PA to Head of School and School Operations Officer

Essential

• Educated to at least Advanced Level (or equivalent qualifications and work experience) and hold GCSEs in Mathematics and English at C or above (or equivalent).
• Significant previous experience in a PA and/or Operations role.
• Excellent IT skills, especially use of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint. The postholder should also be confident and willing to quickly learn new software packages to support, inform and improve operational effectiveness.
• Excellent demonstrable interpersonal, organisational, team working and communication skills.
• A high level of discretion and sensitivity in dealing with confidential matters.
• Ability and demonstrable experience of working accurately and paying close attention to detail.
• Aptitude to prioritise own workload and to complete all tasks accurately and to a routinely high standard even when working to challenging and/or conflicting deadlines.
• Capability to manage own workload autonomously and work as an effective team member with flexibility.
• Significant self-initiative and ability to carry out projects from conception to conclusion.
• Demonstrable ability to provide effective, high quality customer service and to make suggestions relating to service enhancements.
• Ability to take accurate notes and minutes.
• Experience of working in a large and complex organization.

Desirable

• Experience of working in Higher Education.
• Experience of working at an executive level.
• Experience of working with financial processes.

The post holder will play a pivotal role in providing accurate, efficient, proactive reliable executive assistance of a secretarial and administrative nature. The role requires proactively identify opportunities and present solutions to the Head of School and Operations Manager in order to address issues in the School. An important aspect of the role will involve taking responsibility for the efficient running and maintenance of the School and its buildings. The post holder should have a positive attitude, be a forward thinker, able to use own initiative, have excellent interpersonal and communication skills and be able to remain calm under pressure. In addition, the post holder should be able to independently (with overall direction from the Operations Manager) carry out small scale projects and procedures from conception to conclusion and have the ability to manage complex administrative / information systems.