Personal Assistant (Director Level) - Short Term Contract

Personal Assistant (Director Level) - Short Term Contract

Location: Paddington, London (hybrid working).

Duration: 4 weeks.

Pay: £175 per day (via PAYE).

Key Accountabilities

• Provide support to the Directors / Heads of your appointed business areas.
• Complex diary management for both internal and external events, meetings and appointments, ensuring suitable facilities are available and briefing documents are distributed appropriately.
• Provide administrative support including complex UK and overseas travel arrangements, purchase orders and expense claims.
• Identify and implement opportunities to create simpler, faster and more effective processes.
• Act as a first point of contact for your appointed Director/Head of, both internally and externally, representing them and managing issues as appropriate.
• Maintain a clear understanding of your Director or Heads of deadlines, priorities and goals and keep up to date with business priorities, adapting to any changes.
• Provide support for key meetings, including drafting agendas, collating pre reads, distributing papers and following up on actions to ensure they are completed within agreed timeframes.
• When required, directly follow up emails and Teams messages on behalf of your Director/Head of.
• Support the preparation of presentations and reports for internal and external meetings and events.

Key Skills and Experience

• Maintain a high level of confidentiality at all times and be an M&S brand ambassador at all times, by role modeling our behaviours.
• Work collaboratively within the PA community to maximise efficiency and effectiveness. Build good working relationships with key internal colleagues and stakeholders.
• IT skills: Highly skilled in using software such as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams), MyHR, internal finance systems or other office productivity tools. This includes creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
• Keep up to date with business technology to support effective working (e.g., Co Pilot, Clarity for expenses).
• Effective email and calendar management: organise schedules, set up appointments, respond to emails and ensure important dates and deadlines are met with minimal errors.
• Exceptional planning and organisational skills and ability to coordinate events.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to act at pace and work efficiently, ensuring met and high levels of accuracy are achieved.
• Ability to handle competing priorities, time sensitive projects and potential conflicts; making decisions and demonstrating sound judgment while maintaining excellent attention to detail, professionalism and confidentiality.