Executive Assistant to Chief Officer (Headquarters, Kent)

Essex & Kent Police; Maidstone; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

A regional police force in Maidstone is seeking an Executive Assistant to provide comprehensive support to the Assistant Chief Officer. The successful candidate will manage diaries and documentation, handle inquiries, and maintain confidentiality. This full-time, permanent position offers a starting salary of £30,879. Excellent organizational and communication skills are essential. Flexible working arrangements may be available.

Qualifications

• Experience providing secretarial and administrative support.
• Ability to manage a Chief Officer's diary effectively.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide comprehensive support to the ACO.
• Manage diary, meetings, and documentation.
• Handle sensitive and confidential information.

Skills

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Problem-solving

Collaboration

Job description

Location of Role: Maidstone

Advert Closing Date: 07/11/2025

Starting Salary: £30,879.00 (pro-rata for part-time vacancies)

Part/Full Time: Full Time

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Mon-Fri

Weekend/Evening Working: No

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced individual to undertake the role of Executive Assistant to Assistant Chief Officer and Director of Human Resources and Learning & Development for Kent Police and Essex Police.

The successful candidate will provide a complete and comprehensive secretarial and administrative support service to the ACO. This will include diary management, the administration of corporate meetings and the documentation required, dealing with enquiries, drafting correspondence and maintaining the security of information. You will work closely with the ACO's Staff Officer to deliver this support service, ensuring efficient and effective systems and processes are put into place.

Whilst being the dedicated EA to the ACO, you will also form part of the wider Executive Assistant Team, providing cover during periods of abstraction and dealing with other taskings collectively and individually, as directed by the Executive Manager.

This is a rewarding and challenging role and would suit a highly organised and proactive individual who has excellent technical and behaviour skills to discharge the responsibilities set out. We are particularly looking for individuals who can demonstrate:

• An ability to work collaboratively with people internally and externally, in order to manage the diary of a Chief Officer to a high standard and resolve issues as they arise.
• Personal responsibility to deliver tasks in a timely and effective way, with enthusiasm and professionalism.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, showing emotional awareness for others, and resilience to cope effectively during challenging situations.
• A very high standard of office organisational skills and experience, including the ability to plan ahead and meet objectives, in order to fully discharge duties in an efficient and effective way.
• An ability to anticipate potential risks or issues that could affect the effective delivery of the Chief Officer's office and schedule, and work to resolve them.

In addition:

• You will be dealing with a variety of sensitive and confidential information and will often be the first point of contact for internal and external enquiries. Therefore, you must be able demonstrate the highest Standards of Professional Behaviour, and operate in line with the Code of Ethics, at all times, responding fairly, impartially and sensitively in line with people's needs.

The role requires postholders to undergo Security Check level vetting, if not already in place, and any postings would be subject to satisfactory completion of that vetting.

Interested applicants should request an appointment with PSE Sonya Gransden (Chief of Staff to the CC) [e-mail] and PSE Caroline Stevens (Executive Manager) [e-mail] to talk through the role and expectations in more detail.

Kent Police offers smarter working which allows some flexibility in terms of working arrangements. Due to the nature of this role, it will be predominantly office based at Kent Police Headquarters, Maidstone, however with some flexibility to work from home on pre-planned days as part of an office rota and as demand allows.

Kent Police offer incremental increases within this salary band, therefore the salary for this position will rise to a maximum of £35,802.00.

For the full job description please click here.

Your application for this role will be shortlisted on the content you provide within the reason for application question, within the application form itself. CV's, covering letters or attachments are not included in the shortlist. Within your reason for application answer, please refer to any experience, skills, and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable for this role, based on the role criteria stated in the job advert or job description. Please provide as much detail as possible as insufficient content may mean you do not meet the shortlisting criteria, however please note this question is limited to 9000 characters and this system will count spaces and blank lines as characters. This count may differ from the Microsoft Word word count function therefore you may wish to use a different online character counter to check the characters used.

All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance. During the recruitment process you will be sent vetting information forms to complete.

Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status.

Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at [e-mail] stating 'Application Support and Adjustments' in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 452833. Where appropriate we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.

If you're not from the UK, you must be a resident in the UK and have lived here continuously for the last three years. You must also be free from restrictions with indefinite leave to remain. If you're from the UK you must have lived here continuously for the last three years. This doesn't apply to those serving abroad in the British Armed Forces.