Executive Operations Assistant

Job ID: 021045

Salary: £32,676 – £37,297 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Posted: 20-Apr-2021

Closing date: 10-May-2021

Business unit: Estates & Facilities

Department: Governance

Contact details: Paloma Lisboa, paloma.lisboa@kcl.ac.uk 

Guy's Campus   Professional and support services    

Job description
As the Executive Operations Assistant, you will provide comprehensive, confidential and high-quality executive support to the Director of Operations, their direct reports and the Senior Leadership Team. 
 
You will prepare briefing papers, act as gatekeeper with diplomacy and tact and assist with the preparation of high-quality reports, presentations and other documents with a sophisticated writing style and ever responsive to the needs of the business. Ability to use Microsoft Office suite (inc Teams, OneNote and PowerBi to be tested as part of the selection process) at advanced level is essential for this role.
 
You will be required to work at board level and navigate challenging and ambiguous situations with a completer-finisher mindset. You will be a meticulous organiser, proactive in everything you think and do with superb attention to detail. Your interpersonal skills will be second to none with a resilient, calm manner to support the wide-ranging operational needs of the team.
 
This role is an exceptional opportunity for those looking to build on their project management and strategic planning experience as part of their career progression. That said, you will also be able to support the Director of Operations in smaller tasks to alleviate some of the administrative related tasks.
 
This post will be offered on an indefinite contract.
This is a full-time post.

Key responsibilities 

• Proactively planning the Director of Operations’ time/diary to align with the priorities of the directorate and those of her manager, the Director of Estates and Facilities, who she deputises for.  
• Provide administration support to meetings to ensure the effective delivery of the business, including developing a business programme, scheduling an appropriate cycle of regular meetings, convening ad hoc meetings, agenda preparation and follow up actions. 
• Assisting team members with document editing, such as reports, presentation decks, spreadsheets etc. ahead of meetings; preparing high quality presentational materials as needed and shared in OneNote, Microsoft Teams and OneDrive. 
• Ensure that the Director of Operations is fully prepared for all meetings, with papers and the necessary documentation provided.  
• Undertaking the role of Secretary to relevant executive committee/boards, including booking rooms (or managing online virtual rooms), preparing and circulating papers, inviting speakers, providing minutes, drafting documentation/ reports and tracking actions. 
• Manage circulation lists for the full range of management/decision making forums. 
• Co-ordination of briefing papers, agendas, memos, reports, audits, action logs and all papers related to meetings supporting the Senior Business Manager in  ensuring that the Director of Operations and the Director of Estates & Facilities are appropriately prepared in advance. 
• Act as a minute taker and/or secretary to support key management and governance meetings, exercising sound judgment when taking minutes at meetings, ensuring that key business decisions are correctly recorded. 
• Follow up on any actions and recommendations that come out of the meetings to ensure decisions are acted upon. 
• Proactively problem-solve with regards to logistics, sensitive issues and processes, applying initiative and referring upwards where required.  
• Follow up on actions from colleagues where necessary, implementing and maintaining effective systems and procedures, making maximum use of technology to ensure actions are followed up and closed accordingly. 
• Undertake project work on behalf of the Director of Operations, and her direct reports, researching, collating and preparing reports or presentations, with impeccable formatting and writing. 
• Work with members of the team to investigate the causes of any variance from target/plan and proactively contribute to the implementation of solutions. 
• Take responsibility for the management of a risk and issues tracking mechanism and its proactive resolution and escalation processes. 
• Co-ordinate training, development and recruitment activity across the team 
• Provide regular reporting on the targeting of resources and monitor their implementation from a value for money perspective. 
• Contribute to the handling of complaints and processing across the Executive floor to ensure all responses are appropriately managed from start to end point to track the activity. 
• Ensure the administrative function is delivered to a high standard and ensure adequate cover is provided during periods of planned absence and leave 
• Work in partnership with colleagues and as part of cross organisational teams to deliver successful outcomes for the team. 
• Model King’s Principles in Action and carry out duties using the knowledge of a range of procedures associated with governance, data protection, freedom of information and business planning processes. 
• Maintain effective working relationships with Personal/Executive Assistants across the directorate and be proactive in working to identify and share best practice.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Skills, knowledge and experience

Essential criteria

1. Significant experience of providing a full range of executive support to a Director, Senior Management Team and/or Board, including drafting briefing papers and correspondence, planning agendas, minute taking and following up actions
2. Excellent administrative and organisational skills, with high standards of IT literacy including MS Teams and OneNote
3. Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required, drawn from multiple sources.
4. Experience of working across boundaries in a large and complex organisation, with tact and diplomacy.
5. Ability to work under pressure and to tight timescales in a calm, unflappable and resourceful manner.
6. An ability to plan and prioritise actions, including managing competing demands.
7. Enthusiastic, flexible, responsive and a can-do approach.

Desirable criteria 

1. Experience of influencing teams without direct line management 
2. Understanding of the Higher Education sector 

This is an office-based role in Central London with out of hours and weekend support required at times. Whilst COVID-19 restrictions apply this post is home based. 

Candidates must be available for an initial online assessment in the afternoon of 17 May 2021. Those shortlisted will be invited to a panel interview taking place in the afternoon of 19 May 2021.