About the job

Summary

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Are you someone who is highly organised, proactive and has a forward-thinking approach?

Can you communicate effectively and confidently create trusting working relationships?

Would you like the opportunity to work in a dynamic and exciting environment where you can be stretched to reach your full potential?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

Job description

This role is an exciting opportunity to provide high quality administration and diary assistance to Rail Senior Leaders during a defining moment for the railways.

The Department and the rail industry are undergoing the largest transformation in decades. The sector needs a workforce and staffing landscape that supports a commercially viable environment and a passenger-focused service. You will play a key role supporting the Directors to effectively lead a team working through the implications of these and other changes, with the goal of ensuring the long term operational and financial sustainability of the industry.

We are seeking talented and highly organised individuals to take on the roles of Personal Assistant/Diary Managers and Business Support to the team and broader Directorate, who can confidently communicate at all levels with internal and external stakeholders, both verbally and in writing.

You will be an experienced Diary Manager / Personal Assistant who is a proactive, ‘can-do’ person with a willingness to take the initiative. You will possess exceptional time management skills in order to effectively prioritise workloads. This role is fascinating post at the heart of the Directorate with the challenge of dealing with an interesting variety of tasks from day-to-day, in a fast-paced and high-profile environment.

Responsibilities

The duties for the role will include:

• Be the main point of contact for diary organisation. Be responsible for the day-to-day running of the diary and forward planning for specific meetings.

• Managing the schedule and arrange meetings to ensure sufficient time for priorities, preparation, travel, desk-time, and breaks.

• Managing the inbox, ensuring urgent/important correspondence is prioritised and brought to their attention.

• Dealing with emails, phone calls and correspondence promptly.

• Being responsible for managing One-Note which is used for briefing.

• Make judgement calls on what takes priority, anticipating issues and challenges, taking steps to mitigate these in advance and communicating relevant information.

• Providing administrative and logistical support to directorate events and ad-hoc projects.

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• Building strong relationships with both senior leaders, , with colleagues in your area and DfT more broadly,

• Attending the weekly update meetings to understand the key things happening in those area and note any actions as needed..

• Treating sensitive and personal information with discretion and ensure it is carefully managed.

About You

You will bring great experience of of diary management and secretarial support at a senior level.

You are an approachable and energetic individual with excellent interpersonal skills, displaying confidence when engaging with stakeholders and colleagues at all levels to build trusted working relationships.

You will have excellent communication skills both verbally and in writing with the ability to adapt your delivery to suit a wide variety of audiences.

You are someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment, who is highly motivated and has exceptional organisational and time management skills, with the ability to prioritise a busy workload and work under pressure.

You proactively forward plan and track ongoing work, ensuring the delivery of high-quality outcomes, showing resilience and tenacity to manage changing priorities and recognise key areas of work that will need urgent attention.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace