Sophie Gibbons
Sophie Gibbons
Wolfson Building, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QD
Biography
Sophie Gibbons is the Head of Administration and Finance at the Department of Computer Science. She leads one of the University of Oxford’s largest and most research-active academic units, overseeing all operational, financial, and organisational functions that underpin its world-class teaching and research. Joining the department in 2022, she brings over two decades of senior management experience across higher education, local government, and the private sector.
Sophie provides strategic partnership to the Head of Department and senior academic leadership, shaping long-term departmental strategy, steering major organisational change, and ensuring that operational delivery aligns with academic priorities. She is responsible for the leadership and performance of the Professional Services team, around 70 staff across Finance, HR, IT, Research Support, Academic Administration, Facilities, Communications, and Programme and Project Management, ensuring high-quality, resilient services in a complex, rapidly growing environment.
Her remit spans multimillion-pound financial planning and control, organisational development, workforce strategy, major capital planning, risk management, governance, and the delivery of departmental policy. She plays a central role in divisional and University-wide initiatives, representing the department at senior fora and contributing to major institutional programmes to strengthen professional services and improve operational effectiveness.
Before joining Computer Science, Sophie held senior leadership roles across several Oxford departments, including the Department of Social Policy and Intervention and the Department of Economics. Earlier in her career, she led business operations in children’s social care and youth justice, building deep expertise in organisational transformation, system design, and compassionate, people-centred leadership. She is a member of the CIPD and a Fellow of the Association of Higher Education Professionals.
Working across a large, multi-site academic community, Sophie is committed to cultivating an inclusive, high-performance culture, and ensuring that the department has the structures, people, and resources required to thrive in a fast-moving global discipline. Senior academics, researchers, and prospective colleagues can expect a strategic partner who is decisive, forward-looking, and deeply invested in the success of the department’s mission.
For enquiries, please contact Sophie’s Executive Assistant, Rachel Randall, at ea@cs.ox.ac.uk.