Senior Support Administrator

CompanyUK Health Security Agency

LocationLondon, England, United Kingdom

Posted At1/28/2026

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Occupation Type

Other administrative occupations not elsewhere classified.

Occupation Code Skill LevelMedium Skilled

Sponsorship EligibilityIneligible for Sponsorship

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Description

Colindale

Job Summary

We are currently recruiting for 2 Senior Support Administrators to join our team within the Public Health Microbiology Directorate.

You Will Be Required To

To provide flexible administrative cover within RM
Take part in the DART rota as required to support postal distribution of results.
To contribute to a “buddy” system with the EO (Band 5) Administrative Unit Leads, to ensure familiarity with the key roles of the Team Administrative Lead roles and be confident in being able to cover tasks during periods of annual/sick leave.

Working for your organisation

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.  

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by remov

Job Description

Contribute to a telephone answering/triage service to ensure that all telephone calls to RM are dealt with efficiently and/or transferred to the appropriate member of RM staff. To use judgement and discretion, where necessary, and to refer complex matters to relevant senior members of Unit staff.
Ensure administrative support is provided to RM staff. This includes dealing with queries via telephone as necessary.
To be the point of contact for staff reporting in sick at the beginning of the day and ensuring that appropriate staff in RM are informed in a timely manner.
Responsible for briefing managers on staff absences, e.g., sickness, which will involve close liaison with Supervisors as appropriate.
Support the Operations Administrator and RM Operations Safety Manager (after they have carried out quarterly Health and Safety inspections of the non-laboratory areas within RM), scan paperwork and file appropriately on relevant network drive as required.
Responsible for formatting on UKHSA Templates and filing of all quality and staff training records on Q-Pulse as instructed.
Support the document management for work instructions and SOPs ensuring review deadlines are met. e.g., carry out Q-Pulse entry support.

Proactively contribute to quality improvements for RM.

Provide data entry support for Unit specific work using MOLIS (LIMS database)

Ensure quality of work and undertake weekly MOLIS housekeeping, as required and during times of surge due to increase in numbers of specimens.

Responsible for quality control of data input by Laboratory Support Administrators. Checking work and ensuring all outputs are accurate prior to dispatch to users.

Retrieve information from MOLIS to liaise with hospitals and private labs to respond to or resolve any queries.

Prepare and assist write up the preparation of outbreak reports and summaries as directed.

Contribute to a telephone answering/triage service to ensure that all telephone calls to RM are dealt with efficiently and/or transferred to the appropriate member of RM staff. To use judgement and discretion, where necessary, and to refer complex matters to relevant senior members of Unit staff.

Ensure administrative support is provided to RM staff. This includes dealing with queries via telephone as necessary.

To be the point of contact for staff reporting in sick at the beginning of the day and ensuring that appropriate staff in RM are informed in a timely manner.

Responsible for briefing managers on staff absences, e.g., sickness, which will involve close liaison with Supervisors as appropriate.

Support the Operations Administrator and RM Operations Safety Manager (after they have carried out quarterly Health and Safety inspections of the non-laboratory areas within RM), scan paperwork and file appropriately on relevant network drive as required.

Responsible for formatting on UKHSA Templates and filing of all quality and staff training records on Q-Pulse as instructed.

Support the document management for work instructions and SOPs ensuring review deadlines are met. e.g., carry out Q-Pulse entry support.

Proactively contribute to quality improvements for RM.

Provide data entry support for Unit specific work using MOLIS (LIMS database)

Ensure quality of work and undertake weekly MOLIS housekeeping, as required and during times of surge due to increase in numbers of specimens.

Responsible for quality control of data input by Laboratory Support Administrators. Checking work and ensuring all outputs are accurate prior to dispatch to users.

Retrieve information from MOLIS to liaise with hospitals and private labs to respond to or resolve any queries.

