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Executive Assistants
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Total Package: £33,000
Contract: Full time. Some part time roles and flexible working, such as condensed hours may be feasible, but this will be subject to operational needs and is not guaranteed
Location: London
We lead the UK’s diplomatic, development and consular work around the world. We employ around 17,000 staff in our global network of 281 offices worldwide. Our UK-based staff work in King Charles Street in London, Abercrombie House in East Kilbride and in Milton Keynes.
Your role with us
We’re currently looking for Executive Assistants to join our Private Office Directorate (POD) Rotation Scheme here in London. The list below is not exhaustive and gives an indication of what roles are included on the scheme.
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Diary Manager: Maintaining oversight of all appointments, including meetings with foreign governments, cross-government meetings, and overseas travel.
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Office Manager: Responsible for the smooth day-to-day running of the office, having oversight of all central administrative functions.
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Attaché: Leading Private Office’s relationship with the Correspondence team and responsible for timely responses on correspondence and Written Parliamentary Questions (PQs), ensuring that they reflect Ministerial steers and priorities.
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Correspondence Drafter: Managing and drafting bespoke correspondence for a Ministerial portfolio on a wide range of subject matters, coordinating with teams across the FCDO for policy lines to inform draft replies.
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Parliamentary Questions Officer: Drafting and coordinating Written Parliamentary Questions and ensuring that the department meets its targets.
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Parliamentary Executive Assistant: Playing a coordination and supportive role to ensure that the FCDO responds to Parliamentary scrutiny, for example Select Committee appearances, Oral Questions, Urgent Questions and debates in both the House of Commons and the Lords.
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Operations & Crisis Response Officer: Supporting preparations in the event the FCDO moves to crisis mode, ensuring that plans are in place to maintain a positive relationship with Parliament and respond effectively to increased scrutiny, along with liaising with other Whitehall departments to ensure correspondence is allocated correctly.
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Parliamentary Innovation Officer: Looking to the future and thinking creatively about how we can work better with Parliament. You will develop project management skills to make progress on various projects to improve our effectiveness, for example improving how we handle correspondence processes.
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Parliamentary Performance & Capability Officer: Using data and analytical skills to monitor our performance and develop solutions to address gaps or trends and improve the skills and knowledge of staff across the FCDO.
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Business Support Officer: Supporting POD on a wide range of corporate, financial and business needs to enable the Directorate to function effectively.
If your application is successful, you’ll have the opportunity to work in different roles within the Directorate, taking into account your interests and matching skills and experience. In principle, you may move every 12 months, so you’ll need to be flexible and prepared to work in any role.
Who we’re looking for
To be a success in this role you’ll possess strong interpersonal skills, be a highly motivated, supportive and collaborative team player, and be ready to work closely with your colleagues as you deliver key outcomes. It’s important that you have good organisational and planning skills, as well as the ability to see the long term and wider impact of your work, while your excellent communication skills will allow you to draft high-quality documents to tight deadlines. With this in mind, if you’re invited for an interview, we’ll ask you to demonstrate your drafting skills.
Highly proactive and capable of focusing on the continuous improvement of the service and your own work, and with an appetite to engage with colleagues to simplify processes and improve efficiency, you’ll possess excellent research and analysis skills, including the ability to use sound evidence to draw conclusions and make decisions. Confident, cool under pressure and an instinctive problem solver, you’ll be reliable, positive and credible, and capable of using your initiative to accomplish your tasks. We’ll also expect you to have strong literacy, numeracy and IT skills including the use of Microsoft’s Outlook, Excel and Teams, and ideally knowledge of Windows 10.
You must be a British citizen at the time of your application, and you’ll be required to attain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance. For more information about this process, click here.
We encourage applications from all communities, so that we reflect the very best of 21st century Britain. Everyone here gets the support to develop their skills and capabilities as well as benefits that help to make the most of life in and out of work, including a Civil Service pension.
Use your talent and experience to shape our nation’s future, and deliver tangible improvements to millions of lives, including your own.
Closing date: 21 October 2024.
Executive Assistants