Senior Executive Assistant / Business Manager in London

Our world-leading Time & Frequency department and NTC Programme are seeking a Senior Executive Assistant / Business Manager with proven expertise in business administration, continuous improvement and chief of staff experience. This is an exceptional opportunity to join the global authority in precision timing at a defining moment for UK digital infrastructure. Backed by a government investment of £180 million in the National Timing Centre (NTC) programme, we are developing a world‑first resilient time distribution capability that will provide industry with a robust complement to satellite systems (such as GPS) – which are increasingly vulnerable to disruption from solar storms, jamming and spoofing. This will underpin essential services, including Telecommunications, Online banking, Emergency response, Transport networks and Wider digital and data‑driven operations. Together, these services form the backbone of modern society – and your leadership will help ensure they remain secure, reliable and robust even if global navigation satellite systems fail.

Key Responsibilities

• Business Operations & Administrative Leadership: Lead and coordinate administrative activity across teams to support delivery, quality, and financial control (including on‑boarding and off‑boarding of permanent and contract staff, laboratory tour management, and knowledge report generation).
• Executive Support & Stakeholder Coordination: Executive support to the NTC Programme Director (MD) and Senior Leadership Team (including diary and inbox management, coordination of senior stakeholder engagements, and prioritisation of internal and external engagement activity).
• Reporting: Own and deliver NTC and departmental reporting on behalf of the Programme Director (MD) (including consolidating data from projects, work packages, and initiatives to produce structured, high‑quality reporting for internal and external board meetings).
• Continuous Business Improvement: Lead business improvement initiatives to enhance NTC ways of working, streamlining and standardising processes across teams, embedding best practice and continuous improvement, and taking ownership of improvement projects (such as business microsites or enabling tools).
• Organisational Interface & Enablement: Act as the central interface between the NTC and NPL support functions (including coordination of training/skills development, championing a high‑quality candidate and employee experience, and maintaining administrative systems, document control, reporting calendars, and secure information repositories).

Qualifications and Experience

Essential:

• Proven experience leading business operations and senior administration across complex, multi‑team environments.
• Demonstrable ability to provide executive support to senior leaders (diary/inbox management, stakeholder engagement and event coordination).
• Strong experience delivering clear prioritisation reporting, consolidating data from multiple projects and systems for senior audiences.
• Evidence of driving continuous business improvement, streamlining processes and delivering practical improvement projects or enabling tools.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills, confidence to operate effectively in office and laboratory environments, and manage sensitive information with discretion.

Desirable:

• Experience working in a scientific, technical, research or regulated environment.
• Exposure to programme, portfolio or board‑level reporting.
• Experience supporting organisational growth or change (scaling teams, introducing new processes and establishing new business operations).
• Familiarity with business improvement, change or project management approaches (formal or informal).
• Experience working across multiple sites or locations (supporting hybrid teams and occasional travel).

Security Clearance: Please note that to work in the Time and Frequency department, you will need to have an SC clearance with no restrictions, or the ability to obtain one. For certain roles, BPSS clearance may be required.

Discrimination and Equality: We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work means that nationality, residency and security requirements can be more tightly defined than others. You will be asked about this throughout the recruitment process. To work at NPL, you must obtain BPSS security clearance. Appropriate checks will be made.