Executive Assistant

Mathematics Education for Social Mobility Excellence (MESME) is a registered education charity on a mission to make England a more productive and socially mobile country. Half of disadvantaged children who are high attainers in mathematics at eleven are no longer high attainers by age sixteen. That is a huge loss of human potential that affects both those children as individuals and us as a wider society. We are focused on stopping that loss.

We do this by finding children with mathematical potential, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and guide them along a path to mathematical excellence. We take a dual pronged approach: providing an in-school programme to improve their experience of maths, and tackling harmful views in society that stop children from feeling like maths is for them.

We are currently expanding our approach and developing our organisation to meet this mission over the next ten years.

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for an energetic team player to support our Executive Team of three Directors and CEO, to contribute to the effective running of the team and its exciting development.

We know that an excellent Executive Assistant (EA) leads to better outcomes for our stakeholders and our team by enabling the performance of the Executive they support. This is why we are looking for a passionate, ambitious EA who relishes working in a fast-paced environment where you have the opportunity to help shape a new organisation. This role offers an exciting opportunity for an individual to develop their own skills while supporting a team focused on rapid organisational growth to improve life chances for young people.

The role will be busy and varied and you will thrive on being organised and taking on new challenges as you respond to a range of requests for support and increasing involvement with the MESME team across key functions (Eg, HR, finance, IT) as well as Executive Team support. 

We are looking for a trusted person who has the emotional intelligence to be the eyes and ears on the ground whilst having the confidence to report upwards where we may be out of touch.

What you will be responsible for:

Support for the Executive and MESME Teams

• To manage the priorities of the Executive Team, following up on actions and ensuring all key team deadlines are kept, anticipating changes and proactively supporting them to keep the plates spinning
•  Being the first point of contact for new enquiries and correspondence for the MESME team and ensure these are dealt with promptly and effectively
• Support internal communication across teams by collating information for weekly briefings, ensuring the efficient management of team and project documents and templates, etc

Support for the Board of Trustees and Advisory Committee

• To diarise meetings with Trustees and Advisory Committee where appropriate and take accurate notes/minutes when required. Circulate papers and ensure good attendance
• Ensure all meeting arrangements are booked (including rooms, refreshments etc)
• Support the Secretary of the Board of Trustees to ensure administrative tasks are completed in a timely manner and in line with the Charities Commission
• Process expenses for the Advisory Committee and other advisers
• Ensure the website is kept up to date with Trustees, Committee and staff member information
• Support Whole Team meetings including room bookings, circulating agendas, note taking and ensuring timely input from team members

Finance admin support

• To receive and assign expenses on our finance system
• Work with the finance team to process payments

HR admin support

• Support the recruitment process right to work, DBS, IR35 checks
•  Process monthly time sheets for casual workers
• Support the Operations Director with HR administration through the HR system
• Support and contribute to the development of recruitment process (eg, placing adverts, responding to applicants etc)

Person Specification:

You should apply if:

• you have experience of working as an EA in an agile working environment (previous experience of a start-up or scale up is preferable)
• you believe in our mission that mathematics can improve social mobility and transform the world
• you have the excellent communication skills required to work successfully with senior leaders and stakeholders, producing high quality, accurate correspondence whilst also adapting to different audiences
• you enjoy managing competing tasks, multi-tasking effectively and are not afraid to ask questions to gather the context you need to work autonomously.
• you are comfortable growing with an organisation where there is an element of uncertainty, ambiguity and rapid change but where you can make a difference
• you are a good team player, able to support and work closely with the whole MESME team
• you have the personal confidence and competence to propose improvements and challenge appropriately as part of the team’s ongoing development

Reports to: Director of Operations

Location: Currently operating an agile working policy with one core team day (Tuesday) in the office in West London (NW1)

Contract: Permanent

Pattern: Full Time (standard hours 9am – 5.30pm) Part-time and job-share considered for the right candidate.

Salary: £40,000 pa

Start date: September 2023

About MESME

You must have:

• The right to work in the UK
• Commitment to equality of opportunity and the safeguarding and welfare of all students
• Willingness to undertake training
• Willingness to undergo an enhanced DBS check

 Equal Opportunities

We don’t want potential candidates to be put off if they believe they do not meet every one of the criteria as described in the person specification. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be one who comes from a less traditional background. We would encourage you to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of our criteria.

We are especially keen to receive applications from those with relevant professional experience outside of the education sector in order to ensure diversity of thought in our leadership team.