Executive Assistant to the Bursar & Senior Tutor
- Contract Type: Permanent, Full Time (36.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday)
- Location: Cambridge, St Edmund's College
Are you an experienced PA or EA looking for your next challenge?
StEdmund's College, one of the 31 Colleges within the University of Cambridge, is seeking a highly organised and proactive Executive Assistant to support both the Bursar and the Senior Tutor.
The Executive Assistant to the Bursar & Senior Tutor is a pivotal role at the heart of College operations. As the first point of contact for two senior leaders, you will need exceptional interpersonal skills, sound judgement, and the ability to manage a varied and fast‑paced workload with confidence and discretion.
As an Executive Assistant to the Bursar and Senior Tutor you will provide high‑quality executive support, coordinate complex diaries, prepare papers and briefings, and help ensure the smooth running of key College activities. If you thrive in a role where no two days are the same and enjoy building strong, professional relationships, we would love to hear from you.
The working pattern for this role is 36.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday. Please note that, due to the nature of the position, it is fully on‑site.
Job responsibilities
Executive support and coordination
- Provide proactive executive support to Senior College Officers, acting as a first point of contact on their behalf and helping manage diaries, inboxes, priorities, scheduling and follow‑up in a busy and fast‑moving environment.
- Prioritise incoming correspondence and bring urgent, sensitive or important matters to the attention of the relevant College Officer.
Drafting, correspondence and briefing
- Draft high‑quality emails, letters, invitations, papers, agendas, briefing notes and other written material following discussion or direction, producing clear first drafts for review and development.
- Handle correspondence and enquiries professionally, using tact, discretion and sound judgement.
- Where appropriate, prepare or send replies on behalf of senior colleagues, ensuring communications are timely, accurate and professionally presented.
Meetings, minutes and action tracking
- Support meetings through effective administration, preparation of papers and agendas, accurate note‑taking, and clear synthesis of decisions and follow‑up actions.
- Support internal and external committees as required.
Stakeholder liaison and relationship management
- Successfully manage enquiries and requests from internal and external stakeholders, building effective relationships across teams and responding sensitively and diplomatically to a wide range of needs, including matters that may be confidential, complex.
- Support hospitality and event arrangements on behalf of Senior College Officers, including liaising with Catering and other teams to coordinate refreshments, lunches, dinners, meetings and wider College functions, and helping host events where required.
Team support, administration and wider contribution
- Maintain accurate and compliant records and administrative systems and actively support process improvements.
- Handle confidential student, staff and governance information.
- Support expenses and invoice processing in liaison with the Finance team and make travel arrangements where needed.
- Work flexibly across the wider team, deputise for colleagues during periods of leave or high demand, and provide occasional out‑of‑hours support where required.
More information about the role can be found in the attached job description
Successful Candidate
Experience
- Experience of providing high‑level administrative or executive support in a complex and fast‑paced environment.
- Experience of managing competing priorities and supporting senior colleagues with discretion and sound judgement.
- Experience of drafting professional correspondence and documents to a high standard.
- Experience of supporting meetings, including preparing papers, capturing discussion and following up actions.
- Experience of working across teams and building effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
Skills
Required
- Excellent written and spoken communication skills, with the ability to draft clearly, accurately and appropriately for different audiences.
- Strong organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and maintain a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
- Ability to synthesise discussion and information into concise, practical and well‑structured outputs.
- High level of discretion and the ability to handle confidential and sensitive matters with professionalism.
- Strong interpersonal skills, with a calm, tactful and politically sensitive approach.
- Ability to work with empathy and professionalism when dealing with people in sensitive or stressful situations.
- Confidence in using judgement, taking initiative and knowing when to escalate.
- High level of IT literacy, including Microsoft Office and confidence in using databases and digital systems.
- Ability to work collaboratively in a small team and contribute to wider service resilience.
- Flexibility to provide occasional out‑of‑hours support when required.
- Experience of supporting senior leaders in a higher education, charity, or similarly complex institutional setting.
- Experience of preparing papers, briefings or reports for senior meetings.
- Knowledge of data protection and records management good practice.
As well as a great salary and friendly team you will also receive:
- Working daily allowance for food and drinks*
- Free car parking (where available)
- 25 days holiday plus bank holidays (increasing with length of service)
- Discounts at restaurants, shops & more
- Death in service
- Access to LinkedIn Learning & Business Disability Forum
About St Edmund's College
St Edmund's College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. Our vibrant student body is made up of around 420 post‑graduates and 130 mature undergraduates. With over 260 senior members – academics working at the cutting edge of their field or eminent members of their profession – and around 100 staff, you will be joining a dynamic and growing College with an ambitious vision for our role in shaping the future of higher education and collaborative research.
The maturity of our community means that we have earned a reputation as the friendly college. Relaxed, non‑hierarchical and diverse, we pride ourselves on being a place in Cambridge where people of all backgrounds are welcomed, will feel at home and can flourish. Therefore, we welcome all candidates regardless of their demographic characteristics such as gender, race, disability, neurodiversity, religion, age, sex & sexual identity to apply for our opportunities.
How to apply
To apply, please send your cover letter and CV to the HR team at hr@st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk
Closing date for completed applications: Sunday 12 April 2026
Interviews will be held the week commencing 27 April 2026
If you have informal enquiries about the post, please email the Head of College Services at hcs@st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk
In applying for this role, you will provide personal data which the College will process in accordance with its data protection obligations and its Data Protection Policy: http://www.stedmunds.cam.ac.uk/data-protection
Any offer of employment is subject to evidence of your right to work in the UK and the receipt of satisfactory references
Please note that this role is not eligible for visa sponsorship, as it does not meet the required criteria.
#J-18808-Ljbffr