Office Assistant

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Position title: Office Assistant
Location: Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, UK
Job type: 2-3 days/week (to include Wednesdays) 09:00-17:30 UK time. £20,522-£23,300 pa pro rata depending on qualifications and experience. Not a work from home position.
 
Role
Dunbar-based, Ocean Science Consulting (OSC) is seeking an Office Assistant (OA) to support the Senior Business Administrator (SBA), the Assistant Administrator (AA), and the extended consultancy team of a thriving international marine consultancy, with a focus on marine-mammal conservation for industry. The role involves assisting the two existing administrators with management of internal and outsourced business activities (e.g. answering incoming phone calls, welcoming office visitors/clients, ordering and collecting office supplies/groceries/equipment, travel & logistics, word processing, and data entry, etc.). This job is effectively everything and anything to do with assisting the OSC admin team with the overseeing of a successful firm, its subsidiaries, and Dunbar Storage Solutions (DSS, www.dunbarstoragesolutions.com), OSC’s Dunbar-based storage firm. This position requires presence in the office and is not a work-from-home position.
 
The position is offered initially as an independent contractor, progressing to an employee position should the candidate meet or preferably exceed requirements of the role, following a probationary period of six months.
 
Required:

• Interested in marine consultancy and wildlife conservation;
• Interested in people and solving their queries;
• Friendly and interested in customer service;
• Good conflict-solving skills;
• A ‘people’ person;
• Interested in handling any aspects of small-business administration;
• Articulate and a good communicator;
• Ability to organise time effectively, prioritise, and work to deadlines;
• Attention to detail;
• Able to follow instructions carefully but also suggest improvements;
• Ability to exercise discretion, respect, and confidentiality; and,
• Trustworthy and reliable.

More details will be explained during interview.
 
Example responsibilities:

• Meeting and greeting customers and clients;
• Assisting with phone calls;
• Coordination of domestic and international logistics (e.g. flights, transfers, accommodation, etc.) sometimes across numerous time zones for multiple people and projects;
• Assisting the Admin Team with Directors’/Managers’ requests, as required;
• Addressing time-sensitive tasks at pace;
• Scanning, filing, making hot drinks, replenishing office/groceries, etc.;
• Supporting OSC’s subsidiary business, Dunbar Storage Solutions, including client contracts, payments, walk-in customers, phone calls, etc.;
• Managing spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel) for utilities, DSS, expenses, etc.;
• Understanding and assisting with complex itineraries; and
• Maintaining strict confidentiality.

 
 
Qualifications, skills, & experience

• No formal qualifications required;
• IT and tech-savvy, e.g. understanding of Microsoft Outlook email/calendars/Teams, time-zone adaptations, etc.);
• Microsoft Word, Excel & PowerPoint;
• Good writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, verbal, and numeracy skills;
• Ability to organise and prioritise tasks and workloads reliably and without prompting; and,
• A lover of all animals (Directors often rescue wildlife and dogs) and wildlife conservation.