Operations Officer

Overview

The main purpose of the role is to support the Finance Director and the wider Finance, Procurement and Operations (FP&O) leadership team by providing high-quality administrative, operational and coordination support. The post holder will act as a central point of organisation across finance and operations activity, helping to prioritise work, track actions, and support effective communication across the directorate.

The role requires good judgement, discretion and a reliable, organised approach to managing competing priorities. It operates with regular interaction with senior leaders and supports effective decision-making by ensuring information, actions and processes are well organised, followed through and delivered to agreed timescales.

The post holder will be responsible for:

• Support the Finance Director by preparing briefings, coordinating information and following up agreed actions.
• Providing diary management support to the Finance Director, including prioritisation of meetings and preparation ahead of key engagements.
• Coordinating meetings and agendas with internal teams and external stakeholders, ensuring appropriate preparation, accurate information and timely follow-up.
• Act as a coordination point for FP&O activity, maintaining action logs, delivery trackers and forward plans.
• Provide light-touch support to priority pieces of work, including tracking actions, milestones and dependencies.
• Maintaining FP&O intranet and SharePoint pages, ensuring information is accurate, current and easy to access.
• Providing administrative and logistical support for FP&O training events and team activities.
• Coordinate onboarding and people-related processes within FP&O, ensuring a well-organised and positive experience for new starters.
• Act as an effective interface between FP&O and other stakeholders, supporting clear communication and practical issue resolution.
• Support continuous improvement activity across the directorate, contributing to clearer processes and more effective ways of working.
• Acting as a point of contact for the organisation’s travel management company and coordinating travel arrangements in line with organisational policies.
• Coordinating and consolidating inputs into reports and dashboards to support senior leadership discussions.
• Updating and maintaining the contracts database and supporting contract renewals in line with agreed processes.
• Supporting finance processing tasks as required, ensuring accuracy and timeliness.
• Support procurement activity, including liaison with suppliers, maintaining records and supporting compliance with governance processes.

• High level of attention to detail and accuracy.
• Strong organisational and coordination skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and competing priorities calmly and effectively.
• Experience providing administrative and operational support to senior leaders (Desirable).
• Ability to prioritise work, maintain momentum and ensure actions are followed through.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
• Experience using SharePoint and maintaining digital information repositories.
• Ability to work with reports and information to support team activity.
• Experience supporting onboarding and people-related processes.
• Understanding of procurement and contract management processes, or willingness to develop this knowledge.
• Ability to handle confidential and sensitive information with discretion and professionalism.
• Communicates clearly, professionally and confidently with colleagues and stakeholders in person, via MS Teams, by telephone and email.
• Builds positive and effective working relationships across FP&O and the wider organisation.
• Liaises appropriately and professionally with external stakeholders and suppliers.
• Works independently with appropriate supervision, using initiative to progress work.
• Uses judgement to prioritise tasks and identify when issues need to be escalated.
• Maintains awareness of FP&O priorities and supports senior leaders by providing clear, well-organised information.
• A reliable self-starter who organises their workload effectively to support team priorities.
• Takes responsibility for completing tasks and ensuring actions are followed up.
• Supports collaborative and inclusive ways of working across the team.
• Supports effective use of senior leaders’ time through dependable coordination and administrative support.
• Contributes to effective delivery across FP&O by ensuring actions and information are well managed.
• Supports the effective functioning of FP&O through a professional, organised and responsive approach.