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Job description and person specification

Job title — Business Support Officer

Reports to — Business Curator

Salary band — £28,000 - £32,000 per annum FTE (dependent on experience and qualifications)

Working pattern — Full time. Fixed Term 12 months with possibility of being made permanent

Location — Contracted to our office in Old Street, London. In-person presence required at least two days per week. Flexibility for hybrid working.

 

CONDITIONS OF SERVICE

Hours: 9.30 am – 5.30 pm, Monday - Friday. Hours worked in excess of these times will be compensated by time off in lieu.

Annual leave: 25 days per year (pro rata), plus public holidays and discretionary Christmas shutdown period.

Benefits:

• Cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Professional development opportunities
• Enhanced employer pension contribution scheme
• Employee assistance program
• Life assurance scheme
• Eyesight test contribution

 

THE ROLE

We are seeking an organised and proactive individual to undertake a range of administrative and operational tasks including office administration, business development activities and project management processes. This role requires working closely alongside other members of staff and as such requires flexibility, good communication and team working skills.

The role involves working as part of a broader administrative and operations group, but with a particular focus on supporting the needs of the Research and Consultancy (R&C) team, including managing weekly team meetings to discuss tender opportunities, searching for tenders, submission of proposals as well as general administrative tasks including collation of documents (e.g. building and maintaining a track record, ensuring the business development related policies and statements are up-to-date). 

The ideal candidate will have excellent administrative and project management skills, a keen eye for detail, a natural curiosity and aptitude for the work of the TIHR, and the ability to coordinate effectively with the research and consultancy team and other key stakeholders. The role-holder will also work effectively with the Finance and Communications functions in the organisation.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• To support the Business Curator with Strategic Business Development, Work Getting Cycle and Pipeline activities, including scheduling and starting R&C meetings, taking minutes, updating the Work Getting schedule, supporting the proposal and pipeline processes.
• Provide administrative and operational support colleagues across the Research and Consultancy team, including co-ordinating, creating and formatting proposals and bid documents. 
• Support colleagues in project co-ordination and assistance with ad hoc research tasks when required.
• Provide colleagues with support and project co-ordination to consultancy projects including client liaison, programming events and producing documents.
• To research tenders and maintain the various tender databases, with support and guidance.
• Routine archiving for proposals, reports and other documents and papers as part of project dissemination, data security and improvement projects including the Institute’s ongoing work with the archive.
• Monitoring Institute email boxes as part of a team and responding to clients and leads as necessary.
• Provide support on administrative and operational tasks across the office when required: including tasks such as booking travel and accommodation, catering arrangement, office housekeeping.

 
CORE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

Essential

• At least 5 years’ experience providing high-quality admin support and/or business or project management.
• Excellent administrative and organisational skills.
• Good understanding of tender bidding processes within both private, public and the voluntary sectors.
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word and other Office applications.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.
• Working knowledge of compliance issues such as GDPR.
• Demonstrable experience of actively contributing to continuous improvement.

Desirable

• Experience providing administrative and project support in a research or consultancy context (highly desirable).
• Project Management qualification such as PRINCE.
• Experience of working in the charity and/or SME sector/s and knowledge of the associated challenges.
• Experience of working for a knowledge-based and service-delivery organisation.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

• Conveys a confident and professional manner.
• Ability to think strategically and solve problems.
• Is dependable, self-managing and willing to exercise initiative and judgement and make decisions.
• Excellent organisational skills: able to manage a busy and varied workload and to prioritise and delegate tasks effectively; remains calm under pressure.
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to handle complex information.
• Able to work flexibly to ensure continuity of operations.
• Excellent inter-personal skills. Co-operative with, and supportive to, fellow staff, clients and other stakeholders, and can work flexibly and effectively as part of a team.

TO APPLY

Please send a CV with a supporting statement (no more than 500 words) to Juliet Scott via hello@tavinstitute.org

Your supporting statement should clearly evidence how you meet the essential and desirable criteria set out in the job and person description, using examples from your employment history. Shortlisting will be based solely on the information provided in the CV and supporting statement.

The deadline for applications is Sunday 16 February 2025. 

The TIHR supports the principle of Equality and Diversity in employment and wholeheartedly opposes all forms of unlawful or unfair discrimination. We conduct blind shortlisting.

Interviews to be held in-person on Tuesday 25 February 2025 at our office at 63 Gee Street, London EC1V 3RS.

We aim to contact successful applicants to arrange interviews by Thursday 20 February 2025. We anticipate a high volume of applications and, as such, may not be able to notify all applicants if unsuccessful.