Senior Executive Assistant / Business Manager

• About the Role
• 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).

This role will require you to work in both an office and laboratory environment, at our Teddington site with occasional travel to support activities in our regional hubs.

About You- To be successful in this role, you will have the following skills, experience, and qualifications: Essential:

• Proven experience leading business operations and senior administration across complex, multi‑team environments, ensuring compliant and efficient delivery
• Demonstrable ability to provide executive support to senior leaders (including complex 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 driving continuous business improvement, streamlining processes and delivering practical improvement projects or enabling tools.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills, with the 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 (such as laboratories, infrastructure, or government‑adjacent programmes).
• Exposure to programme, portfolio or board‑level reporting (including preparing packs or summaries for senior decision‑making forums).
• Experience supporting organisational growth or change (such as scaling teams, introducing new processes, or establishing new business operations).
• Familiarity with business improvement, change or project management approaches (formal or informal).
• Experience working across multiple sites or locations (including supporting hybrid teams and occasional travel).

**We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work i…