King's College London

About us

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. The university is dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place. The Strategic Vision 2029 looks forward to King’s College London’s 200th anniversary in 2029 and sets out ambitious plans in five key areas:

• Educating the next generation of change-makers
• Challenging ideas and driving change through research
• Giving back to society through meaningful service
• Working with our local communities in London
• Fostering global citizens with an international perspective

The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a Faculty of King's College London and the largest academic community in Europe devoted to the study and prevention of mental illness and brain disease.

The School of Neuroscience is UK’s 2nd largest Neuroscience school with over 500 researcher and 200 PhD students. It is one of three schools at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience. We are ranked 4th in the world for the total number of publications in neuroscience, 4th for the number of publication outputs in top 5% citations in neuroscience, and 4th for top 5% citations in neurology.

The Centre for Developmental Neurobiology aims to understand the mechanisms that control brain development and how deviations from the normal plan may lead to disease. The Centre has a team of over 190 researchers and support staff and is part of the School of Neuroscience in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.

We strongly encourage our staff to dedicate time to their professional development through training courses and participation in working groups and networks. We also encourage our staff to seek mentoring outside their direct line management. Mentoring, both via formal and informal arrangements, allows individuals to fully explore their career situation and development. Our weekly school circular regularly captures and promotes opportunities open to all staff.

The Centre for Developmental Neurobiology is looking for a highly motivated and experienced Senior Executive Assistant to provide broad support to the Director, the Managing Director, and central operations for the Centre.

About the role

The main purpose of the role is to provide comprehensive, confidential, and high-quality executive support to the Director, including smooth and efficient day-to-day management, handling correspondence and associated communications, and often being a first point of contact both internally and externally. However, the role extends beyond personal assistance and administrative support into supporting strategic projects, as requested by the Director, in cooperation with the Research Strategy Manager.

They will liaise with a range of people at all levels across the Centre, School, and wider King’s community, including professional services cluster teams in the School of Neuroscience depending on the nature of the task. It is expected that the post holder will also line-manage and supervise a Business Operations Officer who will be supporting the department 50% of the week.

We are looking for someone who has substantial experience as an executive assistant at a senior level providing operational support in a busy office with competing demands. We are looking for someone who has proven skills in managing numerous tasks and flexible in hours worked to ensure that critical tasks are completed within deadlines. You will be a self-starter with a can-do attitude. You will be highly organised and flexible in your approach, can work independently, is proactive in delivering tasks, and responds well to different styles of leadership. You will advocate for process improvement and innovation and be committed to the principles of culture, equality, diversity, and inclusion and supporting cultural change. Excellent communication skills are essential as is an attention to detail.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and the post holder will be offered a 5-year fixed term contract in the first instance. The post holder is expected to be on campus at least 4 days a week. Travel within the UK will be required to support meetings, events, and engagements.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Proven experience in providing high level administrative and/or personal support to a senior executive, ideally within a research or academic environment, including electronic diary, email, and meeting management.
2. Strong organisational skills and the ability to multitask, manage competing priorities and meet multiple deadlines.
3. Excellent communication skills including excellent spoken and written English, particularly in formal documents, letters, emails and other communications.
4. Motivated, resourceful, self-starter who can work independently, with strong attention to detail, with minimal direction, tact and diplomacy. Able to deal with sensitive information with the utmost discretion and confidentiality.
5. Excellent IT skills including proficiency in Microsoft Office 365 (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneDrive) and experience of other office management software or tools.
6. Experience of high-level event coordination and handling logistics for professional meetings, external visits, and workshops.
7. Experience of financial tracking and a good understanding of expense and reimbursement monitoring and reporting

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of working in the higher education sector and familiarity with higher education administration.
2. Working knowledge and experience of King’s systems such as Business World and HR Digital Services.
3. Proven commitment to ongoing skills development.
4. Experience using MacOS computers and other devices.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community. We are committed to working with our staff and unions, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.