Personal Assistant - International

UKRI International

Salary: £30,895 Per Annum.

Band: UKRI Band C.

Contract Type: Fixed Term (23 Months).

Hours: Full Time (Flexible Working Available).

Location: Polaris House, Swindon, Wiltshire (Hybrid Working Available - Minimum 2 days per week in office).

Closing Date: Monday 31st August 2026.

About the role

Providing comprehensive administrative and PA support to the Deputy/Associate Director team in UKRI International. You will act as an important interface with internal and external colleagues at all levels. The role will be highly visible internally and to UKRI’s external stakeholders and as such you should exemplify the values and behaviours of the wider organisation. All work must be carried out to high professional standards in a timely manner, while maintaining confidentially at all times. You will need to be able to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment, responding to different types of challenges and tasks on a daily basis.

Your Responsibilities

• Proactive PA support to 2-3 UK-Based Deputy/Associate Directors within the International Shared Capability, including diary and inbox management.
• Arrange travel and accommodation for UK visits, and complicated overseas visit programmes, including travel bookings, visa arrangements, coordination of briefings and meeting papers etc. in line with the UKRI travel guidance and policy.
• Management of Deputy/Associate Directors inboxes; ensuring emails are prioritized and dealt with. Including close monitoring when Directors are on leave to ensure correspondence is delegated appropriately.
• Professional approach to communicating effectively with internal and external stakeholders using Microsoft packages, Outlook, Word etc.
• Maintaining confidentially of the Deputy/Associate Directors and senior colleagues across UKRI.
• Arranging internal and external meetings (including virtual) and providing support for meetings, including secretariat support for internal management meetings, consisting of coordinating and circulating agendas and papers, note taking and action monitoring.
• General administrative support for Directors, including processing expenses, support for team meetings and team activities for example appraisals and objective setting.
• Ad-hoc administrative support as required for discrete projects and activities.
• Working as part of a PA team, providing reciprocal cover as required, and contributing to team wide projects.
• Occasional travel to meetings as required.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Application Guidance

How to evidence the criteria:

You are encouraged to use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) in the cover letter to evidence your ability to meet the ‘person specification’ criteria in the job description. Cover letters should be no more than two sides of A4 (minimum font size 11). For examples of the STAR method, please visit: The STAR method , National Careers Service’.

Applications that do not include a cover letter evidencing each criterion will not be considered.

Please apply online, if you experience any issue applying, please contact Recruitment@ukri.org

UKRI is an Equal Opportunity & Disability Confident Employer.

Please note that we may close this vacancy early should we receive a high volume of applications. We therefore recommend submitting your application at the earliest opportunity.

As this job does not fulfil the UK Government minimum criterion for obtaining sponsored migrant worker status we will be unable to apply for sponsorship for anyone not eligible to work in the UK. At interview, all shortlisted candidates are required to bring with them identification documents and original documents that prove they hold or can obtain the right to work in the UK. You can check your eligibility here: https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa/y

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.