Senior Administrator and Office Manager

Senior Administrator and Office Manager

Location:

Orkney Native Wildlife Project – Kirkwall Office

Contract:

Fixed-Term until 31st December 2027

Hours:

Full-Time, 37.5 hours per week
Salary: £27,123.00 - £28,956.00 Per Annum
Benefits:
Pension Scheme, Life Assurance Scheme, 26 days' Annual Leave (pro-rata)

The Orkney Native Wildlife Project is looking for a motivated senior administrator and office manager who can support the project team in the Kirkwall office to facilitate delivery of the work programme and ensure an effective office working environment. The Orkney Native Wildlife Project started in 2018 and is a partnership between RSPB Scotland, Nature Scot and Orkney Islands Council. Its purpose is to work with local communities and landowners to undertake the world’s largest stoat eradication operation and safeguard the unique and internationally important native wildlife of Orkney.

This is an exciting and varied role that presents a fantastic opportunity to support a large team in making a real difference for nature!

To make a success of this opportunity, you will be a capable senior administrator with the ability to work well with a broad range of people, whilst having strong office management skills to ensure the smooth running of the team.

What's the role about?

Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), EU LIFE and the Nature Restoration Fund administered by Nature Scot alongside partner contributions the project is now in a key implementation stage and we are looking for a strong administrator who can support the busy team.

As the Senior Administrator and Officer Manager, you will be expected to:

* Provide comprehensive business administrative support to the project team, including financial processes, travel and accommodation, events, organising and maintaining materials and equipment, diary bookings and maintaining SharePoint websites.

* Provide a dedicated administrative support service to the steering group, project board and Technical advisory group, including diary management, drafting letters and other communications, organising travel, accommodation and meetings

* Provide comprehensive support to recruiting managers where required for all aspects of the recruitment and induction processes

* Oversee the day-to-day management of the office environment to ensure the office is an efficient, effective and safe place to work

* Respond to and manage with unplanned office maintenance issues and breakdowns as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure core work is not affected, and to keep staff informed of issues and timescales for rectification

* Maintain asset registers

* Manage office/reception functions, to ensure adequate cover is in place and that a professional service is provided to staff, volunteers and visitors

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

* Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (especially Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, MS Teams, SharePoint), plus the ability to impart this knowledge on to others.

* Able to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences whether by phone, email or in person.

* Able to organise meetings and events, from small up to very large (hundreds of attendees), and coordinate all aspects of the meeting or event logistics.

* Able to make the best use of time particularly when under pressure from competing priorities.

* Able to identify and act on opportunities for continually improving ways of working.

* Able to deal with confidential and sensitive information appropriately.

* Able to take meeting notes and minutes clearly and concisely.

* Experience of providing administrative support within a large and complex organisation.

* Experience of office management and maintaining a safe working environment.

Additional Information:

* This role is based on Orkney, within the Orkney Native Wildlife Project office in Kirkwall.

* This is a Fixed-Term for 37.5 hours per week until 31st Dec 2027.

* The RSPB reserves the right to extend or make this role permanent without further advertising dependent on business needs at the end of the contract term.

Closing date: 23:59, Thursday 26th February 2026

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