Personal Assistant

Innovate UK; Swindon; Hybrid; GBP 31,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading innovation organization in the UK is looking for a Personal and Project Assistant to provide essential administrative support. The position involves managing diaries, coordinating travel and events, and producing reports, all within a collaborative team environment. Ideal candidates will have strong organizational skills and be proficient in Microsoft Office. This role offers a hybrid working model with numerous benefits and a commitment to continuous learning.

Benefits

Defined benefit pension scheme

30 days annual leave plus public holidays

Employee discounts on retail and leisure

Employee assistance programme

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Ability to handle competing pressures while remaining calm.
• Exceptional attention to detail, ensuring efficiency without compromising quality.
• Experience in document management systems.

Responsibilities

• Manage diaries and schedules for senior team members.
• Arrange travel logistics and prepare itinerary packs.
• Coordinate events and meetings, including catering and venue bookings.
• Take minutes and action points during meetings.
• Produce and format project documents and reports.
• Drive process improvements to enhance team efficiency.

Skills

Organisational skills

Time management

Attention to detail

Proficient in Microsoft Office

Effective communication

Proactive and self-motivated

Tools

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

SharePoint

Job description

Salary: £30,895 per annum

Band: UKRI Band C

Contract Type: Fixed Term (14 months)

Hours: Full Time or Part Time (Minimum 0.8 FTE)

Location: While UKRI supports hybrid working, the postholder will be required to attend one in-office team day per week at Polaris House in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Closing Date: 7th December 2025 (Please note: if we receive a high volume of applications, we reserve the right to close the advert early).

Proposed Interview Date: Interviews are likely to be week commencing 15th December 2025.

About The Role

Are you highly organised and eager to support world-class research? Join UKRIs Infrastructure Team as a Personal and Project Assistant, helping deliver our £350m+ Infrastructure Fund and Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) programmes. You'll provide vital administrative and project support, including diary management, event coordination, and team planning.

About The Team

Our small, agile team leads UKRIs strategic approach to investing in transformative research infrastructures and manages these as a portfolio. We work across UKRI and government to shape policy and support colleagues on issues vital to a thriving research and innovation ecosystem.

As an organisation, we tackle some of the biggest questions in the universe to solve the worlds greatest challenges, the infrastructure we deliver underpins this mission. You'll join a collaborative community that values learning, sharing knowledge and supporting one another.

This is an exciting time to come on board as we refresh our Infrastructure Roadmap and respond to growing interest in Digital Research Infrastructure.

Your Responsibilities

• Diary Management for senior members of the team, primarily two senior Programme Directors and the Portfolio Director, using Microsoft Outlook. This includes scheduling, rescheduling, and cancelling appointments, as well as coordinating larger meetings for the team when required.
• Manage domestic and international travel and accommodation logistics, prepare itinerary packs, and aid in the processing of travel and subsistence expenses claims.
• Support with event planning and delivery, book venues and catering, prepare agendas, follow up on actions, provide reception duties and host visitors, such as for the Infrastructure Advisory Committee (IAC) and Advisory Group for DRI (AGD) meetings.
• Offer administrative support for corporate governance functions such as the UKRI Investment Advisory Working Group (IAWG).
• Take minutes and action points at meetings when required.
• Provide administrative support to the team.
• Lead weekly team meeting preparations: prepare agendas, assign chairs and capture action notes.
• Manage the teams shared mailboxes, including monitoring, triaging and responding to emails.
• Produce and format documents such as letters, project reports and spreadsheets using Microsoft Word and Excel (e.g reporting templates).
• Maintain critical team planning and project documents (e.g. project plans, communication plans).
• Drive process improvements to enhance team efficiency (e.g. developing and maintaining Standard Operating Procedures).
• Keep the team informed of organisation-wide operational updates.
• Collaborate with colleagues on ad hoc administrative tasks and contribute to wider infrastructure portfolio and policy work as needed.
• Opportunity to lead and take ownership of key team-wide administrative improvements, with support and collaboration from the team.

Essential Personal Specification

The below criteria will be scored during Shortlisting (S), Interview (I) or both (S&I).

• Strong organisational and time management skills. An ability to plan and adapt priorities depending on the situation and handle competing pressures whilst remaining calm and professional. (S/I)
• Exceptional attention to detail, ensuring tasks are completed efficiently without compromising on quality. (S/I)
• Computer literate with sound capabilities in Microsoft Office (particularly Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), and the ability to use document management systems such as SharePoint. (S)
• Confident and courteous communicator, able to engage effectively with individuals at all levels from a range of backgrounds. (S/I)
• Responsible and reliable, demonstrating sound judgement and the confidence to decide what needs the personal attention of a director and which can be managed independently. (S/I)
• Proactive and self-motivated, with a positive, proactive and collaborative approach towards work and team dynamics. (S/I)
• Flexible and adaptable, comfortable working across a varied and evolving portfolio of tasks and responsibilities. (S/I)

Benefits

We recognise and value our employees as individuals and aim to provide a favourable pay and rewards package. We are committed to supporting employees' development and promote a culture of continuous learning!

A List Of Benefits Below

• An outstanding defined benefit pension scheme
• 30 days' annual leave in addition to 10.5 public and privilege days (full time equivalent)
• Employee discounts and offers on retail and leisure activities
• Employee assistance programme, providing confidential help and advice
• Flexible working options

Plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a great work life balance!

For Further Information On Our Benefits Please See

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact LNKD1_UKTJ