Operations Assistant

About the role

The post holder will work closely with Prof Gautel, the School’s Professional Services team, Dr Alessandra Vigilante, HAB academic lead and colleagues across the University. This post holder will be providing a range of administrative and operational services to highly research-focused academic groups, with the opportunity to use and develop their skills across the whole range of operations. The post holder will provide executive support to Prof Gautel and his group acting as first point of contact for internal and external queries, supporting key operational areas including HR and research finance processes, as well as supporting conferences and events that facilitate scientific collaboration and public engagement.

The post holder will gain experience more broadly across the institution through supporting the activities for the KCL Mechanobiology Centre led by Prof Gautel and the Hub for Applied Bioinformatics, led by Dr Alessandra Vigilante. Time will be allocated using a shared workplan, and priorities will be coordinated jointly by Prof Gautel and Dr Vigilante, with the expectation of a balance of responsibilities between the Gautel group and the Hub for Applied Bioinformatic.

The role is highly varied. The post holder must have excellent organisational skills, be accurate, with good attention to detail in a busy environment with tight deadlines. They will have excellent communication skills and be able to develop good working relationships with the School’s academics and researchers as well as King’s Human Resources, the Faculty’s Management Accounts Team and the Research Management & Innovation Directorate. Experience in research administration would be desirable but not essential, as the post is supported by the wider operations team within the department and School and training will be provided where necessary.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed-term contract for 3 years.

The role is based fully on site with the potential to work in a hybrid fashion following successful completion of Probation Period and in agreement with the Line Manager.

Start date is no sooner than 2nd March 2026.

About You

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

• Experience of using a range of office-based operations processes relevant to the post
• Numerate with experience of financial processes
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to communicate with a wide range of people in a professional and confident manner
• Confident and competent IT skills including MS word and excel, outlook, and databases
• Excellent organisational and time management skills, able to multitask and prioritise competing demands
• A proactive approach, able to work independently and as part of a team
• Accuracy and attention to detail with ability to maintain standards across multiple concurrent activities
• Excellent data management and document control skills

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in a higher education institute or research environment
• Experience of supporting research grants and/or HR processes
• Experience of Committee servicing and/or events organisation 

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