Senior Executive Assistant to Head of Department (Part Time)

About Us

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. We are dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place.

The IoPPN is a leading centre for mental health and neuroscience research in Europe. It produces more highly cited outputs (top 1% citations) on psychiatry and mental health than any other centre (SciVal 2023), and on this metric has risen from 16th (2014) to 4th (2023) in the world for highly cited neuroscience outputs.

Our School of Academic Psychiatry comprises of six clinical departments of psychiatry: Addictions, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science, Old Age Psychiatry, Psychological Medicine and Psychosis Studies. These include more than 100 Principal Investigators, with research grants of £30-40 million. We have programmes covering the whole spectrum of psychiatry from public policy to molecular genetics, from peri-natal to old age and from psychological treatments to brain imaging. Our work covers the entire life span, healthy adults and children as well as of course people with physical and mental health conditions.

About the Role

To provide professional administrative support to the Head of Department (HoD) and to the Head ofSchool (HoS) including their executive teams. They will be the face of the department and the main point of contact for any enquiries. On behalf of the HoD and HoS they should have an operational oversight linking all the aspects in an academic environment by liaising with a range of people at all levels across King’s College London (KCL), i.e., academics, researchers, students, and staff in faculty and central administration across the college, as well as with external organisations and  NHS Trusts and members of the public.

This is a hybrid role, and the post holder is expected to be on campus minimum 2 days per week. While individuals are designated primarily to a certain building/campus, the post holder will need to work across multiple buildings (Denmark Hill and/or Guy’s Campus) and should remain flexible when asked to spend more than 2 days on any of our campuses. You will be offered a full time (35 hours) indefinite contract.

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable knowledge and skills of business operations acquired through previous roles/qualification and experience of providing high level administrative and/or personal support to a senior executive, using a range of IT software packages and databases.
• Experience of complex diary management and of organising and supporting formal committees, meetings, events and taking minutes.
• Excellent communication skills, including excellent spoken and written English, in formal documents, letters, emails and other communications.
• Ability to manage financial paperwork and a good level of numeracy.
• Proactive approach with the ability to work independently and flexibly, managing and prioritising own workload, working under pressure in a busy environment and meeting deadlines.
• Proven ability to maintain confidentiality, handle situations sensitively, exhibiting a high level of awareness and confidentiality, tact, and diplomacy.
• Excellent people skills with the ability to work with staff at all levels, inside and outside the organization, with assurance and ease.
• Confident making independent decisions and knowing when to escalate.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in higher education sector and familiarity with HE administration.
• Proven commitment to ongoing skills development

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