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Administrative Assistant

Cardiff University is looking to recruit an Administrative Assistant to work in the Business Engagement & Partnerships Team based within the Research and Innovation Services Department.

You will provide effective and efficient support to the team including supporting the Head of the Business Engagement & Partnerships Team. We are looking for an enthusiastic, reliable and professional individual and the role requires excellent interpersonal and communication skills, strong organisational and committee servicing skills including diary management and a strong attention to detail and accuracy.

This is a full-time position, 35 hours per week, available for a fixed period until 31 June 2024.

This role is eligible to be offered on a blended working basis, meaning that as well as spending time working on campus you can also choose to spend some time working from another location, e.g. your home. The University is committed to offering this flexibility, wherever the role and business need allows, supporting work-life balance.

Salary: £22,197 with annual increments up to £24,144 per annum (Grade 3)

For further information on this role please contact: [email protected]

Date advert posted: Tuesday, 27 June 2023

Closing date: Friday, 14 July 2023

Please be aware that Cardiff University reserves the right to close this vacancy early should sufficient applications be received.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds who have the ambition to create a University which seeks to fulfil our social, cultural and economic obligation to Cardiff, Wales, and the world. In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangements.

Key Duties

• Deal with a range of enquires from internal (staff & students) and external (members of the public) customers in a professional manner, establishing their needs and adapting the standard responses accordingly.
• Establish working relationships with key contacts to help improve service levels.
• Undertake a variety of administrative duties to support the team.
• Gather and analyse data to update administrative systems with accurate information.
• Collaborate with others in order to make recommendations for developments of established processes and procedures.

Specific Duties

• Plan and organise meetings, events and visits, booking venues and organising catering and hospitality arrangements both within and external to the university.
• Act as secretary (organise and prepare papers and agendas, attend and take minutes) for various meetings including team meetings and meetings with the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research, Innovation and Enterprise.
• Provide administrative support to specific projects within the Business Engagement & Partnerships portfolio, e.g. Strategic Partnerships, the Cardiff University Innovation Network.
• Assist in the preparation of papers and reporting requirements.
• Provide contracts support to the team and the wider department as required. Logging contracts to the correct database and following department procedure for contract sign-off.
• Keeping stock of the Team’s stationery and event materials and adding to these when necessary.

General Duties

• Abide by all University policies and undergo appropriate personal and professional development.
• Perform other duties which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role.
• Ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties.
• Uphold the Professional Services Values & Behaviours or local equivalent.

The personal specification is split into 2 sections: essential and desirable. Please demonstrate clearly how you meet all of the essential criteria. Where possible you should give examples of how, when and where you have used your experience, knowledge, specific skills and abilities to match those required for this particular job role.

Please ensure that you communicate this fully by creating a supporting statement document, listing all of the criteria and commenting against each one as to how you meet them. This will need to be completed before you being making your application online as you will be required to upload it. When uploading the supporting statement the document title needs to read [YOURNAME-BR NUMBER].

The desirable section contains a list of skills, qualifications and experience that it would be beneficial for the applicant to have.

All shortlisting decisions will be based initially on essential criteria, with desirable being used to further select of deselect candidates as appropriate. We interview those candidates who are the closest match to the identified criteria.

Essential Criteria

• Excellent organisational skills and experience of diary management, organising meetings, booking venues and organising catering and hospitality arrangements.
• Experience of servicing committees including collation of agenda, preparation of papers, minute taking and following up actions.
• Ability to plan, prioritise and organise own workload within established time scales.
• Experience working in an administrative or office environment with the ability to set up and maintain standard administrative systems and procedures, including using University systems to collate and record data online and in hard copy. (Training will be provided where required).
• Ability to communicate effectively and professionally with a wide range of people, both orally and in writing.
• Ability to work as an effective team member, providing advice and guidance to other team members where necessary.
• Ability to work on your own initiative and under pressure, maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
• NVQ 2 / GCSE level A – C or equivalent
• Experience of using common office IT packages (e.g. MS Office, e-mail etc.).
• A willingness to undertake further training and development.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working in a Higher Education environment.
• Ability to speak/understand Welsh or a willingness to learn.

Research and Innovation Services

Cardiff is an ambitious and innovative university located in a beautiful and thriving capital city. Our world-leading research was ranked 5th for quality amongst UK universities in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework and we provide an educationally outstanding experience for our 30,000 students. With an annual budget in excess of £500 million and around 6,000 staff, Cardiff is a member of the Russell Group of the 24 leading UK research-intensive universities. The University has 24 academic schools grouped into three colleges: Biomedical & Life Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering and Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences.

The University’s ambition is to rank consistently among the top 100 universities in the world. Cardiff is also developing its Innovation System through a focused programme of investment in people and infrastructure. Research funding secured from competitive, external sources exceeds £100 million annually and the University aims to grow this further through winning grants from a wide range of national and global sources.

Research and Innovation Services, RIS supports the University’s research community in initiating and delivering research and innovation activities. Led by the Director, Dr David Bembo, RIS provides services via over 100 expert staff organised in five specialist teams: Research Grants and Contracts; Research Integrity, Governance and Ethics; Research Development; Research Commercialisation and Impact; and Business Engagement and Partnerships. The Department works closely with academic and professional services staff from all areas of the institution.

How we will support you in performing this role

We want to support and develop you in the role, using a combination of the following to help you reach your full potential.

1. Regular one-to-one meetings with your Line Manager.
2. An experienced and supportive team around you.
3. Support to undertake job-relevant training and development, as identified by your Line Manager.
4. A staff mentoring scheme.
5. Support to learn Welsh or to update language skills.

22,197

24,144

Admin / Clerical

Grade 3