Office Manager
About the Role
This role could suit a school leaver, someone mid career, or a retiree. It could also suit an animal activist looking for a meaningful full-time role within a grassroots organisation. Lancaster-based. Minimum 3 days per week in the city centre office (currently Monday, Thursday and Friday).
Purpose
To ensure ATT’s people and teams are supported by robust, sound and legally compliant day-to-day administrative and operational processes, by sourcing and maintaining tools that enable optimal use of organisational resources, ensuring ATT fulfils its legal obligations and operates effectively under uncertainty, and completing projects in a well organised and adaptable way, in order to maximise ATT’s potential for impact.
Key Responsibilities
You’ll be trained; what we need from you is some affinity for a few skills/knowledge areas, which we’ve outlined below. This role comprises separate sets of accountabilities. Here’s an overview:
– as organisational support, you’ll ensure ATT’s office works at maximum potential, mostly by:
a) buying/looking after HQ equipment/goods, ensuring the team can focus and thrive;
b) maintaining some of our digital tools and our cybersecurity; and
c) maintaining our insurance and ensuring our premises are safe and functional
– as compliance support, your key role is to help make sure that:
a) ATT complies with relevant laws and regulations, and
b) a US-based entity we work with also abides by applicable legislation and regulations
– as support to the Direction and Coordination team, you’ll:
a) perform everyday administrative/operational tasks to support the team; and
b) help ensure an efficient and effective flow of information throughout ATT
– as onboarding, you’ll help new starters find their way around our operational systems.
Knowledge and Skills
Crucial:
– highly organised, attentive to details yet adaptable.
Some aspects of the role will require you to focus on being highly rigorous, while others will require you to emphasise effective, agile prioritisation and to keep things moving efficiently—you’ll usually have quite a few open tasks with fluctuating priorities. You’ll need to capture and process these reliably.
As we’re a self-organising entity, everyone is responsible for maintaining a robust personal productivity system. We’ll show you how to do this, but you will need to be well organised. You’ll thrive if you work well under ongoing supervision as you’ll work closely with the Direction team.
– good interpersonal/communication skills.
You’ll be a key contact point for people within ATT and beyond, so you’ll be working with people with different communication styles and needs.
Desirable:
– some experience in an administrative/operations role.
– intermediate IT literacy. You’ll be handling IT tools autonomously once you’ve been shown around them.
– ‘hacker’ and/or designer mindset. You can identify failure spots within processes, and grasp how to optimise processes. You can anticipate outcomes, think holistically and ask useful questions.
– some basic understanding of UK company, tax and employment law.
Why you should apply for this role
This role is a great fit for someone who understands how important it is for any organisation—especially one with pioneering long-term goals—to cultivate strong operational processes, and who knows when to be detail-oriented and rigorous vs. when to go with the flow and focus on efficiency. If that’s you, you’ll be able to contribute uniquely to an ambitious, ground-breaking approach to changing the world for animals.
We know our mission is a long game – and we know that, with the right people, we will achieve it. We all make a deep commitment to our work and show up fully for our mission. This makes for a fulfilling environment where everyone is invited to be the best version of themselves and to work closely with principled, empowered fellow activists. We’re a tight-knit bunch, which is all the more meaningful that we all come from highly diverse backgrounds.
You’ll learn new ways of relating to purpose and work; fellow animals; the animal advocacy movement; strategic thinking; leadership and collaboration; and the power of people organising strategically