Personal Assistant to Director of Payments

The Role

We are looking for a talented Personal Assistant (PA) to support the Director of the Payments & Digital Assets Directorate.

The role holder will be a key part of the Director’s Office, working closely with the Director, and their Executive Assistant. They will contribute to the smooth and effective running of the Director’s office and will gain exposure to internal and external stakeholders at all levels of seniority. Payments & Digital Assets will lead on range of high-profile work central to the FCA’s objectives, and several of the priority commitments set out in the FCA’s strategy.

What does the role involve?

As well as working closely with the Director, you will need to work closely with the other PAs across the Division, SPC and the wider FCA, and with a variety of external stakeholders. You will play an important role in ensuring the Director is well prepared for their day and that their senior leadership team and relevant staff are kept up-to-date with key activities.
- Responsibilities will include:_
- Being a friendly, welcoming, helpful face of the Director’s office, liaising kindly and helpfully with internal and external stakeholders
- Diary management, remaining flexible to frequent and often short notice changes.
- Working closely with the Director and the Executive Assistant to ensure that all actions are picked up and taken forward in a timely fashion.
- Preparing the Director’s daily pack and ensuring all relevant information, meeting details and any necessary briefing notes are requested in good time.
- Helping travel arrangements where necessary, including overseas travel.
- Managing and contributing to resolving internal and external ad hoc issues or queries on behalf of the Director.
- Managing requests for the Director’s availability to review documents and ensuring sufficient time for review.
- Communicating internally and externally with stakeholders at all levels.
- Leading and providing administrative guidance for the Professional Business Support staff within the Division, ensuring they are updated with the latest information.
- Acting as first point of contact for many internal queries.
- Ensuring that your office complies with local and FCA wide processes and procedures.

What will you get from the role?
- An insight into senior management and leadership.
- The opportunity to work in a busy, challenging and engaging environment with a wide and varied workload.
- Involvement in a high-profile area of the business, looking at highly topical issues.
- Interaction with a range of internal and external contacts.
- The opportunity to establish and build and good network of working relationships with colleagues at all levels across the FCA.
- Full commitment to training and personal development.
- You will gain knowledge of how the FCA works and the role P&DA plays in meeting the FCA’s objectives.

About You

Minimum
- _Any disabled applicant meeting the minimum criteria will automatically progress to interview stage, should they enter under the _
- Disability Confident scheme_
- . _
- For more information on the FCA’s commitment to building a diverse and inclusive workforce, including guidance on drafting criteria, please refer to the _
- FCA’s Positive Action Framework._
- Proven experience of providing administration support at Head of Department/Director level or above/equivalent.
- Experience managing a busy diary and inbox.
- The ability to liaise professionally with a wide range of senior internal and external stakeholders, with experience of being exposed to sensitive information and ensuring confidentiality of the information.
- A proven self-starter who can multi-task.
- A strong communicator who takes initiative and proposes solutions.

Essential
- Sound knowledge of Word, Outlook and other similar packages, and able to get up to speed quickly with new systems.
- Excellent spelling, grammar and written language skills.
- Strong relationship management skills, both with internal and external stakeholders, with a professional approach.
- Ability to work on own initiative, prioritising, working under pressure and to tight deadlines whilst maintaining accuracy.
- Ability to support other team members with change.
- Ability to work with a broad range of stakeholders, including senior and/or challenging stakeholders and adapt style accordingly.
- Ability to identify priority tasks for the Director by understanding how their role fits into wider FCA objectives.

Required Behavioural Skills
- Act in an honest, open and transparent way, challenging when you see behaviour that goes against the cultural characteristics of the FCA.
- Continuously seek out new and more effective ways to conduct your work and feed this back to senior management.
- Open to learning, challenge and change, and be prepared to be flexible to new tasks and responsibilities.

Desirable
- A general understanding of the structure of FCA and its objectives, or an ability to pick thi