Head of Secretariat for the Institute of Law, University of Southern Denmark

Do you want to lead a professional and competent secretariat and develop the administrative support of an institute in growth?

The Legal Institute at the University of Southern Denmark is looking for a secretariat head who can ensure stable operations and develop the secretariat. The institute's activity has grown and development in organizing, structures and technologies affects the administration's tasks. Growth and changes impose demands for clear priorities, coherent workflows and sustainable organization. You will have personnel responsibility and a mandate to prioritize, set direction and translate decisions into practice.

Development occurs in close collaboration with the secretariat's staff and a broad management group, and you will become the institute director's close sparring partner.

The secretariat handles finance, HR, research and management support as well as other administration. The staff have high professionalism and work with freedom under responsibility.

Your tasks

You will be responsible for the daily management of the secretariat. In the initial period there will be a focus on unifying the secretariat, clarifying interfaces and further developing the organization so that it continues to match the needs of a growing institute. The goal is a coherent, reliable and dynamic secretariat with a clear link to and support for the institute's core tasks. Your key tasks will be to:

• ensure continued stable operations and clear priorities as well as contribute to concrete administrative tasks
• lead the staff and strengthen competencies and collaboration
• clarify responsibilities and create coherence across functions
• support the institute's core tasks
• promote well-being and a sustainable working life.
• bring the secretariat's perspectives into the management group
• as part of the management group work to ensure the institute's success with strategy and goals

Your qualifications

You lead closely with the staff and create frameworks for professionalism, independence and high quality. At the same time you are decisive, follow up and handle challenges in a timely manner with an eye for the institute's goals. We expect you to be a clear and trust-based leader with strong relational and organizational understanding, and that you:

• have documented experience with personnel leadership
• have solid administrative experience from a complex organization, preferably a university or another public institution
• have insight into finance, HR, administrative processes and experience with organizational development
• can combine operations and operational leadership with strategic development
• understand the interplay between administration, leadership and professional environments and follow agreements to the letter
• command Danish and English at a high level.

Experience from a similar position is an advantage. Your educational background may vary; the crucial thing is that your professional competencies match the content of the position.

We offer

The position gives you the opportunity to influence the secretariat's organization and the institute's administrative support. You will lead competent staff and, as a member of the management group, have direct influence on the institute's development.

About the Legal Institute

The Legal Institute is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences. With around 65 permanent staff and a number of part-time instructors on SDU campuses in Odense and Esbjerg, the institute combines a strong legal research foundation with an internationally oriented and interdisciplinary research profile. The institute offers the classical legal educations, both as full-time and part-time studies, as well as the HA(jur.) and Cand.merc.(jur.) programs.

In addition to these core educations, the institute provides legal expertise to international and interdisciplinary programs across SDU. The institute secretariat currently consists of nine staff and a number of student assistants.

Contact and application deadline

Further information about the position can be obtained by contact with the institute head Ole Hammerslev at phone 65 50 27 06, mobile 24 96 14 32 or e-mail [email protected].

The application deadline is Friday, October 23, 2026 at 23:59:59.

We expect to hold the first round of interviews on Tuesday, November 10, 2026 and the second round on Thursday, November 19, 2026. In connection with the interview there will be a task to be prepared in advance.

Employment terms

The position is a permanent full-time position of 37 hours per week with expected start January 1, 2027 or as soon as possible thereafter. There may be meetings and other activities on the university's other campuses and outside normal working hours.

Employment is carried out in accordance with the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC.

Salaries are set in accordance with current collective agreement and on the basis of objective and gender-neutral criteria, including the position's content, responsibilities and qualification requirements. As an applicant you are entitled to information about starting salary and salary range for the position. This information can be obtained in connection with the recruitment process. SDU does not collect information about an applicant's previous salary.

Applications must include a cover letter, CV and diploma. All documents in connection with the application should not contain a CPR number – if so, the CPR number must be crossed out.

All attached files must be in Adobe PDF format.

The cover letter and CV may be a maximum of 5 Mb.

Guidance for the application can be found here.

SDU wishes to reflect the surrounding society and therefore encourages everyone, regardless of personal background, to apply for the position.

About SDU

The University of Southern Denmark exists to create value for and with society. Whether our contribution comes in the form of excellent research, innovative solutions, education or learning, we must make a positive difference for society and contribute to a sustainable future. We do this by nurturing talent and creating the best environments for research and learning. It is therefore crucial that SDU retains, develops and recruits talent.

At the same time we must ensure consistently high quality in all our activities — and we can only do this with the right people. It is the university's researchers, teachers, students, leaders and technical-administrative staff who form the foundation of our success.

Location

Odense M, Denmark

Apply Before

2026-10-23T21:59:00+00:00