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Are you an experienced Personal Assistant looking for an exciting opportunity, with the UK's largest funder of health research.

The Grant Management Group and the NIHR are a diverse team of 250 professionals,
who together manage £0.6 billion of health research funding on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. We help decide which organisations are allocated money to develop their health research, and we then monitor that funding. Previously this has included projects around cancer, diabetes, global health and dementia for example.

We are very proud to have commissioned critical research supporting the development of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca Covid vaccine. We make a real difference to people’s health and lives and are passionate about what we do.

Our newly created External Affairs team (EA), hosted by LGC, will enhance the way NIHR works with key partners across the sector, and to strengthen the NIHR’s leadership position nationally and globally as part of UK plc.

Job purpose
The postholder will provide comprehensive and proactive administrative support to the Director of External Affairs and Strategic Partnerships and more general administrative support for the External Affairs team The role will also work collaboratively with the other Personal and Directorate Assistants to flexibly manage workload and cover any absences.

Key Responsibilities:
Director Support

• Being the single point of contact for the Director of External Affairs and Strategic Partnerships
• Ensuring diaries are proactively managed: arranging regular and ad-hoc meetings, identifying and resolving appointment clashes to ensure that the Director’s time is optimised effectively.
• Liaising with PAs and diary managers of senior individuals across the NIHR, Department of Health and Social Care, other public sector and commercial organisations
• Managing and organising the Director’s inboxes; responding to emails where appropriate and flagging emails according to urgency and action required as agreed.
• Represent the Director within the NIHR and when dealing with external stakeholders.

External Affairs Team Support

• Organising and servicing the External Affairs team’s meetings and ad hoc external meetings, including preparation of agendas, dissemination of paperwork in a timely manner, writing notes, taking down any actions and following up on them
• Managing travel requirements, including rail and air travel, hotels, conference registrations and venues and ensuring all have information required (e.g. tickets, travel info and maps).
• Booking meeting rooms and catering for internal meetings.
• Ensure that the Director and their direct reports are aware of deadlines for completion of work and are sent timely reminders. Support with any necessary administrative tasks
• Attend team meetings to ensure the post holder is fully embedded within the External Affairs team.
• Act as a source of information and support to staff with regards to processes and systems e.g. HR, Finance, Recruitment
• Communication of information to teams
• Providing support in the absence of colleagues in the Directors Support Office team

Experience Required:

• Experience of providing excellent and proven administrative support to senior individuals with rapidly changing diaries and priorities
• Experience of arranging and supporting meetings and events, including drafting agendas and taking minutes.
• Demonstrates sensitivity and confidentiality when dealing with information.
• Demonstrates a clear customer focus and applies good interpersonal skills to develop relationships both internally and with stakeholders from external communities

Essential Competencies and Behaviours:

• Calm personality
• Excellent communication skills - written and verbal
• Highly proactive and organized approach with the ability to support others in a busy environment
• Ability to recognise opportunities for continuous improvement, suggesting and implementing process and systems improvements
• Flexible approach to work, with the ability to multitask in an ever-changing environment, working alone and as part of a team
• Strong attention to detail
• Excellent IT skills (G Suite / Google Workspace and Microsoft Teams/Outlook)

To Apply
Please apply directly via our vacancy page with your CV along with a cover letter indicating your suitability for the role and your motivation to apply. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so early application is strongly encouraged to avoid disappointment.

NB: The submission of a cover letter is essential for your application to be considered