About the job

Job summary

DE&S Deca is a specialist part of Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) tasked with supporting a vast range of defence avionics, electronics and components to provide high-quality, cost-effective support to the UK Armed Forces. We have a rich heritage as the MOD’s in house repair, maintenance, overhaul and upgrade service provider by offering innovative solutions to guarantee best value for  Defence.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a proactive, experienced executive assistant to join the team. You will provide effective, high-quality secretariat and executive support to the Chief Executive (CE) of DE&S Deca and the Executive Management Board.

You will need a collaborative mindset, be a self-starter and be able to work with your own initiative to provide effective office management and administration to ensure the CE conducts their business as efficiently as possible. This role will stretch your communication skills, ability to manage multiple priorities at pace, problem solving ability, your decision making and management of resources, and your strength in working autonomously.

You will be a confident individual with the skills to influence high level executives at board level, the ability to manage relationships with high level executives. Working with a range of stakeholders across DE&S, wider MOD, government secretariats and external customers and companies you will provide executive support to the development of key strategic programmes and projects and lead on stakeholder management and engagement of these.

The role is largely office-based with an occasional requirement for travel within the UK.

Being mindful of the scrutiny on Public Sector pay and in accordance with Civil Service Terms and Conditions, salary on appointment is normally at the minimum point of the salary range and this should therefore be the expectation. Existing Civil Servants will be appointed in line with the normal Civil Service pay rules.

This role is not open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected.

Job description

Duties of the role will include:

• Acting as the first point of contact for DE&S Deca’s Chief Executive, which includes confidential and effective diary management.
• Arrange meetings and coordinate interdepartmental communications with senior/VIP visitors from MOD, Industry, wider national and regional government as well as employees and other external stakeholders as necessary.
• Providing senior secretariat support for the DE&S Deca Executive Management Board (XMB) including the production and circulation of all papers in a timely manner, management information, meeting packs, producing accurate recording and distribution of minutes and ensuring progression of any actions.
• Draft correspondence and submissions on DE&S Deca matters as required.
• Supporting Officer for responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
• Act as the DE&S Deca focal point for engagement and liaison with key/senior stakeholders within DE&S and wider MOD, preparing documentation in support of Performance and Risk Reviews and other Sponsor governance requirements.
• Responsible for organising and co-ordinating arrangements for VIP meetings, visits and CE DE&S Deca hosted events by external organisations including management of background research, briefing papers and all logistical requirements.
• Manage all incoming telecoms and correspondence on behalf of CE DE&S Deca, deal with routine correspondence and use professional judgement to ensure matters are dealt with effectively and escalated when necessary.
• Manage a ‘bring forward system’ and track delegated work by prioritising incoming mail, keep track of CE DE&S Deca’s tasks, actions and deadlines, delegating actions and tasks where necessary.
• Draft CE DE&S Deca correspondence, communications, notices, Corporate Briefings and other documents and presentations as directed.
• Manage the DE&S Deca rolling Executive Meeting Schedule, ensuring meetings are arranged and papers distributed within agreed timeframes and communicated appropriately throughout the business and wider stakeholder community.
• Responsible for monitoring XMBs mandatory training requirement and booking time for completion.
• Lead on the organisation, communication and co-ordination of arrangements for required off-site events, including development of event programme as required.
• Arranging travel & accommodation for Executive Board Members as required.
• General office administration as required.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

• Educated to Level 3 in an appropriate field (such as NVQ 3, GCSE AS/A Level).
• Previous relevant experience of providing secretariat support to senior personnel.
• Excellent organisational & planning skills with the ability to co-ordinate, prioritise and work to tight deadlines with conflicting priorities.
• Excellent communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills.
• Self-motivated, able to work effectively independently and as part of a wider team.
• IT proficient with a good working knowledge of MS Office applications.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience of organising visits/events with a variety of stakeholders.
• Previous experience of organising meetings and taking minutes.
• Flexible and quick to adapt to a rapidly changing work environment.
• Innovative, creative with impeccable attention to quality, detail and high levels of integrity and discretion. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,853, DE&S Deca contributes £8,330 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

At application stage you will need to provide a CV and Personal Statement (up to 500 words) evidencing against the Essential Criteria and your overall experience.

Candidates successful at sift stage will be invited to an initial interview based on the following behaviours (specific competency examples will be required):

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Candidates may be invited for a second interview to determine further suitability for the role.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.