Personal Assistant to Assistant Director

Portsmouth City Council; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000

Job description

Contract: Fixed Term / secondment for up to 1 year or until the postholder returns.

If applying for a secondment, please ensure you have your manager's permission and add this to your personal statement.

The Service

The Economy, Transport and Planning (ETP) Directorate plays an important part in delivering the Corporate Plan and services to the residents and businesses of the city.

This role is within our Business Management Team which provides support services such as personal assistants, programme delivery support and assurance, community engagement, administrative support, and external funding management.

We work with property, planning, transport, and infrastructure experts to ensure our services are successfully delivered. To help you contribute to success, you will be supported through management, training, and mentoring and develop your career in a professional and supportive working environment.

Your new role

You will provide a Personal Assistant (PA) and business support service to two of the Assistant Directors within the ETP Directorate and provide business support services to the ETP Directorate as a whole. Although each Personal Assistant works with named Assistant Directors, each PA may be required to cover the role of PA to Assistant Directors and/or senior managers within the directorate.

You will be a key point of contact for the directorate and will coordinate responses to a variety of communications, including complaints and Member inquiries, and will play a key role in conveying the professional and positive image of the Directorate and the Council. This is a busy role and you will have a desire to learn and fully understand the role of the Assistant Directors and their work. You will work closely with other PAs and Business Support Officers throughout the council and with partner agencies and will establish good working relationships with key contacts throughout the directorate.

What you'll need to succeed

You will have experience working as an effective Personal Assistant at senior management level or substantial equivalent administrative experience working with senior managers. You will also have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both written and verbal, as you will be dealing with a wide range of people including senior officers, elected Members, contractors, and customers.

You will have excellent minute-taking skills as you will be expected to attend multi-disciplinary meetings with both internal and external agencies. You will also have a good understanding of Information Governance and the importance of confidentiality as you will be dealing with sensitive information.

You will have excellent organizational and time management skills with the ability to work to tight deadlines, adapt quickly, and reprioritize work to meet new deadlines. You will also be flexible in the timing of working hours to support the demands of the service.

Working Arrangements

The demands of this post mean that you should be prepared to travel to the Civic Offices and other Portsmouth locations on a regular basis, spending a minimum of two full working days of the 37-hour working week in the office. Wherever located, the post holder will be expected to be available during core office working hours; the exact working times and location will depend on business need and will be discussed at interview with shortlisted candidates.

Where appropriate, our remote working technology enables efficient working from home using Microsoft M365, including Teams. For effective working from home, we expect that there will be a suitable work environment, including being able to fully meet our information security requirements.

How to apply

To make sure your application is above the rest, please download the Job Profile below to ensure your application matches the requirements of the role.

When completing your application, you will be required to complete a personal statement. Please give examples of your experience and any transferable skills. Please align your answers with the points on the job profile. This is your opportunity to showcase yourself and your achievements.

We look forward to speaking with you soon.

Should you require any support in completing the application form, please contact [e-mail].

We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.

About Portsmouth City Council

What we can offer you:

Portsmouth City Council is a unique organisation, committed to making a difference, and is guided by core values that set who we are as people, what we stand for, and how we act.

Read more about working at Portsmouth City Council and our benefits on our careers portal homepage: Careers Portal - Find jobs with Portsmouth City Council.