Prepare and assist write up the preparation of outbreak reports and summaries as directed.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

3 GCSE’S (grade A-C only) or equivalent level, one of which must be English language
Knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Outlook) to basic level
General administrative experience
Experience of providing a telephone service and taking accurate messages
Attention to detail
Awareness of data protection and confidentiality requirements

Desirable criteria

Good interpersonal skills
Team player
Confident and clear telephone manner
Willing to learn and acquire skills through training as necessary
High level of self-motivation
Knowledge of medical and microbiology terminology

Alongside your salary of £29,613, UK Health Security Agency contributes £8,578 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role

An environment with flexible working options

A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Strengths.

Stage 1: Application & Sift

Success profiles Success Profiles - GOV.UK

Required

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the listed (6) essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:

Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)

up to 750 word supporting statement.

This should outline how you consider your skills, experience and knowledge provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

You will receive a joint score for your application form and statement. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V –please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible).

Please do not email us your CV.

Healthjobs UK has a word limit of 1500, but your supporting statement must be no more than 750 words. We will not consider any words over750 words.

Longlisting

In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist into 3 piles of:

Meets all essential criteria
Meets some essential criteria
Meets no essential criteria

If Used, The Following Will Proceed To Shortlisting

Meets all essential criteria

Shortlisting

In the event of a large number of applications we may conduct an initial sift, on the lead criteria of:

3 GCSE’S (grade A-C only) or equivalent, one of which must be English language

Knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Outlook) to basic level

Attention to detail

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a large number of applications/large amount of successful candidates.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview & assessment.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

Success profiles Success Profiles - GOV.UK

You will be invited to a single face to face interview at Colindale.

Behaviours and Strengths, will be tested at interview.

There will be a 10 minute assessment during your interview which will assess your speed and accuracy. Further details will be provided at the interview. No preparation is required.

The Behaviours Tested During The Interview Stage Will Be

Seeing the bigger picture
Working together
Working at pace
Managing a quality service – Lead behaviour

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available.

You may want to save a copy for your records.

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at our Scientific Campus in Colindale.

We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, t

o get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, (averaged over a month) working at our campus. Based at our scientific campus, you will be required to have a minimum of a Counter Terrorism Check security vetting check as a minimum. For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years as the role requires Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) clearance. In exceptional circumstances UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice. 

Security Clearance Level Requirement

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Counter-Terrorist Check.

Eligibility Criteria – External

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil

Service (including internal applicants).

Salary Information

If you are successful at interview, and are moving from another government department, NHS, or Local Authority, the relevant starting salary principles for level transfers or promotions will apply. Otherwise, roles are offered at the pay scale minimum for the grade, but in exceptional circumstances there may be flexibility if you are able to demonstrate you are already in receipt of an existing, higher salary. Pay increases are through the relevant annual pay award for the role and terms.

Future location

UKHSA is investing in a new state-of-the-art National Biosecurity Centre in Harlow, Essex, which will eventually bring together teams currently based at Canary Wharf, Colindale and Porton Down. For more details, please see: Huge biosecurity centre investment to boost pandemic protection - GOV.UK.

The new facilities will start becoming operational in the mid-2030s, with full completion by 2038. Staff will move in phases as facilities become available. If you're appointed to a role currently based at Canary Wharf, Colindale or Porton Down, please note that we'll continue investing in these sites for the next decade. As we get closer to the transition, we'll provide full information about relocation support

available to staff.

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone. To help you during the recruitment process, we will consider any reasonable adjustments that could help you. An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work. This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme. If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs. You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil

Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

International Police check

If you have spent more than 6 months abroad over the last 3 years you may need an International Police Check. This would not necessarily have to be in a single block, and it could be time accrued over that period.

Internal Fraud Check

If successful for this role as one aspect of pre-employment screening, applicant’s personal details – name, national insurance number and date of birth - will be checked against the Cabinet Office Internal Fraud Hub, and anyone included on the database will be refused employment unless they can show exceptional circumstances. Currently this is only for external candidates to the Civil Service.

Careers website

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This Job Is Broadly Open To The Following Groups

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

Name : Gurkamal Bhambra
Email : gurkamal.bhambra@ukhsa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : recruitment@ukhsa.gov.uk

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complai

nt, in the first instance, you should contact the UKHSA Complaints team via email at: Complaints@ukhsa.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Visit the Civil Service Commission website for further information: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk