Senior Administration Assistant

The School of Social Sciences is looking to appoint a full-time Senior Administration Assistant. The role holder will be responsible for providing high quality day-to-day administrative and secretarial support to the School's Associate Executive Dean (Academic Quality), the Deputy Associate Executive Dean (Academic Quality) in Edinburgh and Deputy Associate Executive Dean (Academic Quality) based in Dubai. The role works within a wider support team within the School.

The successful applicant will have a proven track record in the delivery of administrative services to senior staff and will be relied upon to provide an excellent administrative service to a range of stakeholders. The ability to initiate and complete tasks to the highest standard is essential. Excellent organisational, interpersonal and communication skills are also vital to this role, as are strong IT skills (particularly with Microsoft Office Packages). Applicants should also have experience of working in a customer-oriented role. The role will suit a self-motivated individual who is able to work flexibly as a member of a team within a challenging and dynamic environment.

The work will be varied and the post holder will be expected to be able to deliver a fair, friendly and timely service to all our students and staff. All the support services within the University are committed to delivering a customer focused service to students, staff and visitors. To achieve this commitment all support staff need to be adaptable, flexible and prepared to support other teams and individuals.

Key Duties & Responsibilities

• Provide high quality administrative and secretarial support to the Associate Executive Dean (Academic Quality). This will include day-to-day operational aspects of work such as diary management, email prioritisation and management, managing travel, organisation of meetings and minor internal procurement paperwork.
• Organise and provide support to Boards of Examiners and Boards of Studies and any other Academic Quality forums as and when required, (scheduling meetings, preparation of agendas, circulation of documentation, minuting meetings and following-up actions).
• Become expert in the use of the Global Curriculum Management system to support changes to the curriculum and to ensure that new courses/programmes are submitted for approval correctly.
• Interpret and advise academic colleagues on Heriot-Watt Ordinances and Regulations as well as their operationalisation through detailed and complex academic quality policies and procedures.
• Take responsibility for actioning decisions taken in School level Academic Quality forums and meetings to ensure that progress is made in a range of areas.
• Support academic staff to understand and apply the academic quality policies and procedures to ensure that they are sufficiently knowledgeable in respect to their academic role in maintaining high academic quality standards.
• Liaise with academic colleagues and appropriate professional service colleagues to ensure timely completion of academic quality reports or analyses (e.g., annual monitoring reports, reviews for School Studies Committee).
• Plan and organise training events for academic staff liaising with professional services colleagues as appropriate (e.g., exam board training, training about implementation of new processes).
• Manage Academic Quality projects at School level to ensure that all deadlines are met and that the outputs are optimised and deliver against the objectives set for academic quality projects.
• Maintain academic quality resources held on the SoSS Workspace including keeping the information current based on changes to University AQ policy and practices.
• Use MS Planner to effectively manage completion and escalation of tasks against priorities.
• Work collaboratively and effectively with colleagues in the wider School support team (particularly in Learning & Teaching) and with a variety of relevant University central services (particularly the University Quality Assurance Team).
• Preparing relevant documentation and Clerking of relevant School Committees and Working Groups.
• Other duties as required.

Please note that this job description is not exhaustive, and the role holder may be required to undertake other relevant duties commensurate with the grading of the post. Activities may be subject to amendment over time as the role develops and/or priorities and requirements evolve.

Essential & Desirable Criteria

• Recent relevant administrative experience.
• Fully proficient in the use of relevant IT packages and databases, including MS Word, Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, PowerPoint, Planner, Forms, Teams.
• Demonstrable experience of delivering excellent customer service.
• Experience of project coordination and associated activities.
• Ability to work to strict deadlines and organise a daily workload by priorities.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with an emphasis on the ability to be precise in their use of language.
• Ability to communicate appropriately, and establish strong working relationships, with students, staff and external contacts.
• Ability to work effectively in a team.

Desirable

• Experience of working within the HE sector or a similar environment.
• Experience of clerking formal committees.
• Experience in managing record systems.
• Experience of working in a support role for a senior member of staff.
• A proactive approach to problem solving with strong analytical and decision-making skills.
• Experience using Excel as a tool to organise and analyse data.
• Experience writing surveys and interpreting their results using MS Forms.
• Demonstrable experience of taking a proactive approach to administrative support.
• Proactive approach to managing and reviewing processes and procedures.
• Ability to collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure they meet academic quality deadlines.

Upon appointment the successful candidate, with appropriate qualifications, could choose to be supported to enrol on our Business Management Graduate Apprentice programme.

About the Graduate Apprenticeship

The Heriot-Watt University Business Management Graduate Apprenticeship programme allows candidates to gain a MA (Hons) Degree in Business Management whilst working and gaining valuable work-based experience. Candidates attend university 1 day a week and spend 4 days working in a role aligned with the learning outcomes of the degree programme, providing candidates with the opportunity to balance work-based learning with more traditional academic learning. Candidates are supported throughout the apprenticeship by both a work-based mentor from the School (as employer) and a personal tutor from the Business Management Graduate Apprenticeship programme.

What Qualifications Are Required?

• SQA Highers at BBBB (over two sittings);
• A-Levels at BBC;
• International Baccalaureate 29 points;
• SQA HNC in a relevant subject (or a suitable Modern Apprenticeship) with B in the graded unit;
• Foundation Apprenticeship in Business Skills in conjunction with other suitable qualifications, such as SQA Highers at BBB;
• A combination of qualifications totalling 96 SCQF credits at level 6, or Minimum 108 UCAS points.

How to Apply

Applications can be submitted up to midnight (UK time) on Wednesday 4th March 2026. Please submit your CV & covering letter via the Heriot-Watt on-line recruitment. Please note that interviews for this role are anticipated to take place on Monday 23rd March 2026.

For an informal discussion on this post please contact Dr. Louise Delicato, Associate Executive Dean (Academic Quality). This role does not meet the minimum requirements set by UKVI to enable sponsorship of migrant workers. Therefore, we cannot progress applications from candidates who require sponsorship to work in the UK.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised, and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups.

About the Team

The School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University comprises of Edinburgh Business School, the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies and the Department of Psychology. We specialise in industry-focused degree programmes which embrace a truly international outlook. Our degrees are taught by experienced professionals and highly regarded academics and we are proud to produce high-calibre, career-ready graduates and offer a full range of degree choices at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Social Sciences is the largest of five academic schools at Heriot-Watt University and we provide teaching and research across our core disciplines: The Edinburgh Business School: Accountancy, Economics, & Finance Management Marketing & Operations Languages and Intercultural Studies Psychology The School of Textiles and Design (from September 2026).