Academy Administrator

Looking for a new challenge?

Take a look at our current vacancies. If you see a vacancy that is right for you, we encourage you to apply!

Contract: 12 months fixed term

Working hours – full time is 35 hours a week. You'll agree your working pattern with your manager.

Salary: circa £35,000

Reporting to – Ombudsman Leader

Location – London

Our permanent hybrid policy sees us all working at least four days across a fortnight in the office.

As the Academy Administrator your role will be to support the Senior Manager managing the Academy operation within the casework area (including Onboarding administration within the Casework team). This is a busy operational support role which requires effective time management and meeting strict deadlines for the existing teams in the Academy as well has planning for forward deadlines for future teams.

You will also work with the core Academy team, our Learning & Development and Workspace teams, scheduling new Academy programmes and organising travel arrangements for engagement days across our remote hubs from a casework Academy perspective. This involves constantly shifting priorities so your planning and organisational skills will be instrumental in helping them to fulfil their responsibilities effectively.

You'll act as a reliable contact point between your manager and their internal and external stakeholders – ensuring effective management of diaries as part of the role. Sometimes you'll need to resolve issues or queries on their behalf, so you'll exercise discretion and manage any associated confidentiality risks through the way you interact with people. You'll work flexibly and proactively, using your common sense and judgement to manage conflicting demands when coordinating and arranging meetings and events. And you'll show efficiency and initiative in how you complete a range of tasks from preparing documents to supporting colleagues. Strong experience with Microsoft Excel is needed for this position.

Key responsibilities

• Putting people at the heart of everything we do so that our customers' needs come first
• Taking responsibility for delivering your objectives – and working collectively to contribute to meeting our wider commitments
• Acting as a liaison point between your manager and internal/external stakeholders
• Developing knowledge and understanding of your manager's responsibilities and priorities
• Building strong relationships with, and understanding the role and remit of the Academy team to enable you to effectively and efficiently support your manager
• Being very discreet because you'll have exposure to confidential and
• Providing secretarial support including effective diary management – assessing the priority of appointments and correspondence and resolving conflicting demands
• Prioritising and planning both your own and your manager's time and ensuring that they have sufficient time to review relevant material before meetings
• Updating operational control sheets (using Excel), briefing papers, reports and presentations
• Coordinating meetings/events including booking venues, making travel arrangements, sorting out agenda timings and logistical issues
• Collecting agenda items and papers for management meetings – knowing when to suggest to cancel or rearrange the meeting if the attendees or agenda items are low
• Capturing essential information from meetings and producing accurate minutes – outlining clear actions to the relevant people
• Filtering calls, correspondence, enquiries and requests – knowing when it's appropriate to look after, or investigate, it yourself and when to refer it to your manager
• Supporting your manager with tasks such as preparing awards and communications, assisting with elements of budgets and project work

To be considered for this role, you'll need to show us that you've got the skills and capabilities. You'll have to meet the following minimum criteria:

Minimum criteria

• Demonstrable success supporting a manager, coordinating their diary and managing their inbox, highlighting items that need attention
• Booking and coordinating meetings and Academy training
• Prioritising and planning your workload with pace and flexibility to meet tight deadlines – adapting as things change and reprioritising as necessary
• Using your judgement and discretion – keeping sensitive information confidential
• Strong experience using Excel and Powerpoint
• Communicating in a straightforward and approachable way with people at all levels
• Working proactively with limited guidance using your own initiative
• Being approachable and collaborative, and working well as part of a team
• Showing accuracy and attention to detail

Why Financial Ombudsman Service?

We are a values led organisation. Our values define our culture, influence our decisions, and underpin our vision and strategy. They set out how we play our PART through Purpose, Ambition, Respect and Trust. You can learn more about our values here:

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/aims-values

We also offer an attractive, competitive salary and flexible benefits to suit our people. Here's a list of some of the many benefits and perks you can get for working with us:

• 25 days holiday entitlement, with the option to buy extra or sell days
• Generous pension
• Various Family Friendly Policies, including enhanced maternity pay, carers and dependants leave
• Employer provided benefits such as Private medical insurance, virtual GP, Critical illness cover, Life assurance cover, to name a few
• Choice of voluntary benefits including Technology scheme, Cycle to work scheme, Will-writing service amongst others
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Extensive opportunities for personal and career development
• Fully equipped on-site gym open 24 / 7 (London office only)
• Extensive Well-being resources including on-site therapists (London office only)
• Beautiful and bright London office looking over the Thames and near to mainline stations
• Our employee led networks (a couple of examples being our Women's Network, Carers network, and Neurodiverse Network) do fantastic work in educating and raising awareness across a range of experiences and support us in being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. You can get involved, too!

How do I apply?

Please apply by uploading a current CV, alongside a supporting statement outlining how you meet the minimum criteria for the role.

Applications need to be submitted by 11:59pm Wednesday 19th February 2025.

Applications need to be submitted by

Due to high application numbers this advert may end earlier than the date specified, so please don't delay and apply now!

Please note, for internal applications you must have successfully completed your probationary period prior to applying for any positions.

A full job profile is available on request and will be provided to candidates shortlisted to the first stage of the assessment process.

We're proud to be an inclusive employer

We view diversity as fundamental to our success and welcome applications from underrepresented groups across all communities.

We're committed to being a great place to work- attracting and developing people from the widest possible range of backgrounds. We want everyone to perform at their best and feel able to be themselves. We understand that if we're diverse and inclusive, we'll better understand different perspectives, which is fundamental to our job resolving financial complaints.

We welcome applications from Black and other ethnic minority candidates, and female candidates, for all positions and particularly so for senior leader positions as they are under-represented within the Financial Ombudsman Service at this level.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. This means that we will put disabled candidates entering under the scheme through to the next stage of the recruitment process should they meet the minimum criteria for a role. A minimum criterion needs to be measurable from reviewing a candidate's CV/supporting statement. Exceptions may apply if due to the volume of applications we are not able to interview all eligible candidates who qualify under the scheme. If you would like to speak to a member of our team about any reasonable adjustments you need, please email hrsupport@financial-ombudsman.org.uk and let us know your preferred method of contact.

Find out more

Check out below channels to find out more about everyday life at the Financial Ombudsman Service – and don't forget to follow us while you're there!

• LinkedIn: Financial Ombudsman Service
• Our careers page: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/join-us

Good luck with your application!