Executive Assistant

Business Area: Executive Office

Place of Work: Liverpool

Contract Type: Permanent

When you join USS, the size and scale of our pension scheme means you will have numerous opportunities to learn and develop your career. Given our size you'll have real autonomy and influence as you collaborate closely with a wide-ranging team of experts.

Our office is a vibrant place to work, and we offer flexibility of office/homeworking due to our hybrid model.

About the role

In your role as Executive Assistant, you will make a meaningful and valued contribution from the outset. This role will provide a great opportunity to support senior executives in the efficient delivery of their and their teams’ objectives – encompassing personal logistics, effective time management and workload prioritisation and delivery.

You will represent the execs in all interactions in a manner that supports USS values both internally and externally

What you will be doing

As a trusted part of the Executive Office team you will be responsible for:

Diary management and time scheduling:

• Ability to resolve timing conflicts with awareness and understanding of relative seniority and importance of meetings
• Maintaining an overview of the daily schedule and managing travel and timekeeping, factoring in logistical requirements and review/ focus time; alerting to late changes overruns; etc
• Pro-actively review forward meeting schedule and agendas with client execs, looking to manage time effectively – allowing time for paper drafting and paper review
• Monitoring exec/ non-exec meeting paper due dates, following up with drafters or client execs where necessary
• Support for non-USS industry body involvement including meeting attendance
  
  

Organise meetings and events, as/when required, including:

• Leadership meeting agendas, managing on-time agenda item submissions (for non-Company Secretarial managed meetings).
• Leadership and senior management team on- and off-sites.
• Team all staffs.
• Work with social committee members / volunteers on social events.
• Liaising with a wide range of external stakeholders across the HE sector and pensions industry, and across government/regulatory networks to agree meeting arrangements.
• Liaising with Company Secretarial team and other assistants.
• Liaising with conference organisers/Corporate Affairs for engagements client execs other senior leaders attend/ speak at.

Personnel & relationship management:

• Liaising with direct reports of client execs and key business partners to ensure they can gain effective and adequate access to client execs.
• Management and scheduling of interim and annual appraisal processes for direct reports and CEO.
• Support with onboarding of any new execs/direct reports including intro meeting scheduling etc
• Ensuring executive sick leave is entered on the system and “return to work” process followed

Travel & Expense support:

• Organise regular UK and occasional international travel, accommodation, visas, currency and itineraries/logistics
• Manage the processing and submission of travel and expense claims
• Processing of invoices
• Support Docusign and other internal approval/ ad hoc administrative requirements

About you

We know that sometimes people can be put off applying for a job if they don't tick every box, if you're excited about working for us and have most of the skills or experience we're looking for, then please apply, regardless of whether you meet all the requirements outlined in this profile.

To be successful in the role you will have:

• Experience as a PA to senior execs
• Discretion. Maturity to deal with confidential information on a regular basis
• IT Literacy. Advanced Word processing and written communication skills and the ability to create simple budget tracking spreadsheets
• Organisational skills – ability to understand relative importance of meetings and issues for execs and using initiative/ judgement to prioritise and replan
• Communication / people management and strong interpersonal skills to build trust and co-operation with fellow PAs and colleagues more broadly
• Attention to detail and ability to liaise sensitively with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders

At USS, every individual contributes to building a secure financial future for our members and their families. We strive to create a work environment where everyone can thrive professionally while making a meaningful impact on the lives of others. We're also committed to helping you build your career by providing opportunities for development. We put a focus on recognising and supporting each individual's unique career path, driving this forward with the support of an engaged and proactive management team. Here at USS, we want you to thrive in and out of work with a friendly team, flexible culture and excellent range of benefits!

How we will reward you

• Great starting salary
• Generous annual leave package
• Access to a high quality pension scheme provided through Universities Superannuation Scheme
• Supportive people policies (including enhanced occupational sickness pay and family friendly pay)
• Financial contributions towards your personal development to help you maintain your physical and mental wellbeing
• Access to a range of health and wellbeing services i.e., private healthcare, discounted gym membership
• Learning and development opportunities to develop your skills, knowledge and talent
• Employee Volunteer Day’s to support the communities where you work and live
• Cycle to Work Scheme
  
  

Our people are what makes us different. We work together to create a diverse and inclusive culture that embraces individuality, where people are welcomed and feel comfortable in the knowledge that they can be themselves. Our purpose firmly states the importance of members, putting them ‘front and centre’ of what we do. This is embedded through our values:

• Integrity
• Collaboration
• Excellence
  
  

Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) was established in 1974 as the principal pension scheme for universities and other higher education institutions in the UK. We work with around 330 employers to help build a secure financial future for almost 577,000 members and their families. We are one of the largest private defined benefit pension schemes in the UK, with total assets of around £76.8bn (at 31 March 2025). To find out more, please visit https://www.uss.co.uk

USSL is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We strive to ensure our recruitment process is as flexible and inclusive as possible so we can attract diverse candidates and recruit the best talent. We want all candidates to perform at their best during the recruitment process, so if you need any reasonable adjustments or if there is anything we can do to help support you through your recruitment journey please let us know by contacting resourcing@uss.co.uk.