Role Title: Senior Administrative Assistant (Department Support)

Grade and Salary

Grade 5, £26,707 - £31,236 per annum

FTE and working pattern

Full-time (35hrs per week) Open-ended

Reward and Benefits

28 days annual leave plus 9 buildings closed days (and Christmas Eve when it falls on a weekday). Use our total rewards calculator: https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/work/total-rewards-calculator.htm to see the value of benefits provided by Heriot-Watt University.

Purpose of Role

The school is looking to appoint a full-time Senior Administrative Assistant who will be responsible for providing high quality day-to-day administrative support to one of three Head of Department roles that exist in the Edinburgh Business School. The role holder will work within an academic department as the key administrative support within the department, for the Head and to assist other academic colleagues in their department. The role is also expected to operate as a member of the School’s Support Team and work alongside administrative colleagues located in various areas of the wider School. The role will also act as a key administrative liaison point between a range of University Central Directorates in the best interests of their academic department.

The successful applicant will have a proven track record in the delivery of administrative services in an education context, they will be a self-motivated individual who enjoys working with young people and who is able to work flexibly as a member of a team within challenging and dynamic environment.

The work will be varied, and the post holder will be expected to be able to deliver a fair, friendly and timely service to students and staff. All the support services within the School are committed to delivering a customer focused service to students, staff and visitors. To achieve this commitment all support staff, need to be adaptable, flexible, and prepared to support other teams and individuals within the School.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide high quality administrative and secretarial support to the Head of Department.
• Provide administrative support for Department’s routine activities, projects, and local governance activities etc. including scheduling, preparation of agendas, circulation of documentation, minuting meetings, following-up actions and managing associated TEAMs and SharePoint sites. Examples include Boards of Studies, Programme Boards, and Staff/Student Liaison Committees.
• Provide administrative and planning support to departmental project working groups and departmental events series for staff delivered locally and globally via TEAMs or Zoom as and when required (e.g. CPD events, and occasional conferences etc.).
• Work closely with the relevant University Central Services to help organise the work of the department and to optimise the support for the department’s staff in understanding and following the correct practices and procedures in a timely manner.
• Play a central role supporting the Departmental Leadership Team and building a sense of community for the students and staff of the department.
• Responsibility for the upkeep of the Departmental WorkSpace (SharePoint) and various Departmental Microsoft Teams sites, ensuring consistency of approach in how departments are presented to the wider university both internally on the intranet and externally on the corporate website.
• Prepare relevant documents and information required from the department to facilitate School governance and to respond to requests from wider service departments of the University on behalf of the Head of Department.
• Act as a champion for continuous improvement in administrative processes and procedures at Departmental and School levels to enhance effectiveness and efficiency.
• Signpost Academic Tutors to where they can find general advice for their tutees relating to L&T policies, procedures, and practices to enhance the student experience across the department.
• Administrative support for academic colleagues in key roles across the Department to enhance the staff and student experience via local projects, initiatives, and events.
• Help with the organisation and facilitation of induction events designed to build and sustain excellent staff-student relations.
• Provide cover for colleagues working in a similar role during periods of annual leave