About the role
The council's Senior Executive Assistants play a vital role in providing executive support to the council's Corporate Leadership Team. As a Senior Executive Assistant, you will provide executive support to one of the council’s corporate leadership team members. You will also coordinate the executive support provided to the wider Corporate Leadership Network including Assistant Directors.
As a Senior Executive Assistant, you will be experienced, confident, discreet and able to work under significant pressure. You will need to be able to work under minimal supervision, working alone and as part of an extended team.
What will you be doing?
As a Senior Executive Assistant, you will have a range of responsibilities including:
1. Acting as primary support officer to one Executive Director and provide support, along with colleagues, to all members of the Corporate Leadership Team.
2. Review and filter all correspondence to the Executive Director, exercising judgement based upon guidance received, directing correspondence as appropriate to the appropriate officers.
3. Undertake research and project development work on behalf of CLT as required.
4. Deal with Member and MP enquiries, and co-ordinate and draft responses to these enquiries, in conjunction with the relevant officers and corporate complaints team.
5. Prepare agendas, attend meetings and draft minutes as requested.
6. Manage the time commitments of CLT, based upon guidance received, in liaison with other CLT support staff, senior managers, other staff, Members and external organisations and individuals.
7. Support colleagues in the Executive Support Team as demands allow/ dictate.
About you
You will have a recognised/ appropriate training for example: RSA (Royal Society of Arts) / OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA), BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) or equivalent vocational qualifications and Level 3 qualification in Business Admin or equivalent experience.
You will be competent in Microsoft Office products including Outlook, Word, Excel, Power Point and MS Teams
You will have demonstrable experience in an executive support/ managerial or complex customer services environment.
Excellent verbal and written communications skills and the ability to communicate at all levels and have report writing skills will be essential.
You will have excellent time management skills and be able to manage your own workload and work deadlines.
An assertive and confident approach to your work will be essential as is the need to be discreet and work to the highest levels of confidentiality.
An understanding of financial management systems will be an advantage, as will experience of providing support at Executive Director level and experience of supervising others.
Our benefits
We offer:
8. a competitive salary
9. a pension scheme, where we pay a significant contribution on top of your contribution. It provides life cover and ill-health protection.
10. opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and potential in a large unitary council
11. generous leave entitlement (28 days, rising to 33 days) and bank holidays, plus the option to buy up to an extra 10 days
12. agile and flexible working arrangements to help you with a healthy work-life balance.
About us
We are a new unitary council, established in April 2021; we are one of the largest unitary councils in the country. Our vision for North Northants is to be 'A place where everyone has the best opportunities and quality of life'.
Our priorities are:
13. helping people live active fulfilled lives
14. caring for our young people, providing them with high quality education and opportunities
15. enabling a thriving and successful economy
16. leading on a green and sustainable environment
17. ensuring our communities are connected so they can shape their lives and where they live
18. providing modern public services
Our values, as chosen by our staff, are - Customer-focused, Respectful, Efficient, Supportive and Trustworthy.
Your differences make us different - Achieve Together.