
with robust processes for developing staff,
recognising good results and addressing poor
performance.
To set objectives for direct reports, to carry out
staff performance appraisals bi-annually and
to actively manage staff performance against
those objectives;
Work with the SMG and the Assistant Field
Manager to develop reward and recognition
processes for Field Staff to acknowledge
sustained high performance and to support
retention of relevant staff
To work with the Assistant Field Manager and
Operations Manager to develop and
implement a staff training plan and to oversee
staff training as required;
To work with the Post Ex Manager and the
Operations Manager to reduce reporting and
post-ex delays associated with unavailability
of individuals with relevant skills and project
specific knowledge
To increase the deployability of staff within the
Field Team to increase resilience in delivery
performance and cost to the unpredictable mix
of project work
Business
Planning,
Competitive Capability
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September 2011 Version 1
Development
and
To work with the assistant field manager in
proposing changes in field team size based on
project forecast and work as part of a team to
deliver
recruitment
or
redundancy
programmes
To lead specific initiatives aimed at improving
the overall efficiency of the field process and
at matching skills mix and cost to
organisational needs.
To ensure that the team provides an efficient
and helpful internal service to Client Teams;
To promote the skills and expertise of the
team internally and externally and to actively
support the development of new business
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To contribute to the annual preparation of nonsalary budgets as required, and to manage
expenditure against budget;
Together with the Operations Manager, to
manage total staff costs (salaries and
chargeability) within the field team to meet
business requirements;
To have significant input to the regular review
of the policies and procedures governing Field
operations
To contribute to and take part in the monthly
sales and operations planning process
To
coordinate
and
deliver
against
chargeability targets for the team
Contribute as required to tender submissions
Sourcing of field archaeology equipment
Quality Assurance
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To ensure that work is carried out to an
appropriate professional, academic and
technical standard,
To ensure that results and reports are
delivered
in
accordance
with
MOLA
specifications
With contract managers organise field phase
reviews for larger projects and ensure that
learning / improvements are disseminated
across all staff. Manage the schedule for
these reviews
Work with the Project Officers in undertaking
occasional audits of field processes to identify
non-compliances and coordinate the delivery
of corrective actions across the team.;
To ensure chargeability targets and reporting
targets across the team are met.
To monitor the quality of project briefings,
work specifications and site preparedness and
compile constructive feedback for contract
managers and the Health and safety Manager
Project work
 To contribute where appropriate to the design
and costing of projects,
 Collaborate with the contract management
team in the development of cost effective
project designs, delivering against client
needs and research aims
September 2011 Version 1
Health and Safety
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Special
Circumstances:
To work in accordance with the requirements
of the MOLA Health & Safety Policy
To contribute to the Health and Safety Plan
To support the annual review of H&S policies
and procedures
This position requires a Basic Criminal Records
check which will reveal any unspent convictions. A
criminal record may not necessarily be a bar to
employment, as any decision will be treated on its
merits and individual circumstances subject to the
Museum’s overriding obligations to protect the
children and vulnerable adults in its charge,
members of the public, the safety of the Museum’s
staff and the Collection.
NB This job description reflects the requirements of the Museum as at September
2011. This job description should not be taken as an exhaustive description of the role
and is, rather, indicative of the types of responsibility covered by this job. Post holders
will be required to carry out such other work as is required by the Museum as long as
this is reasonable and commensurate with the nature of the post held.
September 2011 Version 1
Person Specification
Essential
Assess.
Method
Desirable
Assess.
Method
Qualificatio
ns
Educated to degree level or equivalent work
experience
AF
Recognised qualification in quality
management
AF
CSCS card
AF
Recognised qualification in health and
safety management
AF
MIfA or MIfA compliant experience
AF
Demonstrable experience in supervising and
successfully delivering archaeology projects
AF/I
Experience of preparing and managing
budgets and cost estimates
AF/I
Well developed knowledge of post-ex
processes
AF/I
Experience of selling and negotiating
field archaeology projects
AF/I
Knowledge of the commercial archaeology
market and experience of operating in a
competitive commercial environment
AF/I
An understanding of IT and its
application in archaeological projects
AF/I
AF/I
Experience of working as a member of
a management team with union
representatives to achieve mutually
satisfactory outcomes
AF/I
Recognised management qualification
AF
Experience
&
Knowledge
Substantial experience in line managing,
appraising and developing staff
September 2011 Version 1
An understanding of the reasons why
archaeological projects fail against quality,
budget or delivery targets and a desire to
drive improvements
AF/I
Experience in assimilating and
analysing data to clarify and support
solution of complex issues
Experiencing
of
representing
a
commercial organisation with external
clients and the public
AF/I
AF/I
Excellent planning and organising skills
AF/I
AF/I
Good
self-discipline
management
AF/I
Positive attitude, flexible, change orientated
and outputs/results focussed;
AF/I
An active commitment to the principles
of workforce diversification.
Excellent people skills and a proven ability to
motivate staff even if difficult circumstances
Ability to take tough decisions and explain
rationale to staff at all levels
AF/I
Ability to influence clients, third parties and
staff working across the organisation and
AF/I
Skills/Abiliti
es/
Competenci
es
Self-motivated with demonstrable ability to
develop
and
implement
process
improvements;
An effective and confident communicator,
with
excellent
written
and
oral
communication skills
September 2011 Version 1
AF/I
and
time
AF/I
command respect within a diverse group
Comfortable with working to tight deadlines
with incomplete information
An understanding of diversity and how it
relates to the role.
AF/I
AF/I
Assessment Method Code:
AF – Application Form
I – Interview
T - Test
September 2011 Version 1