About the job

Job summary

OCC & MC are two divisions of the Business Group directorate at UKEF. The divisions work closely together to proactively seek new business opportunities to support UK exporters, build strategic relationships with our customers, execute marketing campaigns and coordinate departmental communication. These activities require continuous engagement with stakeholders both in the public and private sector in the UK and overseas.

Job description

The Executive Assistant is responsible for providing secretarial and logistical support to Senior Management in the OCC and MC divisions. The Executive Assistant also acts as the Travel Co-ordinator for the divisions and co-ordinates travel across other Divisions within UKEF where joint visits are being made.

Person specification

The Executive Assistant has significant contact with staff at all levels in the OCC & MC divisions and other key areas of UKEF and its external stakeholders, whilst also ensuring they effectively support the business outcomes of the division. The Executive Assistant role requires a large amount of autonomy. They need to be particularly adept at prioritisation, often having to work with very little guidance from their busy Managers. They also deal with a range of issues in respect of the management of diaries and inbox management pressures, organising meetings, appointments and events. They are expected to be able to make objective decisions, using sound judgement, evidence and knowledge when delegating work in their manager’s absence, organising complex travel arrangements and management of all the OCC & MC’s invoices submitted by Procurement and Finance Division. Casework activities will be varied but they will be required to use their own judgement in interpreting requests from customers and preparing first drafts of correspondence in response.

Key responsibilities and deliverables in the role are:

• Reading, monitoring and responding to Head of Departments’ emails.
• Answering calls and liaising with customers.
• Supporting policy activity, for example through research
• Delegating work to others in the Head of Departments’ absence.
• Diary management.
• Planning and organising meetings.
• Preparing papers for meetings.
• Planning and organising of events.
• Preparing presentations.
• Managing and reviewing office processes.
• Typing documents.
• Arranging travel, accommodation and visas.
• Screening phone calls, enquiries and requests and handling them when appropriate.
• Meeting and greeting visitors at all levels of seniority.
• Dealing with incoming emails and post, often corresponding on behalf of Head of Departments.
• Liaising with OGDs and other staff.
• Responsibility for processing invoices.
• Assist Head of Departments with budget reforecasting and quarterly business reviews

This list is not exhaustive; you may be required to carry out additional duties according to business need.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,000, UK Export Finance contributes £9,180 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, Experience and Technical skills.

You will be invited to complete the online application form.  The application form must be completed by 23.55 on the day of the closing date for it to be accepted.

All applications will be sifted against our minimum selection criteria outlined in the personal specification.

You will be asked in the relevant sections of the application form to provide examples of evidence against a range of the success profiles (refer to appendix 1).  Where applicants are asked to apply with a personal statement, you should fully articulate in 750 words how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification within the Information Pack.

For the initial sift your application will be evaluated against:

• Experience
• Ability
• Technical
• Behaviours:
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

If you are successful following the sift stage, you will be invited to an initial interview; this will include the following assessment:

• Behaviours/Technical/Experience - a formal panel interview where you will be interviewed across all four behaviours highlighted and your technical ability to successfully carry out the role.

Details of interview panel members will be e-mailed to all successful candidates who are invited for interview.

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.