Executive Assistant

Executive Assistant 

Job Advert Post: Executive Assistant to the Director, Adolescent Health Study and administrative support to the senior executive team.

Location: Flexible working – remote or hybrid. Must be willing and able to travel to London and elsewhere across the UK to support business need.

Salary: Circa £35,000

Duration: Permanent, full time

Reporting to: Business Manager

About Adolescent Health Study

Adolescent Health Study (AHS) will be a new population study and data platform focusing on the biological and social developments that occur during adolescence. AHS will recruit around 100,000 young people, and will follow their health and wellbeing for a period of 10 years. The vision is to understand health trajectories and outcomes for young people, with a key focus on health equity.

Purpose of the post

The Executive Assistant (EA) will be a key member of the AHS team, providing high quality, professional, executive assistant support to the Director and administrative support to the senior team to ensure that AHS operates at the highest levels of service quality, accountability and transparency.

The successful candidate will be responsible for enabling the delivery of the AHS’s goals. They will work across the organisation, interacting with the senior team, key partners, stakeholders and wider networks across the UK. 

Main responsibilities:

• Keeping abreast of key policy, management and operational issues and communicating to the Director as appropriate.
• Manage complex and busy diaries and co-ordinating meetings across senior team diaries.
• Monitor and respond to Director’s emails and meeting requests.
• Highlight and flag all urgent and business critical emails.
• Ensure all information, both written and verbal, is treated in a confidential and sensitive manner.
• Format and type letters, emails and other correspondence.
• Collate and draft information on all external and internal meetings, ensuring the Director is fully briefed.
• Track, collate and produce materials for the Director’s participation in events and for speaking roles.
• Produce presentation materials for both internal and external conferences.
• Attend meetings, prepare agendas and papers and produce minutes of meetings and actions lists.
• Arrange and plan complex travel arrangements (UK and international travel), booking accommodation, preparing travel itineraries and arranging visas and travel documentation.
• Providing support for events and workshops organisation on behalf of the Director.
• Update the Director’s publication list and CV with new research outputs.
• Maintain the Director’s public facing biography and update as necessary.
• Process the Director’s expenses and reconcile credit card expenditure.
• File and maintain accurate records for the Director’s receipts and booking confirmations.
• Code and process financial (credit card) transactions in line with UKRI / AHS company policy.
• Product credit card transaction evidence, when required.
• Negotiate preferential rates and discounts, for goods and services, where possible and appropriate.
• Maintain an up-to-date and accurate list of contacts/partners, relevant to the Director’s activities.
• Create and update contact records and distribution lists both internally and externally, using AHS CRM system when established.
• Build and maintain effective relationships across teams and keep abreast of activities across AHS.
• Be an effective key point of contact for the AHS senior team.
• Be an effective key point of contact to the Director for other AHS staff.

Knowledge, skills and experience

Essential:

• Extensive experience of supporting executives and groups of people of increasing seniority and complexity.
• Extensive experience working in a global and fast-moving executive environment.
• Experience of managing complex national and international travel logistics, including creating travel itineraries which may require visa arrangements.
• Excellent organisational skills.
• Highly competent in planning and prioritising their workload to support multiple requests and changing priorities.  
• Adaptable and pragmatic, able to change direction quickly as priorities shift.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively and confidently with people at all levels.  
• Ability to produce high quality reports in Word and PowerPoint. Ability to write high quality, concise and clear, professional emails.
• Working knowledge of Office 365, Zoom and/or Teams.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to handle sensitive and confidential information.
• Ability to work accurately with attention to detail.
• Ability to work autonomously and make decisions without supervision.
• Excellent relationship building and networking skills.
• Ability to work as part of a team.

Desirable:

• Experience of working in a research or academic environment. Experience of multidisciplinary team working.

Application Process

Please apply with a CV and covering letter of no more than 500 words explaining what you can bring to this role, including your current salary, to Jobs@gravitateHR.co.uk

The closing date for this position is 10^th January 2025.

Equal Opportunities Policy Statement

AHS is an equal opportunities employer, and as such aims to treat all employees, consultants and applicants fairly. It is our policy to provide employment equality to all, irrespective of gender, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, having or not having dependants, religion or belief, race, disability, sexual orientation and age.

We are opposed to all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination.  All job applicants and employees who work for us will be treated fairly and will not be unfairly discriminated against on any of the above grounds. Decisions about recruitment and selection, promotion, training or any other benefit will be made objectively and without unlawful discrimination.